Guest Editors' Introduction: Integrating COTS into the Development Process

Building 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. One strategy that originally seemed promising was the notion of "buy not build." Using COTS products is one way to implement this strategy, because software development then becomes the process of "simply" integrating COTS components. However, it turns out that dealing with COTS is a high-risk activity for a variety of reasons.