The Commercial off the Shelf
Based Engineering Process
The purpose of the Commercial off the Shelf
(COTS) Based Engineering Process is to ensure that non-developmental products
are considered as a primary solution to addressing customer needs rather than
focusing on customized solutions. While the primary non-developmental product
addressed in this process is COTS, it also includes Government off the Shelf
(GOTS) and previously developed in-house products. This process identifies a
set of risk reducing steps for evaluating and selection non-development items
that can be mapped to any program lifecycle model. The process is intended to
be iterative across the lifecycle of a program to support product and
technology changes. The COTS-Based Engineering Process helps produce the
architecture for the intended system showing which products are to be purchased
and which are to be developed in house.