COTS-based System's Obsolescence Risk Evaluation

COTS (commercial off the shelf) component products undergo a technology refresh and renewal cycle. New versions or releases of COTS component products are brought to the market frequently. And rapid evolution of the COTS component product means the obsolescence of the COTS-based systems, especially during COTS-based systems' maintenance (in a long run). This is the fundamental problem to application developer. So the evaluation of the system's COTS component part is primary issue. This paper provides an open evaluation model to complete the task. The model bases on AHP and WSM, considering of COTS components lifecycle