"Managing the Use of COTS Software Products in Mission Critical Systems"

Abstract

This presentation will summarize the content of the AIAA Guidebook, “Managing the Use of COTS Software Products in Mission Critical Systems”, that relate to benefits, risks and risk mitigation activities related to the use of COTS software in Mission Critical Systems. We will describe benefits of using COTS such as: reduced cost and schedule impacts due to not having to develop custom s/w, large user bases , maintenance costs born by vendor, etc. We will also describe a comprehensive list of risk areas associated with the use of COTS s/w products, such as: product volatility, vendor stability, product support, excessive product features, need for glue/wrapp ers, etc. Lastly, we will describe a robust list of risk mitigation activities that will help the systems/software developers to deal with the risks identified previously. Why Develop the COTS Software Guidebook? The aim of the guidebook is to make the selection process of COTS software products an emerging success factor in total system acceptance. The guide book achieves this by assist ing development and maintenance projects (teams and individuals) that have to address the use of, or consideration of, COTS software products within large, complex systems, including but not limited to mission critical systems. This assistance is provided by capturing a set of information about COTS products (benefits, risks, recommended practices, lifecycle activity impac ts) and mission critical systems (variety of MCS, special needs for MCS, differences between MCS and other types of systems) and then providing some linkage between these topics so that various types of stakeholders can find useful information. The documen t should be of value to both management and technical individuals/teams and can serve as a source for various levels of expertise with COTS software (novice and formal integrators) . For the purposes of clarity , the follow ing terms and definitions apply throughout the guidebook . Commercial off -the -shelf (COTS) is a product that is commercially available product in multiple identical copies and is u sed without modification of internals . Additionally, these products are supported and evolved by a vendor . Mission Critical System (MCS) is any system (or subsystem or component) that is essential to an enterprise’s or organization’s or a project’s overall success . These systems, subsystems or components could be hardware, software, procedures or people. This g uidebook will focus on the software components and products within such MCS. Since the use of COTS software components affects to some degree many, if not all, of the activities performed during the life cycle processes associated with a system, considera ble attention is provided for COTS software -specific risk mitigation practices , describing how they differ substantially from custom -built software activities , and prescribing where and when they should be applied in the IEEE/EIA 12207 s oftware development process lifecycle. IEEE/EIA 12207 is used to provide a comprehensive framework which a reader can easily map to their own