COTS software selection process.

Technical Report · Mon May 01 00:00:00 EDT 2006

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/885111· OSTI ID:885111

Watkins, William M ^[1]; Lin, Han Wei; McClelland, Kelly ^[2]; Ullrich, Rebecca Ann; Khanjenoori, Soheil; Dalton, Karen; Lai, Anh Tri; Kuca, Michal; Pacheco, Sandra; Shaffer-Gant, Jessica

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1. Strike Wire Technologies, Louisville, CO
2. U.S. Security Associates, Livermore, CA

Today's need for rapid software development has generated a great interest in employing Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) software products as a way of managing cost, developing time, and effort. 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 the same time can leverage off the current corporate information technology architectural environment. This paper describes a systematic process for decision support in evaluating and ranking COTS software. Performed right after the requirements analysis, this process provides the evaluators with more concise, structural, and step-by-step activities for determining the best COTS software product with manageable risk. In addition, the process is presented in phases that are flexible to allow for customization or tailoring to meet various projects' requirements.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), Albuquerque, NM, and Livermore, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 885111
• Report Number(s): SAND2006-0478; TRN: US200616%%291
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS//MATHEMATICS, COMPUTING, AND INFORMATION SCIENCE
COMPUTER CODES
DECISION MAKING
PROCUREMENT
Application software.
Computer software-Evaluation.
Software.