Abstract

This paper reports 10 lessons learned from the selection of a complex commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software system. Particular focus is put on the typical problems which arose during acquisition of requirements to enable this selection. We encourage readers to explore the useful methods and techniques, referenced throughout the paper, which can avoid these problems. The customer was the Procurement Executive (PE) of the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD). The PE wanted new methods and software tools with which to manage requirements of a new naval platform which would take 20 years to develop. A consortium of 4 members (including the 3 authors) was asked to acquire requirements about and recommend commercial requirements engineering methods and software tools (known as products) for trial by the PE. The consortium was chosen because of its knowledge and experience of MoD procedures and state-of-the-art requirements engineering methods and software tools