Abstract
Using OTS (Off-The-Shelf) components in software projects has become increasing popular in the IT industry. After project managers opt for OTS components, they can decide to use COTS (Commercial-Off-The-Shelf) components or OSS (Open Source Software) components instead of building these themselves. This paper describes an empirical study on why project decision-makers use COTS components instead of OSS components, or vice versa. The study was performed in form of an international survey on motivation and risks of using OTS components, conducted in Norway, Italy and Germany. We have currently gathered data on 71 projects using only COTS components and 39 projects using only OSS components, and 5 using both COTS and OSS components. Results show that both COTS and OSS components were used in small, medium and large software houses and IT consulting companies. The overall software system also covers several application domains.Both COTS and OSS were expected to contribute to shorter time-to-market, less development effort and the application of newest technology. However, COTS users believe that COTS component should have good quality, technical support, and will follow the market trend. OSS users care more about the free ownership and openness of the source code. Projects using COTS components had more difficulties in estimating selection effort, following customer requirement changes, and controlling the component’s negative effect on system security. On the other hand, OSS user had more difficulties in getting the support reputation of OSS component providers.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Voas, J.: COTS Software – the Economical Choice? IEEE Software 15(2), 16–19 (1998)
Voas, J.: The challenges of Using COTS Software in Component-Based Development. IEEE Computer 31(6), 44–45 (1998)
Fitzgerald, B.: A Critical Look at Open Source. IEEE Computer 37(7), 92–94 (2004)
Ruffin, M., Ebert, C.: Using Open Source Software in Product Development: A Primer. IEEE Software 21(1), 82–86 (2004)
Brownsword, L., Oberndorf, T., Sledge, C.: Developing New Processes for COTS-Based Systems. IEEE Software 17(4), 48–55 (2000)
Lawlis, P.K., Mark, K.E., Thomas, D.A., Courtheyn, T.: A Formal Process for Evaluating COTS Software Products. IEEE Computer 34(5), 58–63 (2001)
SSB (Norwegian Census Bureau) (2004), http://www.ssb.no
SESE web tool (2004), http://sese.simula.no
Li, J., Bjørnson, F.O., Conradi, R., Kampenes, V.B.: An Empirical Study of Variations in COTS-based Software Development Processes in Norwegian IT Industry. In: Proc. of the 10th IEEE International Metrics Symposium, Chicago, USA, pp. 72–83. IEEE CS Press, Los Alamitos (2004)
Paulson, J.W., Succi, G., Eberlein, A.: An empirical study of open-source and closed-source software products. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering 30(4), 246–256 (2004)
Norris, J.S.: Missioin-Critical Development with Open Source Software. IEEE Software 21(1), 42–49 (2004)
Fitzgerald, B., Kenny, T.: Developing an Information Systems Infrastructure with Open Source Software. IEEE Software 21(1), 50–55 (2004)
Rose, L.C.: Risk Management of COTS based System development. In: Cechich, A., Piattini, M., Vallecillo, A. (eds.) Component-Based Software Quality. LNCS, vol. 2693, pp. 352–373. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)
Boehm, B.W., Port, D., Yang, Y., Bhuta, J.: Not All CBS Are Created Equally COTS-intensive Project Types. In: Erdogmus, H., Weng, T. (eds.) ICCBSS 2003. LNCS, vol. 2580, pp. 36–50. Springer, Heidelberg (2003)
Open Source Initiative (2004), http://www.opensource.org/index.php
Vitharana, P.: Risks and Challenges of Component-Based Software Development. Communications of the ACM 46(8), 67–72 (2003)
INCO project description (2000), http://www.ifi.uio.no/~isu/INCO
Stevens, S.S.: Mathematics, Measurement, and Psychophysics. In: Stevens, S.S. (ed.) Handbook of Experimental Psychology. Wiley, New York (1951)
Stevens, S.S.: On the Theory of Scales of Measurement. Science 103, 677–680 (1946)
Spector, P.: Ratings of Equal and Unequal Response Choice Intervals. Journal of Social Psychology 112, 115–119 (1980)
Velleman, P.F., Wilkinson, L.: Nominal, Ordinal, Interval, and Ratio Typologies Are Misleading. Journal of the American Statistician 47(1), 65–72 (1993)
Hand, D.J.: Statistics and Theory of Measurement. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A (Statistics in Society) 159(3), 445–492 (1996)
Holck, J., Larsen, M.H., Pedersen, M.K.: Managerial and Technical Barriers to the Adoption of Open Source Software. In: Franch, X., Port, D. (eds.) ICCBSS 2005. LNCS, vol. 3412, pp. 289–300. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)
Giacomo, P.D.: COTS and Open Source Software Components: Are They Really Different on the Battlefield? In: Franch, X., Port, D. (eds.) ICCBSS 2005. LNCS, vol. 3412, pp. 301–310. Springer, Heidelberg (2005)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2005 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Li, J. et al. (2005). An Empirical Study on Off-the-Shelf Component Usage in Industrial Projects. In: Bomarius, F., Komi-Sirviö, S. (eds) Product Focused Software Process Improvement. PROFES 2005. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 3547. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11497455_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/11497455_7
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-540-26200-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-540-31640-4
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)