Component-based development has become an important area in the software engineering field. In spite of this, there has been little effort to understand and to manage the different forms of dependencies that can occur in systems built from components. Dependencies reflect the potential for one component to affect or be affected by the elements (e.g., other components) that compose the system. Understanding dependencies is an essential requirement to perform important tasks, such as evolution and testing, during a component-based system's life cycle. In this paper, we present a technique to analyze dependencies in large component-based systems.

This formal research demonstration attempts to present an approach to develop and assess architecture and component-based systems based on specifying software architecture augmented by statecharts representing component behavioral specifications [1]. The approach is applied for the C2 style [2] and associated ADL and is supported within a quality-focussed environment, called Argus-I, which assists specification-based analysis and testing at both the component and architecture levels.