A flexible component-based software system is developed by generating a UML model (3) in a specification phase (4). Components are generated in an implementation phase (4). The UML model (3) is transformed to a meta model. A runtime architecture service (RAS, 10) dynamically assembles a system in runtime according to the meta model. A modelling tool (15) modifies the meta model via an API (34) and a meta modeller (31). This allows dynamic re-configuration of the system.