• Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
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• v.30 no.5_6
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• pp.414-429
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• 2003

Component-based development(CBD) has been generalized in industry to master the complexity and reduce the development cost and time. However, current CBD practice is developing the component which is dependent on single application[l][2]. Therefore component variability is emphasized to reuse the component in many family members in a domain[8]. However, components are developed for the reason of replaceability rather than the reusability which is the main purpose of the component due to the insufficiency of the study of component variability definition and type[3]. In this paper, we formally specify the component variability reflecting the characteristics of the component to increase the component reusability. We define the logic variability which was recognized as the existing component variability and we propose all types of variability existing in the component by suggesting three more variability types. And we propose the component variability scope which makes us estimate and verify the number of cases of the variability when we customize the component. We propose these component variability types and scope through formal specification. By applying these techniques in developing components, we can develop high quality components reusable in many family members.

• Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
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• v.33 no.5
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• pp.449-459
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• 2006

Product Line Engineering (PLE) has been widely accepted as a representative software reuse methodology by using core assets. As a key element of core assets, product line architecture (PLA) should be generic to a set of applications in the product line (PL). However, the difference between PLA and single system architecture has not been treated well enough, so evaluating PLA still remains as one of the difficult tasks in PLE. In this paper, we identify two intrinsic but overlooked issues in PLA; variability propagation chain and conflicts between architectural elements. And, we present a metric-based methodto evaluate PLA from the perspective of the two issues. We believe that the two issues in PLA and the evaluation method would make designing high-quality PLA more feasible and effective.

• Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
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• v.30 no.12
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• pp.1135-1148
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• 2003

A commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) component is an implementation of common functionality among family members, where an in-house component implements an organization-specific functionality. Typically, a COTS component has a producer and aset of potential consumers. Consumers evaluate COTS components thoroughly before they purchase, because these components are developed by third party producers and most consumers have ‘not-invented-here’ syndrome. Hence, evaluating the quality of COTS components becomes an important prerequisite to a successful component-based application development. In this paper, we identify the characteristics of COTS components, and derive a practical quality model for components, C-QM, which consists of quality factors, criteria and metrics and a qualify certification system, C-QCS. The top design goal of C-QM is set to provide a practically applicable comprehensive quality model which can be effectively applied in assessing the various quality aspects of COTS components.

• Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
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• v.29 no.10
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• pp.703-725
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• 2002

It is well recognized that component-based development (CBD) is an effective approach to manage the complexity of modem software development. To achieve the benefits of low-cost development and higher productivity, effective techniques to maximize component reusability should be developed. Component is a set of related concepts and objects, and provides a particular coarse-grained business service. Often, these components include various message flows among the objects in the component, called 'business workflow`. Blackbox components that include but hide business workflow provide higher reusability and productivity. A key difficulty of using blackbox components with business workflow is to let the workflow be customized by each enterprise. In this paper, we provide techniques to model the variability of family members and to customize the business workflow of components. Our approach is to provide formal specification on the component variability, and to define techniques to customize them by means of the formalism.

• Journal of KIISE:Software and Applications
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• v.33 no.10
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• pp.896-914
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• 2006

Product line engineering (PLE) is one of the most recent and emerging reuse approaches in software engineering. Core asset, which is a reusable unit of PLE, is shared by several members in a product line (PL). So, developing a well-defined core asset is a prerequisite to increase productivity and time-to-market. Existing PLE methodologies emphasize the importance of core asset but mainly focus on analyzing core asset. And, several processes for designing core asset do not fully cover all elements of core asset which is from product line architecture (PLA) to decision model and need to augment systematic process, detailed instructions, and templates of artifacts. These problems result in difficulty with designing core asset and applying PLE. In this paper, we present an overall process and templates of artifacts to design core assets. And, we apply proposed process to a case study in order to show its applicability. With the proposed process, detailed instructions, and templates of artifacts, we believe that we can more systematically and more easily design high-quality core assets and we fully cover product line architecture, component, and decision model when designing a core asset.