A hybrid approach for selecting optimal COTS products

Abstract

This paper develops a hybrid approach for selecting the optimal Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) software product among alternatives for each module in the development of modular software systems. We draw on multiple methodologies such as quality models (ISO/IEC 9126), analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and fuzzy mathematical programming (FMP) for developing fuzzy multiobjective optimization models for selecting the optimal COTS software products. The objective functions of the models are to maximize the weighted quality and minimize the cost subject to the limitation of the incompatibility among COTS products. The software system consists of several programs, where a specific function of each program can call upon a series of modules. Each module in a software system has different levels of importance that depends on access frequency. For this reason, this study assign different weights to the modules according to their access frequencies using AHP. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.