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Make Sure You Select the Right Packaged-Software Solution
COTS and SaaS solutions are alternatives to custom systems. Use these requirements approaches to choose the right one for your purposes.
The demo looked great. The slick brochure promises every imaginable feature, and the sales rep assures you that his package will do just what your users want. But that’s what all the other vendors’ sales reps said, too.
Which package should you select? How can you be sure the one you choose will really meet your users’ requirements? What if it only meets some of their needs? Even if you’re adopting a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) packaged-software solution for a new project, you still need to capture requirements in some form.
COTS packages typically need to be configured, integrated, and extended to work in the target environment. Some COTS products can be deployed out of the box with no additional work needed to make them usable. Most, though, require some customization. This could take the form of configuring the default product, creating integrations to other systems, and/or developing extensions to provide additional functionality that isn’t included in the package (Figure 1). These same activities may be needed when adopting a cloud-based Software as a Service…
