Integrated decision approach for COTS selection

The proliferation of software technology and availability of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components for just-in-time software development has revolutionised how software systems are built. The focus of this new approach is on development of new systems, by selecting and assembling a set of COTS components. One of the critical problems in this approach is how to handle selection of COTS components from the available pool of alternatives in an effective manner. In this paper, an integrated decision approach for COTS selection is proposed. An illustrative example is also given to describe the utility and dimension of the proposed approach.component-based software systems; CBSS; commercial-off-the-shelf; COTS components; multicriteria decision making; MCDM; analytical hierarchy process; AHP; technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution; TOPSIS; just-in-time; JIT software development