Determining the Suitability of COTS for Mission Critical Applications

Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) products are being considered for inclusion in ever more complex and critical systems. There are known advantages and risks 1, 4, 5 for considering the use of COTS in complex systems. Yet, given the rigorous needs of Mission Critical systems or subsystems, there have begun to emerge concerns and risks about the suitability of COTS for such applications. This paper identifies some of the characteristics of Mission Critical systems (e.g. reliability, availability, correct functionality) that makes the selection process of COTS products (hardware, software, subsystems, etc) an increasingly important factor in total system lifecycle phases (design, development, acceptance, operations/maintenance and disposal). This paper presents a set of risk areas related to the use of COTS, in general, and specifically for Mission Critical systems, that would assist both the acquisition community as well as the development/integration community in determining the suitability of using COTS in such Mission Critical systems. Then, a set of risk mitigation approaches is identified; some of which have been applied to certain National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) programs. Lastly, a set of steps that could lead to the establishment of a set of procedures, and perhaps even an enterprise policy on if and/or when COTS products are suitable for certain Mission Critical applications. The original document contains color images. Presented at the Info. Systems Technology Panel, Brussels, Belgium, 3-5 Apr 20O0, p18-1/18-4. This article is from ADA389447 Commercial Off-the-Shelf Products in Defence Applications The Ruthless Pursuit of COTS (l'Utilisation des produits vendus sur etageres dans les applications militaires de defense l'Exploitation sans merci des produits commerciaux)