In component-based software engineering research, much effort has gone into developing specification techniques for software components. There exist many software component specification techniques, from Interface Description Language (IDL), to design-by-contract based, to formal methods. However, much of the focus of the research literature is aimed at component specification for the development of components, not their use. The current best practices for component specification ignore information that is vital in determining if an available, ready to use component contains precisely the functional and extra-functional properties required and if that component can be used in the target environment. These specification techniques do not sufficiently support selection and reuse of software components.

This paper evaluates some of the current component specification techniques with respect to the needs of component selection and reuse. From this evaluation, some recommendations made as to advancing the development of component specifications to include the purposes of component selection and reuse.