Task: Characterize Relevant COTS Packages and Vendors
This task focuses on characterizing relevant COTS Packages and Vendors.
Disciplines: Requirements
Purpose
  • To gain a deep understanding of the COTS package(s) and vendor(s) under consideration and to characterize their capabilities and limitations
  • To learn in detail about how each COTS package and vendor differs in how they satisfy the critical use cases and satisfy the critical nonfunctional requirements for a given candidate solution
Relationships
Steps
Evaluate and Screen Relevant COTS Packages and Vendors

In this step, it is important to learn as much as possible about each COTS package under consideration.

The COTS package(s) under consideration may come from a variety of sources, and the published information about them might differ widely. It might, therefore, be necessary to bring demonstration versions of the most promising COTS packages into Experimental Facility where the capabilities and limitations of each COTS package can be determined. Using the Experimentation Facility, each COTS package that is considered critical to the success of the solution is further evaluated to verify vendor claims, to understand the embedded user business processes and architectural assumptions, and to explore critical functional and critical nonfunctional behaviors of the COTS package. It is important to make sure that the COTS package does what is needed in supporting both the user business processes and the architecture and that there are no unintended side effects from features not directly needed in the solution (for example, watch for the impact of additional or unanticipated features on solution performance).

As part of the evaluation process, COTS package(s) will be screened against the criteria in the COTS Package Screening Criteria and Rationale. Capture the rationale for removing a COTS package(s) from further consideration in the COTS Package Dossier.

As understanding grows regarding the stakeholder's needs and the solution, the COTS package screening criteria needs to evolve to include criteria used by previous screening to eliminate other COTS packages and candidate solutions from consideration.

Optionally, in order to help evaluate and screen relevant COTS packages, an Request For Proposal (RFP) could be produced and sent to identified vendors. Vendors would then be invited to demonstrate their COTS package in the context of an evaluation workshop (see the tasks Prepare for Vendor/COTS Package Evaluation Workshop and Conduct Vendor/COTS Package Evaluation Workshop).

Update COTS Package Information

Update any changes to the understanding of a COTS package using the COTS Package Dossier specific to the:

  • History of consideration and use of the COTS package
  • Raw (unfiltered) information about the COTS package gathered directly from the vendor (documentation, claims, price lists, demonstration versions, response to a Request For Information and Request For Proposal, and so on), and from third parties (such correspondence and reviews by other users, trade journal articles, business/financial analysis, and so forth)
  • Processed (filtered) data obtained during consideration of the COTS package including the results of investigations into the COTS package, information describing the exact configuration of the COTS package evaluated, and data gathered during evaluation tasks and benchmarking
  • Analysis of the COTS package, including COTS package strengths, weaknesses, related COTS packages and ensembles, and architecture or usage constraints identified during evaluation
  • Characteristics of the COTS package architecture and functional capabilities, standards supported, required hardware and software configurations, nonfunctional requirements such as usability, supportability, reliability, interoperability, portability, and scalability, and quality of documentation, costs, and licenses
Update Vendor Information

Update any changes to the understanding of a vendor using the Vendor Dossier specific to the:

  • History of contacts with the vendor regarding a COTS package(s) they sell or support
  • Raw (unfiltered) information about a vendor gathered directly from the vendor and from third parties (for example, correspondence and reviews by other users, trade journal articles, business/financial analysis, and so on)
  • Processed (filtered) vendor data obtained during due diligence, including vendor financial/ business strengths and weaknesses
  • Development and managing of the relationship with a vendor
Update Options for Licensing COTS Packages

As part of the initial market research conducted in the inception phase, an understanding of licensing options that other customers in the market segment received was captured in the Market Segment Information. Now it is important to narrow the investigation of options as part of COTS package evaluation as the project begins to converge on a more narrow set of COTS packages and candidate solutions. When a COTS package is actually selected in the elaboration phase, the specific COTS package's license information will be captured in the COTS Package Dossier.