REPOSITORIES FOR COTS

SELECTION

Asheesh Ranjan 2K11/SE/012

Gaurav Sharma 2K11/SE/028

Pranav Jetley 2K11/SE/049

Varun Kalra 2K11/SE/082

● In the context of COTS selection, knowledge

management refers to the process of storing and

retrieving data and information generated by the

various activities of the COTS selection process.

● The issue of putting in place techniques and

procedures for setting up and maintaining COTS

repositories, has not attracted attention

Introduction

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● Initial suggestions for COTS repos included web

components repository which consisted of:

o The components store

o The metadata store

o The search/browsing tool

● CeBASE lessons-learned repository for CBSD is

another web-based repo, and it has lessons-learned

that were extracted from various sources (Journals,

reports etc.)

Some COTS Repo

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● Existing COTS selection repositories were specialized

in nature and they can not act as a single stop point

for CBSD.

● Standardised set of repositories that are necessary

for the effective execution of the COTS selection

process. The repositories can be integrated into a

CSDSS.

Problem and Solution

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● COTS selection repositories

● Design of the COTS selection repositories

● Implementation of the COTS selection

repositories

● COTS Selection Decision Support System

(CSDSS)

Outline

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COTS Selection

Repositories

• The COTS repository stores the information about the

screened COTS alternatives, as well as the requirements

of the system being developed.

• For CSDSS, the repository is designed as a searchable

database that can accommodate multiple projects.

COTS Selection Repositories

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COTS Selection Repositories

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Module A: This module stores general

models used to collect and organize the

information in Module B and Module

C.

COTS Selection Repositories

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• Module B: This module contains all relevant

information about each alternative COTS

product.

• This information is stored according to the

models provided by Module A.

• The main source of information for Module B

is the vendors of COTS products.

COTS Selection Repositories

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• Module C: This module contains the association information of

alternative COTS products.

• Part of this information is the software architecture features of

the COTS products, which include the following types of COTS

attributes:

1. Ports:-Interface of component to the outside world

2. Resources:-Entities that are exchanged by the ports

3. Connections:-Measure of the degree of connectivity between two

COTS products

The main sources of information for Module C are the

designers and the domain experts.

COTS Selection Repositories

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• Module D: Information in Module B and Module

C is integrated by the designers and experts to

generate the characteristics of various system

configurations.

• The characteristics of the configurations are

stored in Module D.

COTS Selection Repositories

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• MODULE E: The evaluation criteria, and the

performance descriptions and rankings of the COTS

products and/or designs in every criterion, are stored

in Module E.

• The CSDSS we developed use semantic net as the

knowledge representation language of this module.

COTS Selection Repositories

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Design of COTS Selection

Repositories

Each user needs to be allocated a repository where

he/she stores his/her user preference models and the

associated preference value functions.

At the end of the project, the final user preference model

and the final preference value function is transferred to

historical information repository, where it is stored

according to the domain of the project (e.g. accounting

software) and the role of the user (stakeholder, e.g.

customer).

User Repository

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• The discussions repository allows the stakeholders to store

and retrieve their discussions.

• The user can search the repository according to date of

posting, topic, role, and/or name of the person who posted

the discussion.

• Besides enabling swapping of thoughts among stakeholders,

the repository assists in the post mortem analysis of the

COTS selection process.

Discussion Repository

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The lessons-learned repository associated with the COTS

selection framework we developed has three types of

components:

1. Local component which is allocated to each COTS selection

stakeholder,

2. Social component which stores the lessons-learned from a

particular project, and the

3. Grand component that stores the lessons-learned from COTS

selection processes associated with various projects.

Lessons-Learned Repository

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Lessons-Learned Repository

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Information generated during COTS selection is transferred

to the repository of historical information for future use.

This repository has two main components:

1. Grand lessons learned component

2. Historical COTS and user information component which contains:

User preference models and values functions

COTS information in Module E of the COTS repository

Project description information such as project domain, cost, and

schedule

Repository of Historical

Information

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• The database is designed to store knowledge about COTS

products as well as the user information

• It can be extended to accommodate the information

associated with all the repositories

The database design encompasses four main areas:

1. COTS information storage and evaluation

2. System authentication and data persistence

3. Data extraction

4. Negotiation algorithm support

Design of the COTS Selection

Repositories

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Implementation of COTS

Selection Repositories

• The database can be implemented using the Oracle

database system for data storage and extraction and

the appropriate Java Database Connectivity (JDBC)

libraries for collecting and presenting the data to the

system.

• Data extraction from the database is regulated through

the use of standard naming schemes and access of the

data dictionary to provide generic and complete entry

points for the JDBC function calls

Database Implementation

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• An API can be implemented using a variety of Java classes as

data containers as well as various static function calls.

• Basic user permissions can be integrated into the API which

ensured that only users authorized to use various API

functions could use those functions.

• In this way another layer of security was added in that the

database would only be accessible by the appropriate users,

allowing greater integration.

Database Implementation

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COTS Selection Decision

Support System

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● CSDSS is based on multi-agent technology

● Agents have to manage COTS selection

database

● Repositories provide persistence of

stakeholder configuration, preferences and

negotiation

● Database has a component for tracking the

COTS selection process.

CSDSS

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CSDSS based on agent technology

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Summary

● Selecting COTS products is a challenging

process that utilizes and generates a lot of

information.

● Five different repositories for the COTS

selection process : o COTS repository

o user repository

o discussions repository

o lessons-learned repository

o historical information repository

Summary

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● Supports distributed contribution and

access to the repositories.

● Database that was implemented as part

of a Decision Support System (DSS) for

the selection of COTS products.

Summary

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References

● Repositories for COTS Selection, Tom

Wanyama and Behrouz Homayoun