I am often involved in tenders for new pieces of software development work. In contrast to commercial offtheshelf software cots, custom software development aims at a narrowly defined set of requirements. With an abundance of cots software packages to choose from, the problem now is how to systematically evaluate, rank, and select a cots product that best meets the software project requirements and at. In other words, if we talk about software, they are the software readily available for customer use without any modification. Jackson, software requirements and specifications a lexicon of practice, principles and prejudices, year 1995, publisher. I first started working on cots software products and their integration with other systems back in the 90s when working for a large systems integrator. For cots implementation projects, including saas acquisitions, the tobe process model for the target system cannot be finalized until after the completion of the cots fitgap analysis.
The world of software development has evolved rapidly in the last decade. In particular, the use of commercial offtheshelf cots products as elements of larger systems is becoming increasingly commonplace, due to shrinking budgets, accelerating rates of cots enhancement, and expanding system requirements, according to the software engineering institute sei description, see. On assessment of software tools and technology, 1997. Commercial offthe shelf software is therefore defined as the software that is commercially produced and sold in a retail store or online, ready to use without any form of modification by the user. Cots software validation often is a timeconsuming process in which a great deal of effort is spent determining the necessary validation tasks and the content and format of the validation documents. I frequently come across tender documents full of questions that scream we are expecting to use a cots product for this system even though ostensibly the process allows sometimes explicitly for the possibility of a bespoke system. Security considerations in managing cots software cisa. What requirements to specify for cots and saas projects. Rather, you iterate and increment in order to learn. These activities provide great opportunities for an iterative and incremental approach.
At the carnegie mellon universitys software engineering institute sei, we are developing a process framework for working with cotsbased systems. For example, many companies use salesforce for customer relationship management, or xero for accounting. In particular, the use of commercial offtheshelf cots products as elements of larger systems is becoming increasingly commonplace, due to. Commercial offtheshelf cots avionics software study. Successful budgeting requires the participation of nonfinancial staff in the budgeting process. Cots is defined as component off the shelf software development somewhat frequently. With an abundance of cots software packages to choose from, the problem now is how to systematically evaluate. The term commercial offtheshelf cots is very generic. Citeseerx document details isaac councill, lee giles, pradeep teregowda.
We are fully committed to making the customers mission our mission, no matter the size or complexity of the solution that is required. Cots is the acronym for commercialofftheshelf, referring to the products that are tailored for specific purposes and as per parameters that are defined for an explicitly structured range. A trend has developed via the economics of software development to streamline process and products of organizations, increase. Beyond that, there is usually a collection of services on the computer in various forms, which the cots software uses. A cots based software development refers to a process that integrates pieces of prebuilt software cots packages into a system to provide some functionality. Hence risk based approach is time and cost effective. Conference paper february 2000 with 150 reads how we measure reads. In response to the particular system circumstances their projects face,developers use various processes to create and. With an abundance of cots software packages to choose from. Cots software is never the only software operating on a computer. Most cots and saas solutions require some amount of configuration, integration with existing systems and the transformation and loading of data from a current system. Testing cotsbased applications general testing articles. Commercial offtheshelf cots avionics software study may 2001 final report. Todays need for rapid software development has generated a great interest in employing commercial offtheshelf cots software products as a way of managing cost, developing time, and effort.
A commercial offthe shelf cots item is one that is sold, leased, or licensed to the general public. A management guide to software maintenance in cotsbased. Commercial offtheshelf or commercially available offtheshelf cots products are packaged solutions which are then adapted to satisfy the needs of the purchasing organization, rather than the commissioning of custommade, or bespoke, solutions. To deliver truly stateofthesoftware, this process should allow for periodic software enhancements. It considers the issues and risks in using cots software over the life cycle and how to control them. By a cots commercial offtheshelf product i mean a system that already exists and delivers a common set of functions, usually for a particular business domain, with the ability to be customised, configured or extended to suit each client. Thats a real problem, especially when one considers that the quality of. The main disadvantages of custom software are development time and cost.
