SELECTING COTS VENDOR IN CBSE PROCESS

THE POTENTIAL BENEFITS OF USING COTS ARE

INCREASED PRODUCT RELIABILITY AND STABILITY, AT

SHORTER DEVELOPMENT TIME AND REDUCED

COST.

WHAT IS COTS ?

Commercial-Off-The-Shelf

There is no agreed definition

“ COTS are products:

that are sold, leased or licensed to the general public;

that is usually available without source code;

that is supported and evolved by the vendor who returns the intellectual property rights ”

Software Engineering Institute

Need For Vendor Selection Process

In an effort to reduce implementation, operating, and maintenance cost and time Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) based software development has been considered as an alternative strategy to in-house development. However, using COTS packages introduces various burdens, including COTS evaluation, assessment, familiarization, and vendor interaction. The central problem is how to select a desirable COTS software package vendor that can be easily incorporated into an existing corporate information technology (IT) infrastructure.

COTS DEFINITION

COTS Definition

software product, supplied by a vendor, integrated into the system to provide

operational functionality or delivered with the system to sustain

maintenance efforts. COTS encountered

Domain specific packages for attitude and orbit determination, mission control, mission planning

Goal

Understand issues in COTS based development and improve the process

To improve itproposed process(1995)the actual process (1996-7)new proposed process (1998-9)

What Makes COTS-Based Systems Challenging?

COTS-based systems come in many forms

One substantial product (suite) tailored to provide functionality

Multiple products from multiple suppliers integrated with other components to collectively provide functionality

A solution based on COTS products includes

COTS-based system (composed of tailored COTS products, other components, integration code)

end-user business processes associated requirements, architecture, cost/schedule/risks

COTS Vendor Selection Criteria

Main Dimensions of COTS Selection

1. Domain coverage

The components have to provide all or part of the required capabilities, which are necessary to meet core essential customer requirements.

Non-functional requirements play a critical role during the assessment process. In some cases, extra new components need to be developed to meet the shortfalls.

2. Time Restriction • Selection is a time consuming activity, where a

considerable amount of time is necessary to search and screen all the potential COTS candidates.

3. Costs Rating • The expenses when selecting COTS products will be

influenced by factors such as: license acquisition, cost of support, adaptation expenses, and maintenance prices.

4. Vendor Guaranties • Vendor reputation and maturity, number and kind of

applications that already use the COTS, clauses characteristics of the maintenance licenses.

COTS Selection Process

Requirements Design Coding

Make vs. BuyRequirements analysisCOTS identification and selectionFeasibility study

Design glueware and integration Incompatibility analysis

Integration

Glueware, interfaces

Review make vs. buy

COTS Vendor Selection Process

Phase 1: Form an Evaluation Team

Identify team members (technical experts, subject matter experts, end users, etc.) Identify stakeholders (funding customers, business owners, etc).

Phase 2: Apply Team Non-Software Process

Define objectives and goals Set timescale and effort needed Identify tasks to perform Determine due dates / milestones Identify risks, benefits, trade-offs Identify multiple strategies Present Plan to Stakeholders Agree on process of addressing issues discovered during project

Phase 3: Identify COTS criteria

Gather the functional and non-functional requirements. Differentiate the “must-have” from the “nice-to-have” in the requirements Define selection criteria for Level I COTS filter

Address the vendor qualification (reputation, financial status, ranking among competitors)

Address product quality

Address the inter-operable factors with regards to either the organization’s current IT infrastructure or other third party components at a high level

Address any pre-conception of the architecture of the system and the COTS software package (e.g., it uses a middle-ware web server and a back-end database system)

Phase 4: Apply Level I Filter to COTS products using published vendor information

Obtain list of COTS software products to evaluate Obtain public information on the products Apply the Level I COTS filter to products

Interview in-house developers and users, if applicable

Perform analysis (trade-offs, and rank)

Identify COTS candidates for further evaluation Develop Level II COTS filter Map feature requirements to product requirements Define measurable factors for each of the product requirements Create use case scenarios based on the functional requirements

Current problems with COTS-Based Development

Products from different vendors have to be integrated and tailored to provide complete system functionality

Customers have limited access to product´s internals design

COTS lifecycle is determined by vendor.

The importance of the Selection Process

Includes the understanding of user requirements

Careful analysis of the capabilities and limitations of each COTS candidate

Assessment of products´ quality

Selection Process Challenges

Lack of well defined process

Use of inappropriate evaluation criteria

Back-box nature of COTS components

Unclear system expectations

Rapid rate of changes of COTS