Adapting COTS products.

Wile, David S.; Balzer, Robert; Goldman, Neil M.; Tallis, Marcelo; Egyed, Alexander; Hollebeek, Tim

doi:10.1109/ICSM.2010.5609658

Adapting COTS products.

by David S. Wile, Robert Balzer, Neil M. Goldman, Marcelo Tallis, Alexander Egyed, Tim Hollebeek

Abstract:

COTS products can play various architectural roles in software systems: as interfaces to problem-specific functionality, as components that provide such functionality itself, and as intermediary connectors and components in more complex systems. In doing so, COTS products impose their own, unique constraints on organization and functionality. Over the last ten years, we have gained considerable experience with adopting, adapting, and living with the limitations of COTS products. Our goal was to adapt the COTS product to make it fit the application rather than adapting the application needs to make them fit the COTS product â€“ thus, in essence, adapting the COTS product without access to its source code or documentation (a unique form of maintenance). We report on a large set of experiences involving eight COTS products and a wide range of COTS-Based Software Systems â€“ most of which were done with and for industrial partners or government agencies. This experience report attempts to both give a feeling for how applications can be augmented with such COTS interfaces and also tries to tease out the specific architectural issues that anyone adapting COTS products is certain to face.

Reference:

David S. Wile, Robert Balzer, Neil M. Goldman, Marcelo Tallis, Alexander Egyed, Tim Hollebeek, "Adapting COTS products.", pp. 1-9, 2010.

Bibtex Entry:

@Conference{DBLP:conf/icsm/WileBGTEH10,
  Title                    = {Adapting COTS products.},
  Author                   = {David S. Wile and Robert Balzer and Neil M. Goldman and Marcelo Tallis and Alexander Egyed and Tim Hollebeek},
  Booktitle                = {26th IEEE International Conference on Software Maintenance (ICSM), Timisoara, Romania},
  Year                     = {2010},
  Pages                    = {1-9},

  Abstract                 = {COTS products can play various architectural roles in software systems: as interfaces to problem-specific functionality, as components that provide such functionality itself, and as intermediary connectors and components in more complex systems. In doing so, COTS products impose their own, unique constraints on organization and functionality. Over the last ten years, we have gained considerable experience with adopting, adapting, and living with the limitations of COTS products. Our goal was to adapt the COTS product to make it fit the application rather than adapting the application needs to make them fit the COTS product â€“ thus, in essence, adapting the COTS product without access to its source code or documentation (a unique form of maintenance). We report on a large set of experiences involving eight COTS products and a wide range of COTS-Based Software Systems â€“ most of which were done with and for industrial partners or government agencies. This experience report attempts to both give a feeling for how applications can be augmented with such COTS interfaces and also tries to tease out the specific architectural issues that anyone adapting COTS products is certain to face.},
  Doi                      = {10.1109/ICSM.2010.5609658},
  File                     = {Adapting COTS Applications - The Fine Line between Development and Maintenance:Conferences\\ICSM 2010 - Adapting COTS Products\\Adapting COTS Applications - The Fine Line between Development and Maintenance.pdf:PDF},
  Keywords                 = {cots}
}