COTS evaluation and selection

COTS-based development raises a number of issues that are usually not encountered in more classical software development settings. For instance, how to select appropriate COTS? (e.g., middleware for distributed applications, GUI builders). How to integrate COTS selection and evaluation in the requirements engineering and design phases? In this position paper, we address a number of questions regarding COTS evaluation and selection. We first try to better state why this problem is an important one, and why it is likely to become pervasive in the near future. Then, we attempt to clearly identify the difficulties associated with evaluating and selecting COTS. A number of solutions that may alleviate these problems are then discussed. Last, we will list a number of open research questions.