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Context Influences

Since QoS attributes of a component are strongly influenced by the environment the component is used in, the actual delivered QoS can only be determined knowing all influencing factors. We identified three aspects defined during system design that determine the complete context of a component based on the influences in shown in figure 2.8: System (assembly), hierarchy, and allocation. These aspects are associated to different roles involved in the component-based development process as described in section 2.1.

The structure of a system (assembly) is defined by software architects who decide which components are used and how they are connected. Similarly component developers may construct composite components, which define the hierarchy of the system. Deployers define the execution environment and allocate software components among different resources, like servers and desktop computers.



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Snowball 2007-03-16