OTSO: A Method for Selecting COTS

Goals:

This project develops techniques and support for helping in the search and selection of reusable components in software development. The objective is to define an evaluation process and evaluation criteria that can be reused repeatedly in an organization involved in reuse. The project is carried out with Hughes Information Technology Corporation and NASA.

Status:

An initial version of the OTSO method has been developed and it has been evaluated in two case studies. It will be subjected to further validation as soon as suitable case studies can be arranged.

Validation Strategy:

The OTSO method has been tested in two real-world case studies. The first case study demonstrated the overall feasibility of the approach and provided feedback in refining the cost estimation aspects of the method. The second case study focused on establishing the feasibility of the formal evaluation criteria definition and studied the impact of two different evaluation data consolidation techniques.

The main conclusion of our case studies are the following:

• use of a well-defined process allows evaluation and selection process quickly and efficiently
• the overhead of formal criteria definition are marginal and benefits seem to outweigh the marginal costs
• the real issue in selecting reusable components is balancing the value versus costs of each alternative, the OTSO method supports both
• the use of different data consolidation methods may influence the results, suitable data consolidation techniques should be selected and used with care

New case studies will be carried out during 1995.

Results:

The main characteristics of the method are

• a well-defined, documented process for reusable component selection
• hierarchical evaluation criteria decomposition
• incremental, formal and detailed definition of evaluation criteria
• a model for making alternatives comparable in terms of cost and added value they produce
• use of appropriate techniques for consolidating evaluation data.

People:

Jyrki Kontio

Gianluigi Caldiera

List of Publications concerning the project:

The following reports have written by the project (if you have problems in printing the files, please, contact jkontio@cs.umd.edu):

• J. Kontio, Caldiera, G. and V. R. Basili: Defining Factors, Goals and Criteria for Reusable Component Evaluation. A paper to be presented at the CASCON '96 conference, Toronto, Canada, November 12-14, 1996.

This report describes how the reuse goals can be formulated and evaluation criteria derived from these goals. Availability: CASCON '96 proceedings, by request from jkontio@cs.umd.edu or download the paper: in postscript format (513 Kb) or PDF format(107 Kb).

• J. Kontio: A Case Study in Applying a Systematic Method for COTS Selection. A paper presented at ICSE-18 in Berlin, March 22-30, 1996.

This report describes the browser selection case study in detail. Availability: ICSE-18 proceedings, by request from jkontio@cs.umd.edu or download the paper (a postscript file, 541 Kb) or download the annotated slide set (WinZipped postscript file, 165 Kb).

• J. Kontio, S. Chen, K. Limperos, R. Tesoriero, G. Caldiera, and M. S. Deutsch: A COTS Selection Method and Experiences of Its Use, 1995. Proceedings of the 20th Annual Software Engineering Workshop. NASA. Greenbelt, Maryland.

Overview of the OTSO method: This paper presents the OTSO method for evaluating and selecting off-the-self software components to be reused in software development. The OTSO method has been tried out in two case studies and initial results of these studies are reported. Availability: by request from jkontio@cs.umd.edu or download the paper (a postscript file, 684 Kb) or download the annotated slide set (WinZipped postscript file, 176 Kb).

• J. Kontio: OTSO: A Systematic Process for Reusable Software Component Selection. University of Maryland Technical Reports. College Park, MD:University of Maryland. CS-TR-3478, UMIACS-TR-95-63, 1995.

Detailed description of the OTSO method: the motivation and background, the OTSO process, templates methods are described in detail. Availability: from jkontio@cs.umd.edu by request or download a postscript file (1.3 Mb).

• J. Kontio and S. Chen, Hypertext Document Viewing Tool Trade Study: Summary of Evaluation Results. ECS project Technical Paper. Hughes Corporation, ECS project. 1995.

This report describes the evaluation results of the evaluation and selection of the hypertext browser tool for document viewing tool specified for the ECS V1 System. The evaluation data was analyzed using two different methods, leading to slightly different results. However, the best browser in both methods was the same: Netscape. Availability: Available through EDHS Web site.

• J. Kontio, S. Chen, Limperos, K., and Hung, J.: Hypertext Document Viewing Tool Trade Study: Evaluation Criteria Definitions. Internal project documentation. University of Maryland, 1995.

This report describes the evaluation criteria used in the evaluation and selection of the hypertext browser tool for document viewing tool specified for the ECS V1 System. Availability: determined on case by case basis.

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Last updated on Aug 23, 1996 by jkontio@cs.umd.edu

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