Requirements engineering methodologies for COTS systems

Commercial off-the-shelf software components are becoming more and more important in the information technology infrastructure of organizations. Many organizations still rely upon a software development lifecycle that is better suited for from scratch development. The requirements methodologies that can be used in an off-the-shelf environment are still in development and need to be refined. This paper examines where the current methodologies stand in regards to a commercial off-the-shelf environmentpsilas sound requirements engineering methodology. It also calls for research in specific areas of requirements engineering and the development of a ldquocookbookrdquo that would give industry practitioners a step-by step guide to properly gather and use requirements.