Managing Dependencies in Component-Based Systems Based on Matrix Model

Component-based software development technique and its intensive use in the industry has led to the wide research in various aspects of component-based systems (CBSs). Dependency analysis is an useful technique that has many applications in software engineering activities including software understanding, testing, debugging, maintenance, and evolution. In this paper, we propose a matrix-based approach to analyzing dependencies in CBSs. 1 By further investigating the application of matrix to analyzing dependencies in component-based system, we find that it is a good way to manage dependencies in a CBSs. To make it possible, we first discuss something about a dependency-based representation called the component dependency graph (CDG) and then construct the dependency matrix (DM) t Based on the CDG and DM, we build a mathematical basis for managing and analyzing dependencies in a CBS. Finally, we discuss some possible applications of our dependency analysis technique in component-based system understanding, testing, maintenance, and evolution.