Reasoning with qualitative preferences to develop optimal component-based systems

To produce an optimal component-based software system for a given application, it is necessary to consider both the required functionality of the system and its stakeholders´ preferences over various non-functional properties. We propose a new modular end-to-end framework for component-based system development that combines formal specification and verification of functional requirements with a novel method for representing and reasoning with stakeholders´ qualitative preferences over properties of the system. This framework will facilitate the use of formal verification to ensure system correctness while making it easier to identify truly optimal component-based system designs.