Evaluating COTS Component Dependability in Context

Global journal of computer science and technology, 2012

Component Based Software Engineering (CBSE) approach is based on the idea to develop software systems by selecting appropriate components and then to assemble them with a well-defined software architecture. (CBSE) offers developers the twin benefits of reduced software life cycles, shorter development times , saving cost and less effort as compare to build own component. However the success of the component based paradigm depends on the quality of the commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components purchased and integrated into the existing software systems. It is need of the time to present a quality model that can be used by software programmer to evaluate the quality of software components before integrating them into legacy systems. The evaluation and selection of the COTS components are the most critical process. These evaluation and selection method cannot be resolved by the IT professionals itself. In this study the author tried to compare the twenty three available systematic met...

COTS workshop. Continuing Collaborations for …, 2000

This short paper presents a new research agenda to address problems of COTS software selection in the forthcoming decade. It describes the increasing shift towards software engineering based on COTS software packages, the limitations of current COTS/component-based software engineering methods and research efforts, and proposes a new research agenda to address the problems which arise from a software engineering process based on the reuse of COTS software and software components. The focus of the proposed research is how can we develop complex software systems by integrating together different combinations of COTS software packages and software components.

IEEE Software, 2004

0 7 4 0 -7 4 5 9 / 0 4 / $ 2 0 . 0 0 © 2 0 0 4 I E E E cots software Studies on commercial-off-the-shelf-based development often disagree, lack product and project details, and are founded on uncritically accepted assumptions. This empirical study establishes key features of industrial COTS-based development and creates a definition of "COTS products" that captures these features.

Understanding the impact of the failure of a COTS software component with respect to key system properties (e.g. safety) is crucial to the successful use of COTS software products in a critical (safety-, security-, or mission-critical) application. In this paper, we describe a criticality analysis method based upon software architecture to assess the failure impact of potential COTS software components with respect to system safety. The results of applying this method can be used to facilitate the evaluation of the feasibility of a COTS-based safety-critical system development solution, the establishment of COTS component selection criteria for a safety-critical application, and the justification of the use of COTS software components in a safety-critical application.

Journal of Computer Science, 2006

Studies show that COTS-based (Commercial off the shelf) systems that are being built recently are exceeding 40% of the total developed software systems. Therefore, a model that ensures quality characteristics of such systems becomes a necessity. Among the most critical processes in COTS-based systems are the evaluation and selection of the COTS components. There are several existing quality models used to evaluate software systems in general; however, none of them is dedicated to COTS-based systems. In this contribution, an analysis study has been carried out on several existing software quality models, namely: McCall's, Boehm, ISO 9126, FURPS, Dromey, ISO/IEC TR 15504-2 1998(E), Triangle and Quality Cube, for the purpose of evaluating them and defining a ground to build a new model specializing in evaluating and selecting COTS components. The study also outlines limitations found in the existing models, such as the tendency to ignore a certain quality feature like Functionality or the failure to describe how the quality measurement in these models has been carried out. As a result of this analysis, a new model has been built that supports a standard set of quality characteristics suitable for evaluating COTS components, along with newly defined sets of sub-characteristics associated with them. The new model avoids some of the limitations found in the existing models. The new model ignores quality characteristics that are not applicable to COTS components and is empowered with new ones that are. In addition, it matches the appropriate type of stakeholders with corresponding quality characteristics; such a feature is missing in all existing models. The objective of the new model is to guide organizations that are in the process of building COTS-based systems to evaluate and choose the appropriate products, and that is essential to the success of the entire system.

IEEE Software, 2005

0 7 4 0 -7 4 5 9 / 0 5 / $ 2 0 . 0 0 © 2 0 0 5 I E E E focus Integrating COTS into the Development Process B uilding and evolving software systems is an arduous, costly, lengthy, and complex task. The resulting systems are similarly complex. We're thus constantly searching for ways to reduce such costs, time, and complexity while increasing system functionality and quality. Not surprisingly, our quest for "silver bullets," as described by Frederick Brooks back in 1987, 1 hasn't produced significant

Journal of Software Maintenance: Research and Practice, 2000

This paper makes pragmatic recommendations for the maintenance of complex COTS-based systems. We first enumerate the issues that can arise in systems that rely on COTS products, whether in operational systems themselves or in the support systems used to create, modify, or test operational systems. We then suggest principles by which maintenance practice for such systems can be facilitated, particularly for those safety-critical systems for which significant risk is present if they fail. These principles aim at making explicit, during system creation, the COTS-related development practices upon which successful system maintenance will subsequently depend. They also depend on a reasonable means of determining, during system maintenance, how much risk is acceptable in using new releases of COTS products.

Requirements Engineering, 1998

The goal of the GUARDS project is to design and develop a generic fault-tolerant computer architecture that can be built from predefined standardised components. The architecture favours the use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and software components. However, the assessment and selection of COTS components is a non-trivial task as it requires balancing a myriad of requirements from end-users and the preliminary architecture design. In this paper, we present the requirements and assessment criteria for a specific COTS software component, the operating system kernel. As an interface specification constitutes a major compatibility criterion for the selection of COTS components in GUARDS, a particular emphasis is placed on operating system conformance to the POSIX 1003.1 standard. We discuss the general lessons learned from the assessment process and raise a number of questions relevant to the assessment of any COTS software component.

2003

This chapter faces the problem of identifying a set of parameters characterizing COTS products. The need for this characterization derives from the problem to identify and select among many available products the ones which are appropriate for a specific software system. The characterization has the goal to foresee the integration and maintenance effort in COTS based systems developed with a COTS-based approach.

2007

Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products are increasingly being used in software development. In COTS-based development, selecting appropriate COTS is the most crucial phase. This paper explores the evolution of COTS selection practices, and surveys eighteen of the most significant COTS selection approaches. The paper traces how each approach contributed to the improvement of current COTS selection practices, and then compares them .The paper also highlights some open research issues relevant to the selection process, and concludes with a discussion of possible future directions to address these issues