Assessing COTS software in a certifiable safety‐critical domain

Abstract.  Commercial off‐the‐shelf (COTS) software solutions have become commonplace in many domains, including the military, because they can provide standardized functionality with more responsiveness, a shorter time‐to‐market and at lower costs than custom‐made solutions. In one domain, however, that of certifiable safety‐critical applications, COTS software has not been adopted. One particular type of certifiable safety‐critical domain, the civil air transport industry, is under pressure to reduce cost and time‐to‐market while simultaneously increasing safety. Therefore, the use of COTS software, rather than exclusive reliance on custom‐made software, would appear to be a solution worthy of investigation. This study examines the certifiability of COTS software, its technical feasibility in this environment, and the ability to achieve the expected responsiveness, time‐to‐market and cost benefits. A detailed evaluation of COTS software and domain‐specific certification requirements is used to demonstrate that the certification of COTS‐based systems is possible. A prototype COTS‐based system (built upon a number of COTS components) is created to illustrate the technical feasibility of such a system in the civil air transport domain. Expected benefits from COTS solutions are evaluated both by examining process artefacts from the development of the COTS‐based system and by comparing this development process with the domain's traditional custom‐development process.