Evaluating tools to support component based software engineering

Tools which are introduced to support CBSE-based processes must be chosen carefully if they are to have the desired affect. The authors raise the concern that tool evaluators are failing to address perhaps the most important factors in determining final success namely the non-technical or "soft" factors. It is these soft factors that may be most important issues to consider when evaluating process-change tools-such as those that support CBSE. They have proposed a tools evaluation strategy that provides a qualitative list of important issues distilled from many years experience of making tool selection decisions. They describe how the generic process can be used as a basis for evaluating CBSE support tools. The strategy map also form the basis of a process for tool evaluations as required by higher levels of the SEI Capability Maturity Model.