A procurement-centric model for engineering component-based software systems

Abstract

The recent surge of interest within the software industry in building more complex, reliable, and maintainable, yet cost-effective software solutions through the integration of commercially available software products, has resulted in a significant shift away from the development-centric toward a more procurement-centric approach to large-scale system construction. This approach, known as component-based software engineering (CBSE), focuses on the identification, selection, evaluation, procurement, integration, and evolution of reusable software components to provide complex integrated solutions at minimum development cost. These components are often commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products. Compared to traditional development-centric software engineering approaches, CBSE promises a more efficient and effective approach to the delivery of software solutions to the market. However, underestimating the technical risks associated with the selection, evaluation, and integration of software components has often resulted in schedule delay and increased development/maintenance cost in integrated system development projects. The paper introduces a procurement-centric model for component-based integrated system implementations. The model, called COTS-based Integrated Systems Development (CISD), describes a systematic approach to the selection, evaluation and integration of reusable software components. Specifically, the model identifies key engineering phases and their sub-phases that are often ignored, or only implicit, in current development-centric models. Finally, the paper describes an integration of development-centric and procurement-centric models used to support the development of integrated software systems at the Mitsubishi Consumer Electronics Engineering Center (CEEC).