A method for efficient measurement-based COTS assessment and selection method description and evaluation results

The use of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software has become more and more important in state-of-the-art and state-of-the-practice software and system development. The use of COTS software promises faster time-to-market, reduced development costs, increased productivity, and the possibility for companies to focus on their own core competencies. At the same time, COTS software increases risks, such as the economic instability of the COTS software vendor, unknown quality properties of the COTS software in use, and side-effects of the COTS software on the final product. Typically, COTS-based development, in parallel with the traditional development cycle (e.g. waterfall, spiral), consists of four phases. The first phase (COTS assessment and selection) is the most crucial phase in the COTS-based cycle, since long-term decisions about which COTS software to use in a software system are made there. A late recognition that the "wrong" COTS software was used can become extremely costly for a software organization. This paper presents a repeatable, cost-efficient and systematic method for performing measurement-based COTS assessment and selection. Moreover, cost/benefit analysis results of two industrial pilot projects, in which the method was successfully applied, are presented.