A lifecycle‐based method for the acquisition of commercial‐off‐the‐shelf (COTS) technology to support organizational processes

Abstract

Organizations are seeking commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) information technology (IT) solutions to enable the innovation of business processes. The ability to acquire IT should impact how an organization designs its processes. Likewise, the design of processes should influence which IT solutions are selected. Selecting IT solutions that support the business processes of an organization is critical for aligning IT with organizational goals. A formal decision process is needed to enable organizations to make an effective decision about which COTS IT solutions it acquires and shapes its organization around. The Stakeholder Life Cycle Method for COTS Solutions (SLIC) was developed to support the lifecycle-based acquisition of COTS information technology (IT) solutions. A critical step in the lifecycle is the selection of COTS technology that will be used to enable the redesign of organizational processes. The SLIC method uses the IT requirements defined by a process model of the organization to create the criteria for the evaluation of potential IT solutions. The SLIC method was validated with a case study for a group of three newspaper publishing organizations located in southeastern Massachusetts. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Syst Eng 4: 287–304, 2001