KC - 10.2 - Selecting COTS Software

We have seen the problems of COTS evaluation & selection in the previous page which are mentioned below just to recap:

• Lack of well defined process
• Lack of proper Evaluation criteria
• "Black Box" nature of COTS components &
• Rapid Changes in market
  

To overcome these problems, Douglas Kunda & Laurence Brooks [University of York] have presented a framework shown in the adjacent figure in which there are four main processes which are listed below along with their sub-processes -

1. Requirements elicitation
1. Market Studies
2. System documents
3. Domain knowledge
4. Stakeholder
   
2. Social-technical criteria definition
1. Technology factors
2. Functionality characteristics
3. Quality characteristic
4. Social-economic factors
   
3. Alternatives identification
   
1. Customer participation
2. Available alternatives
3. Techniques & market research, internet search & fairs
   
4. COTS evaluation or assessments
1. Customer participation
2. Evaluation strategy
3. Data collection techniques
4. Data analysis techniques
   

In the requirements elicitation process, the high-level customer and systems requirements are discovered through consultation with stakeholders, from system documents, domain knowledge and market studies. In the social-technical criteria definition process essentially the high-level requirements from the requirements elicitation are decomposed into a hierarchical criteria set and each branch in this hierarchy ends in an evaluation attribute. Alternative identification includes searching and screening for COTS products/ technology that will be assessed in the evaluation stage. This process is driven by guidelines and criteria defined in the criteria definition process. Evaluation process involves ranking of identified COTS alternatives against the social-technical evaluation criteria by examining capabilities, reading documentation and experimentation.

All of the CBOK specified factors mentioned below are covered in the above said process.

• Assure Completeness of Needs Requirements
• Define Critical Success Factor
• Determine Compatibility with Hardware, Operating System, and other COTS Software
• Assure the Software can be Integrated into Your Business System Work Flow
• Demonstrate the Software in Operation
• Evaluate People Fit
• Acceptance Test the Software Process

More to follow in the next page...