Book excerpt: The book provides a comprehensive coverage of the widely accepted desiderata of component-based software development, as well as the foundations that these desiderata necessitate. Its unique focus is on component models, the cornerstone of component-based software development. In addition, it presents and analyses existing approaches according to these desiderata.This compendium is an indispensable textbook for an advance undergraduate or postgraduate course unit. Researchers will also find this volume an essential reference material.