COTS Tenders and Integration Requirements

When buying COTS-based software, the customer has to choose between what is available. The supplier may add some minor parts, but rarely everything the customer wants. This means that the customer cannot write down his requirements and expect that they can all be met. A scoring system is necessary rather than traditional mandatory requirements. Requirements for integrating the new COTS system with other systems are particularly hard because suppliers may integrate in different ways and with different other systems. A related problem is that once the new COTS system is purchased, the COTS supplier may have a de-facto monopoly. Only he can expand the system or integrate it with other systems. The traditional way to purchase COTS is to iteratively find the right product. However, in a tender process this is not possible, and another solution is necessary. Experience shows that customers fail to deal with these issues adequately. As an example they may believe that asking for open interfac...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2004
• Where: RE
• Authors: Søren Lauesen
• Keywords: COTS-based Software, Customers, RE 2004, Software Engineering, Traditional Mandatory Requirements