Commercial-Off-The-Shelf Selection Process

Abstract:

This article presents a Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) evaluation and selection process that utilizes a weighted scoring model to facilitate the comparison of COTS components relative to a number of pre-established evaluation criteria. The application of a COTS evaluation methodology will enable project teams responsible for designing complex systems to take advantage of potential economic leverage and performance advantages COTS technology presents. More importantly, this approach provides a mechanism for careful evaluation of the candidate COTS components to ensure engineers developing COTS-intensive systems give appropriate consideration to critical COTS attributes such as operational requirements, risk, cost, technology maturity, and supplier viability.