Extending the ISO/IEC 9126-1 quality model with non-technical factors for COTS components selection

Abstract

The selection of Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) components is currently a central activity in the development of information systems. Criteria for selecting COTS components include both technical and non-technical issues. Whilst many catalogues of technical quality factors exist, it is not the case for non-technical ones. In this paper, we propose an extension of the ISO/IEC 9126-1 catalogue with non-technical factors. The extension is designed to be integrated smoothly in the departing catalogue, therefore we keep the hierarchy-oriented structure and we distinguish the three abstraction levels of the ISO/IEC standard. We provide some evidence of the adequacy of the catalogue by reporting on its use in some recent COTS selection experiences carried out in the context of the ETAPATELECOM company (Ecuador).

Open Source Collaboration for Fostering Off-The-Shelf Components Selection

“…We realize that though many efforts have been paid to deal with some of these challenges (e.g., the different web resources cited in Table 2, and methods and tools mentioned at the beginning of this section) there is no consensus of their utility. Therefore, there is a gap between such efforts and their realistic application [3], [6], [7], [18], [19], [20]. This drawback generates a barrier on adoption of OTS components in large industrial projects, since they make the selection process highly risky and expensive when applying complex evaluation criteria.…”

Domain Analysis for Supporting Commercial Off-the-Shelf Components Selection

“…Despite the fact that the evaluation of candidate COTS components from a technical point of view (functionality and quality of service) is necessary, experiences in COTS selection show that non-technical information (i.e., information that does not refer directly to the intrinsic quality of software, but to its context, including economic, political and managerial issues; e.g., adequacy of the procedures imposed by the COTS with respect to procedures of the organization) must be taken into account and, in fact sometimes it is even more important than the technical information [19]. As a result, we need to record this information as part of the domain model.…”

“…We have identified 3 highlevel factors and 15 second-level subfactors referring to supplier information (e.g., financial information), cost information (e.g., licensing schemes) and other nontechnical information about the product (e.g., history of versions). See [19] for more details.…”

“…Metrics are bound to attributes. The standard is highly customizable to different purposes and domains; e.g., in our previous work [19], we have created an extension for the particular case of quality of COTS components, and new subcharacteristics and attributes have been introduced.…”

“…For arranging non-technical factors proposed in [19] in an ISO-9126-1-form, we define the 3 high-level ones as characteristics and the other 15 as subcharacteristics.…”