Programming Research Group  -  University of Amsterdam  -  TR P9801 


                 Evolutionary Software Engineering:
                    A Component-based Approach


                           Paul Klint
                          Chris Verhoef


A software industry producing high-quality components that can be
reused in many ways is an--unfulfilled--dream as old as the field 
of ``software engineering'' itself. In this paper we present an
evolutionary approach to software development based on the 
following premises:

  o  software systems are unavoidably heterogeneous and
     distributed;
  o  development and implementation techniques may be different for
     various parts of a system;
  o  the parts may be in different phases of their life-cycle;
  o  the parts -- implemented as components in different languages
     -- should be coordinated and exchange information
     in a standardized fashion;
  o  reengineering and system renovation form an integral part of
     software development.

We illustrate this approach in various case studies and indicate
some lines for further research.

Keywords and phrases: Evolutionary development, software 
components, coordination architectures, heterogeneous systems, 
integrating forward engineering and system renovation, case
studies.