Establishing guidelines for suitability of COTS for a mission critical application

Abstract

Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) products are being considered for inclusion in ever more complex and critical systems. There are clearly advantages to consider the use of COTS, but given the rigorous needs of such critical systems or subsystems, there have begun to emerge concerns about the suitability of COTS for such applications. The paper identifies some of the characteristics of mission critical systems that makes the selection process of COTS products an emerging factor in total system acceptance. The paper also suggests an approach towards making this 'suitability' decision. Further refinements and enhancements to such a proposed approach would assist both the acquisition community as well as the development/integration community in this area. Mission critical system characteristics such as reliability, safety, availability, maintainability and certification tend to influence whether or not COTS should be considered for a given application. Once the suitability of COTS has been determined, it is possible that additional requirements may be placed on the product and/or the product's vendor for such mission critical applications. It is also possible that certain system requirements and expectations may need to be modified because of the inclusion of COTS products into that system. As COTS products continue to be considered as candidates for inclusion within mission critical systems, there are likely to be additional concerns and factors to emerge that will influence how both acquirers and suppliers decide if and/or when to use COTS products. Ongoing monitoring of this technology area seems to be warranted.