Component Based Software Testing, Reusability, and Fault-Tolerance

Research Assistant: Sudipto Ghosh

Sponsors: Army Research Laboratory, Bellcore, Nortel

With the advancement and widespread use of Object Oriented Systems design and development, the use of component based software development is on the rise. Components can be commercially available off the shelf (COTS) or developed in-house or contractually. In either case, the following problems are faced by a developer of a system based on one or more components:

1. Selection for reuse and testing of components.
2. Testing a system or subsystem based on components.
3. Evaluating the impact of component failure on the subsystem or system.

This project is aimed at addressing each of the above three problems. Our research involves development of a test methodology directed at problems (1) and (2) above and a methodology for the assessment of fault tolerance, directed at problem (3) above. We use a tool named Proteum/IM in our experimentation. Proteum/IM was developed by Professor Jose Maldonado and Dr. Marcio Delamaro of the University of Sao Paulo at Sao Carlos in Brazil. We are enhancing a tool named TAMER for the assessment of fault tolerance in the presence of COTS.