The productivity paradox of information technology
Communications of the ACM
Acquiring COTS Software Selection Requirements
IEEE Software
A Critical Success Factors Model For ERP Implementation
IEEE Software
METRICS '01 Proceedings of the 7th International Symposium on Software Metrics
COTS Tenders and Integration Requirements
RE '04 Proceedings of the Requirements Engineering Conference, 12th IEEE International
Value-Based Processes for COTS-Based Applications
IEEE Software
Information and Management
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The literature on software selection focuses mainly on identifying and ensuring the evaluation of those attributes of alternative commercial software products relevant to meeting the functional and non-functional requirements of the acquiring organisation. Once these attributes are determined, however, the firm acquiring the product must still decide on its selection strategy: which products should be evaluated, in what order, and at what point is it no longer beneficial to continue to evaluate additional products. We applied search theory to solve this problem of determining the selection strategy. This resulted in an optimal strategy but changes the way we view and manage software acquisition. In particular, the approach suggested that software acquisition may be better managed as an ongoing process instead of as a project with a distinct start and end. The approach formally incorporated the strategic importance of the application to the firm in determining the optimal strategy, a consideration that does not appear in the normal requirements-based approach to software selection.