The growing use of commercial software products in large systems makes evaluation and selection of appropriate products an increasingly essential activity. However, many organizations struggle in their attempts to select appropriate software products for use in systems. As part of a cooperative effort, the Software Engineering Institute and National Research Council Canada have defined a tailorable commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software product evaluation process that can support organizations in making carefully reasoned and sound product decisions. The background fundamentals for that evaluation process, as well as steps and techniques to follow, are described in this report.

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