Software composition relies on the interaction of software components, either new or sourced from COTS software vendors. Successful component interaction assumes interoperability, which requires the sharing of common characteristics. Shared characteristics make "like" components integrate more easily but also create isolating mechanisms that prevent or inhibit interaction with components that lack such characteristics. Designing systems from COTS components requires understanding their inherent isolating mechanisms. Most approaches only examine composed systems from the perspective of their integration properties. Ignoring or suppressing isolating mechanisms can lead to a partially composed system. Problems may surface anywhere in the system lifecycle including late binding situations at runtime. We examine how shared properties both facilitate membership in a population of like components; yet also serve to inhibit interaction with non-like components. Isolating mechanisms are shown to act across many system levels in the context of COTS based systems.
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