If you only measure the businessprocessspecific applications, the body of cots software may not, in fact, match up to the custom code, but remember that all application software runs on a platform, and that in a modern it operation, that platform is. A cots purposebuilt budgeting application will help you take back control of the budgeting process by housing all of your budgets in one place, creating one version of data truth that you can trust. The work described in the paper is an investigation of cots based software development within a particular nasa environment, with an emphasis on the processes used. Cots may be one of the most diversely defined terms in current software development. Cots software can also be more vulnerable, because its better known to software hackers.
Specifics about the quantification and application of these factors can be found in 6. We will also see a process for testing cotsbased applications. Cots, mots, gots, and nots are abbreviations that describe prepackaged software or less commonly hardware purchase alternatives. However, cotsbased system development starts with a general set of requirements and. Cots stands for component off the shelf software development. Human resources hr, retail point of sale, case management, finance etc.
But because cots software is just one type of reusable software component, the scope of the project was expanded to be more comprehensive. A management guide to software maintenance in cots. Custom development starts with the system requirements and creates a system that meets them. With cots solutions, you dont have control of the source codes. It describes changes in the software maintenance process that are needed to manage a cotsbased system. Cbs development is an act of composition cotsbased system development involves composition and reconciliation, whereas custom system development is an act of creation.
The background fundamentals for that evaluation process, as well as steps and techniques to follow, are described in this report. In particular, the use of commercial offtheshelf cots products as elements of larger systems is becoming increasingly commonplace, due to shrinking budgets. It provides guidance in developing a cots software lifecycle management plan. Fifteen projects using a cots based approach were studied and their actual process was documented. Application development cots has a wide range of experience and a proven track record in application development and integrated solutions management across a wide variety of organizations. The work described in this paper is an investigation of cotsbased software development within a particular nasa environment, with an emphasis on the processes used. And a critical piece to this plan is the ability to assess cots and other 3rdparty components during the acquisition and provisioning process. In contrast, commercial offtheshelf software cots is designed for a broad set of requirements, allowing it to be packaged and commercially marketed and distributed. There is an operating system and mechanisms for communication to other systems, typically using ip internet protocol. Cots project management strategy from a state government. With a spreadsheet or an offtheshelf software package, a user can get benefits quickly.
I could go on, but a list of commercialofftheshelf cots and softwareasaservice saas applications is not the point of this article. Analyze software requirements software requirements analysis is a critical part of the software development process, although too often this activity is overlooked or glossed over in the rush to start building. Fifteen projects using a cotsbased approach were studied and their actual process was documented. How is component off the shelf software development abbreviated. Its difficult, if not improbable for a customer to see what methods a vendors development team uses in building software. Cots or commercial off the shelf software, also known as package software refers to a software application that is specifically designed to meet the needs of particular business type e. Most organizations do not develop 100 percent of the software that they use, nor should they. Citeseerx a software development process for cotsbased. However, software validation may be thought of as an umbrella encompassing both s o f t w a r e verification and s o f t w a r e validation as defined in the fdas quality system r e g u. Cots commercial off the shelf lifecyle model methodology. Custom software development is the process of designing, creating, deploying and maintaining software for a specific set of users, functions or organizations. For a cots solution strategy, there needs to be a diligent assessment process. Cots software selection process ieee conference publication. A vast majority of the jobs they have to do can be satisfied with readily available commercial off the shelf cots software, or its more modern successor, software as a service saas.
Commercial offtheshelf, cots, componentbased, empirical study, software development process. The result is this cots and reusable software management plan crsmp template. Integrating cots into the development process building and evolving software systems is an arduous, costly,lengthy, and complex task. This process is evaluated to identify essential differences in comparison to traditional software development. With custom software, a business needs to go through a software development process that may take weeks, months, or with bigger projects, years. This article is one of a series covering cots commercials off the shelf lifecycle model methodology, also know as package software. An exploration of software engineering tool development. The work described in this paper is an investigation of the cotsbased software development within a particular nasa environment, with an emphasis on the processes used. Even in software, offtherack doesnt always mean ready to wear. Conference of cotsbased software systems iccbss 2004.
606 1028 843 721 1482 1234 190 139 1058 35 397 948 1411 1028 352 839 730 473 574 484 764 1482 1465 899 1070 520 593 1582 1487 240 406 1041 853 271 669 1002 233 1369 472 457 91