Welcome from the Con. Gen Chair
COTS Dev. Workshop Report
Window on the World
Issue 1
Workshop 4: Continuing Collaborations for Successful COTS Development
By Tricia Oberndorf
It turns out that finding fellow researchers in the area of COTS (commercial off-the-shelf)-based systems is not easy. This workshop provided a forum for some of us to reach each other and spend all too short a time discussing our mutual passion. Topics discussed in breakout sessions were: Business Models, Financial Planning and Economic Models, (COTS) Software Process, Requirements Analysis and Product Evaluation & Selection, and Implementation, Maintenance, and System Management. This is a software conference workshop? Yes! The use of COTS products impacts every aspect of system engineering and management. For example, the Business Models group developed a list of stakeholders and, for each stakeholder population, a list of COTS-based system risks with corresponding mitigations. The Financial Planning and Economic Models discussions grew out of a collaboration started at the first workshop at ICSE 99. A computer scientist working on the COCOTS cost estimation model and an economist spent the day in a room together. At the end the board was filled with diagrams and equations, and both seemed quite satisfied! We’re always telling people that the activities of a COTS-based system process are intimately intertwined, and the common themes that emerged from the separate sessions confirmed this. Several groups noted the need for an ability to characterize COTS products – a COTS product description language, if you will. Another common theme was the need to collect and publish more case studies of COTS usage, especially successful ones. The idea was to further collaborations. From the way the conversations continued at the breaks and right through lunch, we’re looking forward to the progress we’ll be able to report at ICSE 2001. More information will be available after the workshop at http://wwwsel.iit.nrc.ca/projects/cots/icse2000wkshp
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