Component Based Software Development
 

Wednesday, January 16, 2002
 

Presented by:
 

T. Ravichandran, Assistant Professor RPI
 

Organizations today are in the midst of an unprecedented transformation that is driven by developments in information technology and the business use of the Internet. E-Business applications are changing the methods of conducting business and delivering goods/services to customers in most industries. The effects of these changes on the information systems departments are manifold. One significant effect is the increased pressure to develop new application systems very rapidly. Internet applications are complex as they often seek to integrate systems and processes within and across organizations, use relatively new and unproven technologies and cut across diverse hardware and software platforms. The challenges of managing applications development projects increase further when the compressed development cycle times are taken into account.

Current approaches to business applications development that involve building systems from scratch have proven to be unsuccessful. Software development is beset with problems of delayed and cancelled projects, inadequate quality, long cycle times, and high-costs. CBD is a new software development paradigm that holds the promise of moving applications development from a craft to an industrial process. This technology, which involves building applications using prefabricated software components and frameworks, leverages the emergence of the middleware and software object standards to make software reuse a reality.

This presentation will focus on CBD, its implications for software development. Recent developments in the both the software components and supporting technologies markets and their implications for software.

T. Ravichandran holds a joint appointment in the school of Information Technology and the Decision Systems and Engineering Systems Department at RPI. He received his Bachelor of Engineering from the University of Madras, a Master of Science and Ph.D. in Management Information Systems from Southern Illinois University.

In addition to teaching at RPI, Dr. Ravichandran works closely with several Fortune 500 firms on E-Business strategy and information technology issues. He currently advises two new Internet ventures in the US on technology and market strategies.