Investigating and improving a COTS-based software development

The work described in this paper is an investigation of COTS-based software development within a particular NASA environment, with an emphasis on the processes used. Fifteen projects using a COTS-based approach were studied and their actual process was documented. This process is evaluated to identify essential differences in comparison to traditional software development. The main differences, and the activities for which projects require more guidance, are requirements definition and COTS selection, high level design, integration and testing. Starting from these empirical observations, a new process and guidelines for COTS-based development are developed and briefly presented. The new process is currently under experimentation. Keywords Commercial off-the-shelf, COTS, component-based, empirical study, software development process.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2000
• Where: ICSE
• Authors: Maurizio Morisio, Carolyn B. Seaman, Amy T. Parra, Victor R. Basili, Steve E. Kraft, Steven E. Condon
• Keywords: COTS-based Approach, COTS-based Software Development, ICSE 2000, Software Development, Software Engineering