Abstract

Component-based software engineering is a common approach in the development and evolution of contemporary software systems. Different component sourcing options are available, such as: (1) Software developed internally (in-house), (2) Software developed outsourced, (3) Commercial off-the-shelf software, and (4) Open-Source Software. However, there is little available research on what attributes of a component are the most important ones when selecting new components. The objective of this study is to investigate what matters the most to industry practitioners when they decide to select a component. We conducted a cross-domain anonymous survey with industry practitioners involved in component selection. First, the practitioners selected the most important attributes from a list. Next, they prioritized their selection using the Hundred-Dollar ($100) test. We analyzed the results using compositional data analysis. The results of this exploratory analysis showed that cost was clearly considered to be the most important attribute for component selection. Other important attributes for the practitioners were: support of the component, longevity prediction, and level of off-the-shelf fit to product. Moreover, several practitioners still consider in-house software development to be the sole option when adding or replacing a component. On the other hand, there is a trend to complement it with other component sourcing options and, apart from cost, different attributes factor into their decision. Furthermore, in our analysis, nonparametric tests and biplots were used to further investigate the practitioners’ inherent characteristics. It seems that smaller and larger organizations have different views on what attributes are the most important, and the most surprising finding is their contrasting views on the cost attribute: larger organizations with mature products are considerably more cost aware.

中文翻译：

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组件属性及其在决策和组件选择中的重要性

摘要

基于组件的软件工程是当代软件系统开发和演进中的通用方法。提供了不同的组件采购选项，例如：（1）内部（内部）开发的软件，（2）外包开发的软件，（3）商用现货软件，以及（4）开源软件。但是，在选择新组件时，关于组件的哪些属性是最重要的属性的研究很少。这项研究的目的是调查行业从业者决定选择组件时最重要的事情。我们与参与组件选择的行业从业人员进行了跨域匿名调查。首先，从业者从列表中选择最重要的属性。接下来，他们使用一百美元（$ 100）检验对他们的选择进行优先排序。我们使用成分数据分析来分析结果。探索性分析的结果表明，成本显然被认为是组件选择的最重要属性。从业者的其他重要属性是：组件的支持，寿命预测以及产品的现成水平。而且，当添加或替换组件时，一些从业人员仍然认为内部软件开发是唯一的选择。另一方面，有一种趋势是将其与其他组件采购选项相辅相成，并且除了成本外，不同的属性因素也影响了他们的决策。此外，在我们的分析中，使用非参数测试和双线图进一步调查了从业者的固有特征。似乎越来越大的组织对于最重要的属性有不同的看法，最令人惊讶的发现是他们对成本属性的看法不同：拥有成熟产品的更大的组织对成本的了解要大得多。