Evaluating and selecting software packages: A review

Evaluating and selecting software packages that meet an organization’s requirements is a difficult software engineering process. Selection of a wrong software package can turn out to be costly and adversely affect business processes. The aim of this paper is to provide a basis to improve the process of evaluation and selection of the software packages. This paper reports a systematic review of papers published in journals and conference proceedings. The review investigates methodologies for selecting software packages, software evaluation techniques, software evaluation criteria, and systems that support decision makers in evaluating software packages. The key findings of the review are: (1) analytic hierarchy process has been widely used for evaluation of the software packages, (2) there is lack of a common list of generic software evaluation criteria and its meaning, and (3) there is need to develop a framework comprising of software selection methodology, evaluation technique, evaluation criteria, and system to assist decision makers in software selection.