TAES-COTS: Thorough Approach for Evaluation & Selection of COTS Products

The selection of only the most suitable COTS software product is an indispensable task in commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) based software development (CBSD) that should be done circumspectly. The success of such a development depends on the evaluation & selection methodology being followed which is expected to separate the wheat from the chaff. Thorough approach for evaluation and selection of COTS products (TAES-COTS) proposed in this paper is an approach that evaluates COTS products based on progressive filtration. It is a five step approach that evaluates products against different criteria at three different stages. It evaluates COTS software based on both functional and non-functional requirements and assists the evaluators in choosing the optimal software product in times of uncertainty.