The purpose of the Experimentation Facility is to implement an environment that will be used to evaluate the impact of
candidate COTS packages and candidate solutions within the broader context of the organization's operational
environment.
Using the Experimentation Facility, candidate COTS packages and candidate solutions are evaluated to verify vendor
claims, to understand the embedded user business processes and architectural assumptions, and to explore functional and
nonfunctional behaviors of the COTS packages and candidate solutions. The Experimentation Facility replicates, as
closely as possible or practical, a high fidelity operational IT environment (including interfaces to any important
external systems).
Therefore, the Experimentation Facilities is critical for the hands-on exploration of candidate COTS packages and
candidate solutions and must be available from the inception phase and until the solution is retired or replaced.
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