• Visit the DTIC TEMS Initiative
    TEMS


RIAC rss feeds
Subscribe to the RIAC

RIAC Linkedin
Join us on Linkedin

RIAC Forum
Post on the RIAC forum

 

 

 
The RIAC offers extensive line of reliability, maintainability, quality, supportability, and interoperability.

Back Copyright Notice

SELECT - A Methodology for Acquiring Reliable COTS Equipment

A Defense Science Board (DSB) Task Force on Developmental Test and Evaluation (DT&E) was convened in the summer of 2007 to investigate the causal factors for the high percentage of programs entering Initial Operational Test and Evaluation (IOT&E) in recent years which have been evaluated as both not operationally effective and not operationally suitable. As part of their Final Report (http://theriac.org/pdfs/DSB-Rpt-DTE-May2008.pdf), released in late-May 2008, the Task Force identified several key findings and made critical recommendations in a number of areas. Section E of the report (page 42), states:

Too often COTS which do not meet the application requirements are used. This leads to higher than anticipated failure rates and poor system mission reliability. Program managers must ensure that COTS components are able to operate satisfactorily in military mission environments. Two excellent detailed guidance manuals for the use of COTS items are:

  • Selection of Equipment to Leverage Commercial Technology (SELECT) User Manual, by David Nicholls, David Clark (Reliability Analysis Center - now the Reliability Information Analysis Center [RIAC], June 1998)

  • Evaluating the Reliability of Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) Items by Ned H. Criscimagna (Reliability Information Analysis Center, August 1999).
The release of the previously unavailable SELECT Final Report, now published as the RIAC product "The Selection of Equipment to Leverage Commercial Technology (SELECT) - A Methodology for Acquiring Reliable COTS Products" is structured such that it is not necessary to own the SELECT software tool in order to successfully apply the SELECT methodology. Appendices E through H contain all of the logic, equations, weighting and scoring rationale, and other factors required to apply the SELECT methodology manually, or to allow incorporation of the methodology into the users own spreadsheet applications. We've bundled the SELECT software, however, with both the Hardcopy and Download versions of the report at no extra charge.

NOTE: FOR THOSE ORDERING THE DOWNLOAD VERSION OF THE REPORT, THE SELECT CD-ROM IS NOT A DOWNLOADABLE PRODUCT AND WILL SHIP SEPARATELY.


Hardcopy
Price: $125 / $150 (Domestic/Foreign)


Download
Price: $106 / $130 (Domestic/Foreign)


SELECT - A Methodology for Acquiring Reliable COTS Equipment