Review COTS Products

In the event that COTS products are desired, care in evaluating and selecting these products and the vendor may be critical to the project.

• Develop criteria for evaluating COTS products.
• Evaluate candidate COTS products against the associated requirements and criteria. These requirements address:
  • Functionality, performance, quality, and reliability
  • Terms and conditions of warranties for the products
  • Risk
  • Suppliers' responsibilities for ongoing maintenance and support of the products
• Evaluate the impact of candidate COTS products on the project's plans and commitments. Evaluate according to:
  • Cost of the COTS products
  • Cost and effort to incorporate the COTS products into the project
  • Security requirements
  • Benefits and impacts that may result from future product releases
  Future product releases may provide additional features that support planned or anticipated enhancements for the project, but may also result in the supplier withdrawing support of the version for the product that is acquired by the project.
• Assess the suppliers' performance and ability to deliver.
• Identify risks associated with the selected COTS product and the supplier agreement.
• Select the COTS product to be acquired. In some cases, selection of COTS products may require a supplier agreement in addition to the agreements in the product’s license. Examples of agreements with COTS suppliers include:
  • Discounts for large quantity purchases
  • Coverage of relevant stakeholders under the licensing agreement, including project suppliers, team members, and the project’s customer
  • Plans for future enhancements
  • On-site support, such as responses to queries and problem reports
  • Additional capabilities that are not in the product
  • Maintenance support, including support after the product is withdrawn from general availability
• Plan for the maintenance of the COTS product