CBS Overview - 2
Strategy
To address the many questions and issues regarding the application of a CBS strategy, the SEI CBS Initiative is focusing on three key areas:
- Product and Technology Evaluation Practices
- Acquisition and Management Practices
- Design and Software Engineering Practices
The CBS Initiative approach to product and technology evaluation considers both immediate requirements and long range needs in order to identify qualified components. Candidate products and technologies are studied in the context of related products. Hands-on experiments are designed within the relevant problem domain in order to answer critical questions and to assist in developing guidelines for the use of COTS products and technologies. For example, experiments have addressed issues such as the use of object request broker and Web technologies, and security characteristics of COTS approaches. A course focused on product evaluation is offered to help with these issues.
The technical report A Process for COTS Software Product Evaluation is also available. Much of what we have learned about building systems with COTS products is incorporated in EPIC, the Evolutionary Process for Integrating COTS-Based Systems.
Acquisition and management practices are addressed by soliciting information about best practices directly from organizations successfully employing CBS strategies in government and industry. Emphasis is placed on those practices that support the generation of appropriate CBS requirements, help identify risks, and assist with the development of CBS processes and procedures.
COTS Usage Risk Evaluation (CURE) is available to assist organizations in avoiding common mistakes in CBS acquisition.
A brief and humorous presentation of issues related to CBS acquisition and management can be found in The Little Red Book. An in-depth look at the many challenges surrounding acquisition of open, COTS-based systems. is provided in the book Managing Software Acquisition Open Systems and COTS Products.
Our work in CBS design and software engineering practices emphasizes the evaluation of alternate architectures and design strategies, the adaptation of components for system use, the assembly of qualified components into systems, and the modification of legacy systems to benefit from CBS approaches. Information concerning design and software engineering practices is gathered both by soliciting information from the CBS community, and through direct experimentation with various technologies and engineering practices. this information has been made available to the software engineering community.
For example, monographs are available that address DoD Security Needs and COTS-Based Systems, and Isolating Faults in Complex COTS-Based Systems. Practical, in-depth guidance on how to build component-based systems in a real working environment is provided in Building Systems from Commercial Components.
The SEI CBS initiative has also assisted selected customer organizations to apply CBS practices to their specific problems. We have engaged customers by identifying risks with current practices, training customer personnel in CBS practices, and performing hands-on experimentation to address critical system and technology problems. Our goal has been to enable our customers to independently execute successful CBS practices. In order to assist customers in reaching this goal, we have developed tailored recommendations.
The SEI CBS Initiative has worked with selected DOD and non-DOD government programs and with commercial organizations to apply CBS practices to their systems. If you are interested in assistance in these areas, please contact us at cbs@sei.cmu.edu.
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