Resumen
This article focuses on emerging technology of component off the shelf (COTS) components. Many buyers also feel compelled to increase COTS component usage as the software-intensive supply industries increasingly adopt componentization. To guide those attempting to navigate this area, a typology of the emerging COTS component market and its managerial implications has been presented. This typology expands current COTS component acquisition models. For example, most models assume buyers have numerous components and suppliers to choose from. Software component reuse enables shorter time-to-market for end products because the buying organizations needn't make everything themselves from scratch. An efficiently functioning COTS component market, with offerings tailored to specific industries, would obviously solve many reported problems. To better understand the issues buyers face in today's COTS component market, a wireless telecommunications company was studied that wanted to increase its COTS component use. The company had already faced difficulties in this endeavor and wanted to resolve the problems at a strategic level. One of the goals was to develop COTS component acquisition guidelines that could help the company solve the identified challenges.