In today’s scenario, software has become an essential component in all kinds of systems. The size and the complexity of the software increases with a corresponding increase in its functionality, hence leads to the development of the modular software systems. Software developers emphasize on the concept of component based software engineering (CBSE) for the development of modular software systems. The CBSE concept consists of dividing the software into a number of modules; selecting Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) for each module; and finally integrating the modules to develop the final software system. The selection of COTS for any module plays a vital role in software development. To address the problem of selection of COTS, a framework for ranking and selection of various COTS components for any software system based on expert opinion elicitation and fuzzy-based matrix methodology is proposed in this research paper. The selection problem is modeled as a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) problem. The evaluation criteria are identified through extensive literature study and the COTS components are ranked based on these identified and selected evaluation criteria using the proposed methods according to the value of a permanent function of their criteria matrices. The methodology is explained through an example and is validated by comparing with an existing method.