COTS-Based Systems (CBS) Functional Density—A Heuristic for Better CBS Design -- Meeting the Challenges of Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) Products: The Information Technology Solutions Evolution Process (ITSEP) -- Lessons Learned Integrating COTS into Systems -- Risk Reduction in COTS Software Selection with BASIS -- European COTS User Working Group: Analysis of the Common Problems and Current Practices of the European COTS Users -- Combined Selection of COTS Components -- Identifying Evolvability for Integration -- Issues in Developing Security Wrapper Technology for COTS Software Products -- A Process for COTS Software Product Evaluation -- Five Hurdles to the Successful Adoption of Component-Based COTS in a Corporate Setting -- On Building Testable Software Components -- Streamlining the Acquisition Process for Large-Scale COTS Middleware Components -- Storyboard Process to Assist in Requirements Verification and Adaptation to Capabilities Inherent in COTS -- Realizing the Potential for COTS Utilization: A Work in Progress -- Rethinking Process Guidance for Selecting Software Components -- Definition and Classification of COTS: A Proposal -- The Limitations of Current Decision-Making Techniques in the Procurement of COTS Software Components -- COTS-Based System Engineering: The Linguistics Approach -- Merging Integration Solutions for Architecture and Security Mismatch -- The Integration of COTS/GOTS within NASA’s HST Command and Control System -- Replaceable Components and the Service Provider Interface -- The Standard Autonomous File Server, a Customized, Off-The-Shelf Success Story -- Implementing Large-Scale COTS Reengineering within the United States Department of Defense.

Modernsoftwaresystemsincreasinglyusecommercial-o?-the-shelf(COTS)so- ware products as building blocks. In some cases, major software systems are assembled with virtually no custom code in the system. The use of COTS software products as components o?ers the promise of rapid delivery to end users, shared development costs with other customers, and an opportunity for expanding mission or business capabilities and performance as improvements are made in the commercial marketplace. Few organizations today can a?ord the resources and time to replicate market-tested capabilities. Yet, the promise of COTS products is too often not realized in practice. There have been more failures than successes in using COTS software products. The research and software practitioner communities have been working with COTS-based software systems for a number of years. There is now su?cient documented experience in the community to collect, analyze, and disseminate success stories, common failings, lessons-learned, and research advances. The mounting experience shows that the e?ective use of COTS software products in major software systems demands new skills, knowledge, and abilities, changed roles and responsibilities, and di?erent techniques and processes. The International Conference on COTS-Based Software Systems (ICCBSS) focuses on the challenges of building and maintaining systems that incorporate COTSsoftwareproducts.Theconferencesponsors,theNationalResearchCo- cil Canada, the Software Engineering Institute, and the University of Southern California Center for Software Engineering, aim to bring together managers, - velopers, maintainers, and researchers to share their expertise and experience.