<P>Component-based software development, CBSD, is no longer just one more new paradigm in software engineering, but is effectively used in development and practice. So far, however, most of the efforts from the
software engineering community have concentrated on the functional aspects of CBSD, leaving aside the treatment of the quality issues and extra-functional properties of software components and component-based
systems.</P> <P>The 16 revised chapters presented were carefully reviewed and selected for inclusion in the book; together with an introductory survey, they give a coherent and competent survey of the state of the
art in the area. The book - the first to focus on quality issues of components and component-based systems - is organized in topical parts on COTS selection, testing and certification, software component quality models, formal
models to quality assessment, and CBSD management.</P>