Optimal components selection based on fuzzy-intra coupling density for component-based software systems under build-or-buy scheme

Component-Based Software Engineering (CBSE) is an approach to building and developing software systems based on software components. In component-based software systems, there are various software components, including Commercial off the Shelf (COTS) and in-house components. Software developers can build their desired software component as in-house or COTS. The problem of deciding optimally between COTS and in-house components is one of the major challenges of software developers, which is known as the component selection problem. This can be resolved by evaluating the criteria for optimality in component selection and then solving the component selection problem by optimization techniques. In this paper, an attempt was made to optimize the component selection problem through the multi-objective optimization by maximizing the Fuzzy-Intra Coupling Density (Fuzzy-ICD) and functionality as objective functions, and also taking into account budget, delivery time, reliability, and Fuzzy-ICD as constraints of multi-objective problems. Fuzzy ICD is a more accurate criterion to calculate the relationship between Cohesion and Coupling of components, which is obtained through the fuzzy computing of each of them, based on the Meyers classification. Thus, after a two-criterion optimization model formulation, this optimization problem was solved by fuzzy multi objectives approach. Finally, the proposed method was evaluated by performing the case study of financial-accounting system. Comparison of the results showed that the proposed method could select optimal components with maximum functionality and Fuzzy-ICD and fewer rates of time and Budget (0.29, 0.43, 1.1 s, and 88$ were the improved rates of functionality, Fuzzy-ICD, time, and budget, respectively).