Abstract. Software products are an everyday phenomenon. Yet, there are very few scientific studies reported on the engineering of software as a product in particular. This paper stipulates the urgent need for more research on product software. The various terms used for software products are reviewed and some categorizations of software products are presented. Moreover, we provide a software product development framework to position the key business domains in a product software company. 1

Abstract. Classes of COTS products can be derived by classification attributes, which define a Cartesian space. Examples of such attributes are the architectural level, the kind of the COTS product (is it a standard, or a service, or an executable component?), and the software life cycle phase in which the product is used (is it a development tool or an executable component?). COTS products belonging to the same class can be evaluated and compared by means of evaluation attributes, such as price or type of license. This work has been conceived mainly for learning purposes. Building a classification schema and filling it with products is a way for COTS product familiarization. In addition, the process of defining classes and filling them with COTS poses new research questions, like “why is this class empty?”, or “which are the relationships between these two classes?”. The result of classification and evaluation process cannot have general validity if it not customized for special organization goals. These customization issues are outside the scope of this work. 1

Abstract. The use of Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) components is becoming a strategic need because they offer the possibility to build systems at reduced costs and within shorter development time. Having efficient and reliable COTS components selection methods is a key issue not only for exploiting the potential benefits of this technology, but also for facing the problems and risks involved. Searching COTS components requires to overcome several obstacles: the growing size and evolvability of the COTS marketplace, the dependencies from the components to be selected with others, and the type of descriptions currently available for those components. In this paper, we present a goal-oriented strategy for an effective localization, analysis and structuring of COTS components information. Our proposal is the GOThIC method, which provides methodological support to the construction of taxonomies. We present the seven activities that conform this method, which are illustrated with the case of real-time synchronous communication tools. 1

Among the main activities involved in COTS-based development there are identification, evaluation, and selection of COTS products. Several techniques have been developed for these activities; all of them are based on measurement of attributes. The effort devoted to these activities is more valuable if the attributes can be reused. Since the evaluation of COTS is a very project-specific activity, the definition of reusable attributes is difficult. Several studies show that it is possible and convenient to develop a reusable attribute framework. We propose a set of simple and generic criteria can be used to validate the set of attributes and improve them.

Abstract. To gain competitive advantages software organizations are forced to develop systems quickly and cost-efficiently. Reusing components from thirdparty providers is one key technology to reach these goals. These components, also known as OTS (Off-the-Shelf) components, come in two different types: COTS (Commercial-Off-The-Shelf) and OSS (Open–Source-Software) components. However, the reuse of pre-fabricated components bears one major question: How to adapt development processes/methods with refer to system development using OTS components. To examine the state-of-the-practice in OTS component-based development a survey on 133 software projects in Norway, Italy and Germany was performed. The results show that OTS-based development processes are typically variations of well-known process models, such as the waterfall- or prototyping model, mixed with OTS-specific activities. One reason might be that often the process is selected before the use of OTS components is considered. Furthermore, the survey shows that the selection of OTS components is based on two processes: “Familiarity-based ” and “Internet search-based”. Moreover, it appears that the lifecycle phase to select OTS components is significantly correlated with a project members ’ previous familiarity with possible OTS candidates. Within this paper, we characterize the state-of-the-practice concerning OTS processes, using seven scenarios, and discuss how to decide or modify such processes and how to select OTS components. 1

A way to learn about Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) products is to define a set of characteristics or attributes and then to collect information about these attributes. In an industrial context, the attributes used to select COTS clearly depend on project specific goals. In our educational context we made an attempt to define general COTS characterization attributes. The resulting framework provides a structure, which facilitate the learning process. Our proposed attributes have several similarities with the generic evaluation attributes defined by ISO 9126. A comparison with such a standard provides a deeper insight into the problem of characterizing COTS products.

Abstract. More and more software projects use Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) components. Although previous studies have proposed specific COTSbased development processes, there are few empirical studies that investigate how to use and customize COTS-based development processes for different project contexts. This paper describes an exploratory study of state-of-thepractice of COTS-based development processes. Sixteen software projects in the Norwegian IT companies have been studied by structured interviews. The results are that COTS-specific activities can be successfully incorporated in most traditional development processes (such as waterfall or prototyping), given proper guidelines to reduce risks and provide specific assistance. We have identified four COTS-specific activities – the build vs. buy decision, COTS component selection, learning and understanding COTS components, and COTS component integration – and one new role, that of a knowledge keeper. We have also found a special COTS component selection activity for unfamiliar components, combining Internet searches with hands-on trials. The process guidelines are expressed as scenarios, problems encountered, and examples of good practice. They can be used to customize the actual development processes, such as in which lifecycle phase to put the new activities into. Such customization crucially depends on the project context, such as previous familiarity with possible COTS components and flexibility of requirements. 1

References ................................................................................................................... 6 This is a partial and biased list of literature resources on COTS. It is incomplete because (save a few exceptions) I ve read or at least browsed all the literature listed here. It is biased because it somewhat reflect my personal discovery path in this broad field. 1 Definitions and classifications 1.1 COTS Definitions Source Description Federal Acquisition Regulations [1] The acronym "COTS" stands for Commercial-Off-The-Shelf, so firstly we must define what is 'commercial', and what is 'off-the-shelf'. The official definition of the term "commercial" is given in the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FARs). A commercial item is: 1. Property customarily used for non governmental purposes and has been sold, leased, or licensed (or offered for sale, lease or license) to the general public; 2. Any item evolved from an

This report begins with a survey of COTS evaluation and integration state-of-the-art.

This chapter faces the problem of identifying a set of parameters characterizing COTS products. The need for such a characterization derives from the problem to identify and select among many available products the ones which are appropriate for a specific software system. The characterization should allow to foresee the integration and maintenance effort in target systems developed with a COTS-based approach. In our study we identified a set of COTS product parameters and executed an empirical study for evaluating if there exists any statistically significant correlation among them and the effectiveness of development and maintenance process of two industrial software projects. The obtained results show that COTS products characterization can be used to foresee integration and maintenance effort of the target system. The analysis also shows the need to continue the on-field experimentation, in order to make the learned lessons effective and applicable.