COTS

Basics

• An acronym for Commercial (or sometimes Commodity/Common) Off-The Shelf
• Essentially anything that is
  • Readily available, procurable
  • Standard solution to the need
• A simple example would be a store bought screw that adheres to a norm (ISO, EN, DIN)
• This specific term is also heavily used in the commercial law/government sectors during Procurement

Software-Context

• A non-developmental item (NDI)
• vs. custom software
• An example would be shrink-wrapped software like Microsoft Word
• Need to find the word for the s

Internal Links

• BOM
• Modular Programming / Modular Design

External Links

• The Wikipedia Page on COTS
• COTS-related research of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI)