Program Management

Lesson P1: Naïveté is rampant and dangerous at all levels.

Stakeholders in a COTS-based system come from all levels in your organization and in other organizations with which you are associated. Not everyone has the benefit of clear knowledge about COTS-based systems, but they have the power to affect your outcomes.

Lesson P2: Time-driven programs present different issues than requirements-driven ones.

Programs have long had difficulty in respecting the idea that some things take time, and the expectations for the speed with which COTS-based systems can be fielded often exacerbates this trend. Different issues arise if you're in a hurry and have minimal time to get all the requirements fulfilled.

Lesson P3: There are real benefits to the use of COTS products.

Many people assume that COTS products are a remedy for all problems; they are not. But it is also incorrect to assume that they have no value for your system. You may have to look for the benefits in places you would not expect.

Lesson P4: Management of expectations is critical.

Management of stakeholder expectations can be a full time job. Unrealistic expectations must be recognized and tempered through education and dialogue - perhaps with the aid of this Web site.

Lesson P5: Technology capabilities can confuse program boundaries.

Programs and technologies usually start out with some clear boundaries. But when technologies are not well-confined to some accepted set of limits, the capability of a technology can start to blur visions of how far the system should go in attending to a perceived need.

Lesson P6: The evolutionary nature of COTS products has a profound impact on program cost, schedule, and risks.

You have no power over the volatility of the marketplace. Even if you decide to avoid it by freezing on a particular version of a product and never changing, you create a whole new set of risks. You must plan for this volatility, because you can't control it.

Lesson P7: In acquiring a COTS-based system, different techniques for estimating cost, schedule, and resources and assessing progress are needed.

Not enough is known about how to reliably estimate the cost, schedule, and resources required to produce a COTS-based system. You must be careful to apply the techniques you do know in light of your understanding of what it means to produce a COTS-based system.

LessonP8: DoD regulations are not helpful when acquiring a COTS product.

Although there has been a lot of progress in acquisition practices, not everything has caught up yet with the realities of COTS-based systems engineering.

Lesson P9: Managing in a COTS development environment is a new challenge.

Managers who are responsible for a COTS-based system must educate themselves on the implications and impacts that this approach will have on everything they are accustomed to doing.

Lesson P10: Effective teaming becomes even more important.

One of the greatest skills you can develop is the art of negotiation and teaming. There are fewer paths of recourse if something goes wrong on a COTS-based system, so you need everyone pulling in the same direction from the outset.