Software Engineering Institute

The content of this paper was generated from the work of the SEI COTS-Based Systems (CBS) initiative. The focus was to learn, mature, and transition principles, methods, and techniques for creating systems from commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products. The CBS approach changes the focus of software engineering from one of traditional system specification and construction to one requiring simultaneous consideration of the system context (system characteristics such as requirements, cost, schedule, operating and support environments), capabilities of products in the marketplace, and viable architectures and designs.