Software Engineering Institute

This monograph describes a program that is currently building a large system for the DoD. This system makes extensive use of pre-existing components: re-engineered legacy systems, components that are government-furnished equipment (GFE), and both government- and commercial-off-the shelf (GOTS and COTS) software. Thus, although the system is not precisely a "COTS-based system," the issues faced in building this system are parallel enough to those in COTS-based systems to make it a useful case study.

The expected audience for this monograph is a general audience, and the major issues tend to be more programmatic and managerial rather than purely technical. The goal of the monograph is to focus on the complexities (which do include both technical and programmatic issues) that can hinder or dilute the expected benefits of using commercial components in complex government systems.