Patterns for Integrating and Exploiting Some Non-Functional Properties in Hierarchical Software Components

Providing powerful and fine-grained capabilities for the analysis and management of non-functional properties is a major challenge for component-based software systems. In this paper, we propose integration patterns for nonfunctional properties of hierarchical software components. These patterns are based on a classification of low-level non-functional properties, which takes into account their nature and lifecycle. They make explicit the implementation of these properties in relation with components and can be used to develop some forms of compositional reasoning. The proposals are exploited in non-functional contract negotiation by enabling a negotiation process to be precisely propagated down the component hierarchy