Evaluation of Commercial Off-the-Shelf Software: A Detailed Analysis

This report provides an evaluation of Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) software, emphasizing the critical role of decision-making in the selection of software components for successful project outcomes. The report synthesizes information from multiple sources, including research papers, to highlight the significance of effective decision-making processes in COTS implementation. It explores various decision-making approaches, such as participatory and naturalistic methods, and identifies key factors to consider when selecting COTS components, including technical, financial, and application requirements. The report discusses frameworks like OSTO and its variants (PRISM, DesCOTS, STACE, and MiHOS) that aid in component selection. It also examines the perspectives of vendors, integrators, customers, and end-users, as well as the stages of the decision-making process. The report concludes that a well-informed decision-making process is crucial for the successful implementation of COTS software, and that the selection of the right components, considering factors like time, cost, and reliability, is essential for achieving project goals. The report also notes the importance of considering built-or-buy strategies and discusses the significance of choosing the right methodology for project management, especially in government institutions.

Running head: EVALUATION OF COMMERCIAL OFF SHELF SOFTWARE
EVALUATION OF COMMERCIAL OFF SHELF SOFTWARE
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1EVALUATION OF COMMERCIAL OFF SHELF SOFTWARE
Farshidi, S., Jansen, S., de Jong, R., & Brinkkemper, S. (2018). A decision support system
for software technology selection. Journal of Decision Systems, 27(sup1), 98-110.
The organization structure is dependent on certain things like functional and operational
aspects of the organization (Badampudi, Wohlin & Petersen,2016). While the temporary
projects of the organization is dependent on the tools and deadline of the project. It has been
seen that the success of the project is dependent on the effective decision making process at the
initial phase of the development of the project.
47% of the projects which are not successful caused for the lack of efficiency in the
decision making process . However, in most cases, the complexity of the decision making
process is overlooked.
The advancement of the technology has enable the option for exploring different aspects
of improvisation of system . This brings the trend of assembling different software components
in order to make a complex system.
The paper concludes that the lack of choosing right software component in case of
Commercial off shelf software can bring the failure of the system along with the lack of
outsourcing capability of the process.
Petersen, K., Badampudi, D., Shah, S. M. A., Wnuk, K., Gorschek, T., Papatheocharous,
E., ... & Cicchetti, A. (2018). Choosing Component Origins for Software Intensive
Systems: In-House, COTS, OSS or Outsourcing?—A Case Survey. IEEE
Transactions on Software Engineering, 44(3), 237-261.

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The main objective of the conduction of this study is evaluate the significance of the
effective decision making in the success of development of commercial off shelf software. The
decision about selection of the components is important for the working of COTS.
There are various kinds of decision making process such as participatory decision
making process, Naturalistic decision making process. Each of these decision making processes
are applicable for different situations.
There are certain factors those are needed to be considered while making the decision
about the selection of components in COTS. The decision making process should maintain the
balance between technical aspects and financial aspects of the system along with the
requirements of the application.
For the selection of the COTS components one of the proposed framework is OSTO
proposed by Kontio. Some of the OSTO frameworks are- PRISM (Portable, Reusable,
Integrated, Software Modules), DesCOTS (Description, Evaluation and Selection of COTS
components), The STACE (Social-Technical Approach to COTS Evaluation), MiHOS
(Mismatch-Handling aware COTS selection).
The component perspective factors in this case are Vendor, Integrator, customer and end
users. While the decision making function involves initiation, preparation and decision making.
The success of the decision making process can be evaluated through the successful
implementation COTS. The methodology used in the literature review is helpful in establishment
of the connection between the decision making process and its significance in the commercial off
shelf software.

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The paper discusses the significance of the selection of different components in the
successful implementation of COTS.
Bali, V., & Madan, S. (2015). COTS Evaluation & Selection Process in Design of
Component based Software System: An Overview and Future Direction. Global Journal of
Computer Science and Technology.
The information provided by the articles has given an overview of the commercial off
shelf software. The importance of the decision making process has been described . The articles
provides the information and explained the structure of COTS and the need of the decision
making process in this course.
The further studies help to identify different aspects of the decision making process. One
of the article helps to understand the concept of the commercial off shelf software , and the
significance of decision making process in order to develop the COTS system.
The main focus of the decision is the decision making process and its involvement with
selection of different components for development of commercial off shelf software. However,
the decision making process is needed to consider certain factors like balancing the both
technical and financial aspects of the project along with the requirement of the application.
The discussion and the reviewed journals regarding this topic are well explained.
However, there is no specific discussion about built – or – buy strategy and issues related to it.
Medvedska, O., & Berzisa, S. (2015). Selection of Software Development Project
Lifecycle Model in Government Institution. Information Technology and Management
Science, 18(1), 5-11.

4EVALUATION OF COMMERCIAL OFF SHELF SOFTWARE
This article has discussed about the characteristics of the software projects in government
institutions. The negative factors are identified for these projects. The main objective of this
paper is to discuss about the ways and techniques for the mitigation of these negative impacts.
The study has done on the different projects developed by government institutions. There
are different models of software development life cycles have been described in this study. The
guideline for the selection has also been mentioned in this paper. The SWOT analysis of the
SDPL model has been discussed. Through this discussion the negative factors are identified. The
mitigation plan has been developed according to the identification of the negative factors.
The researches concluded from the discussion is that the government projects needs the
to select the right methodology for the management of the project. DSDB model is most
appropriate for the development of the project where deadline is tight and requirements are not
clear.
Badampudi, D., Wohlin, C., & Petersen, K. (2016). Software component decision-
making: In-house, OSS, COTS or outsourcing-A systematic literature review. Journal of
Systems and Software, 121, 105-124.
The context of this paper is to discuss about the importance of decision making for
componenet based software system. The main objective of this paper is to identify the factors
those influence the selection of the components for componenet based software system.
In order to conduxt the research the information have been gathered from the peer
reviewed journals. This includes 24 number of primary studies. The focus of the discussion is
based on in-house vs COTS and COTS vs OSS. Total 11 factors have been identified which has
influence in the decision making process for the selection of the componenets.

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The solution has been proposed mostly for the in-house verses COTS. The selection has
considered certain components such as time , cost and reliability.
It can be concluded from the discussion of the paper is that this discussion will become
helpful in the selection method of the components of the commercial shelf software and
evaluation origin of the components.
The review of the different article about the decision making process and its different
forms along with its significance in the development of commercial off shelf process has been
done in a proper way (Bali & Madan, 2015). It can be concluded form the above discussion that
decision making process has certain significance in the selection of the components for COTS.
Apart from that there are certain factors those are responsible for effecting the decision making
process (Petersen et al.,2018). There are several decision making processes which can be applied
for different projects. The application is based on the type and components of the project.
However, there are several proposed framework for the implementation of the commercial off
shelf software. Certain frameworks have their own advantages and disadvantages. The data
collected from the different sources by the articles have showed the enhancement of the system
using the right decision making process.

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