Automated architectural component classification using concept lattices

While the use of components grows in software development, building effective component directories becomes a critical issue as architects need help to search components in repositories. During the life-cycle of component-based software, several tasks, such as construction from scratch or component substitution, would benefit from an efficient component classification and retrieval. In this paper, we analyze how we can build a classification of components using their technical description (i.e. functions and interfaces) in order to help automatic as well as manual composition and substitution. The approach is implemented in the CoCoLa prototype, which is dedicated to Fractal component directory management and validated through a case study.