Towards a taxonomy of technical debt for COTS-intensive cyber physical systems

Ye Yang, Ronald Michel, Jon Wade, Dinesh Verma, Martin Törngren, Turki Alelyani

    Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

    4 Scopus citations

    Abstract

    Most existing studies addressing COTS obsolescence issues in Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) have strong emphasis on the sustainment phases. We have identified a gap on methods, processes, and tools for effective COTS risk analysis in the early systems acquisition phases. To fill the gap, this study proposes a taxonomy of COTS-related technical debt in order to support early identification, communication, and assessment of obsolescence risks in CPS system engineering life cycles. The taxonomy contributes to the identification of seven key types of COTS technical debt according to systematic signs discoverable during early COTS activities, which may contribute to obsolescence in later phases. These seven types of COTS technical debt include COTS functionality mismatch, performance mismatch, interoperability difficulty, versioning frequency, documentation and support readiness, and limitation on system evolution. It is expected that such notions will help to increase the efficiency of COTS-based CPS development, readiness, and sustainment, through more informed COTS decision-making to avoid expensive and unaffordable obsolescence issues in the envisioned systems sustainment phases.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)108-117
    Number of pages10
    JournalProcedia Computer Science
    Volume153
    DOIs
    StatePublished - 2019
    Event17th Annual Conference on Systems Engineering Research, CSER 2019 - Washington, United States
    Duration: 3 Apr 20184 Apr 2018

    Keywords

    • acquisition
    • commercial off-the-shelf (COTS)
    • cyber physical system
    • metrics
    • obsolescence
    • technical debt

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Towards a taxonomy of technical debt for COTS-intensive cyber physical systems'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this