COTS-based software development: Processes and open issues

Proceedings of the 2000 International Conference on Software Engineering. ICSE 2000 the New Millennium, 2000

The work described in this paper is an investigation of COTS-based software development within a particular NASA environment, with an emphasis on the processes used. Fifteen projects using a COTS-based approach were studied and their actual process was documented. This process is evaluated to identify essential differences in comparison to traditional software development. The main differences, and the activities for which projects require more guidance, are requirements definition and COTS selection, high level design, integration and testing.

2000

This paper summarizes the results of a study on fifteen projects that used a COTS-based approach. The process they followed is evaluated to identify essential differences in comparison to traditional software development. The main differences, and the activities for which projects require more guidance, are requirements definition and COTS selection, high level design, integration and testing.

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.

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

2002

The work described in this paper deals with the problem of selecting, configuring, integrating and deploying COTS components to deliver tailored software systems. Since formal and precise description of components is not usually available, a reasonable approach is to augment the available documentation with the informal knowledge derived by practices and experience of experts. The development of a knowledge-based system is a way to organize this empirical knowledge and deliver a tool that can support software ...

2003

Abstract Several process guidelines for the development of COTS-based software systems have been described by informal notations and published in literature. We present here our attempt to model the COTS-based software process using a software process modeling language (E3). We provide models of existing COTS-based development processes, we discuss some of their limitations, and we give suggestions for improvement of these.

IEEE Software, 2004

COTS-based development (CBD) raises a spectrum of issues, from requirements negotiation to product selection and product integration. The studies on this topic are often in disagreement, lack details about products and projects, and are based on uncritically-accepted assumptions. This was confirmed by an analysis of the literature from which we derived a list of characterizing features for CBD. In order to explore these issues from an empirical perspective, we conducted an exploratory study, based on structured interviews to projects in small and medium-enterprises in Europe. From them we derive two results: key points in COTS based development as it happens in companies; and a definition of COTS product capable of capturing these key points.

Empirical Software Engineering, 2007

... Department of Computer and Information Science, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway e-mail: [email protected] FO Bjørnson email:[email protected] R. Conradi e-mail: [email protected] R. Conradi & VB Kampenes ...

Proceedings of the 28th Annual ACM Symposium on Applied Computing - SAC '13, 2013

We present a descriptive and exploratory study of factors that can affect the success of COTS-based systems. Based on a review of the literature and industrial experience, the choice of life cycle model and the amount of glueware required were hypothesized as the main factors in predicting project success. In this study we examined the relationship between different life cycle models and COTS integration project success. Two life cycle models were studied: the sequential model and the iterative model. Seven subjects from six industrial organizations responded to a survey providing data on 23 COTS integration projects. While there was variability between iterative and sequential projects on a variety of organizational and product factors, little difference was found between the life cycle models on the success criteria of projects (i.e. being on time, meeting requirements and being within budget). We found that projects that met two or three of the success criteria had significantly higher scores on project characteristics (organizational plus product) than those meeting none or just one.

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.