A model for understanding software components

Understanding the behavior of components is an important task in the component-based software development process. Component users build mental models to understand a component when they use it for the first time. The models are also useful during the evolution of the component and the application that incorporates it. The process of component understanding employed by the component user influences the kind of models that can be developed. lit this paper we examine several comprehension models used in practice, and analyze existing component understanding approaches with respect to the comprehension models. We illustrate the development of comprehension models with the example of a spreadsheet component used in an application.