Social-Technical COTS Development: The STACE Contribution

Abstract

COTS-Based Systems (CBS) development is the process of integrating existing software components to create larger software systems. The success of these systems depends on an appropriate evaluation and selection of the software components to match requirements. Previous research has shown that successful selection of 'off-the-shelf systems to fit customer requirements remains problematic, mainly because of a lack of appreciation of the non-technical issues in the evaluation. This paper presents the outcome of a series of studies aimed at using a social-technical approach to identify and classify processes (including traditional and soft factors) that support COTS software selection. The development of the STACE (Social-Technical Approach to COTS Evaluation) framework is explored to show how the iterative processes relate and influence each other. From this approach, minimizing the risks and address problems in the selection of COTS software is possible.