Section 19. Off-the-Shelf Solutions

19. Off-the-Shelf Solutions

This section looks at available solutions and summarizes their applicability to the requirements. This discussion is not intended to be a full feasibility study of the alternatives, but it should tell your client that you have considered some alternatives and determined how closely they match the requirements for the product.

Note the intention of this section. It does not say that there are some wonderful solutions just waiting to be taken down from the shelf, and never mind if they don't fit the requirements all that well. Instead, this section points out solutions that may be applicable and warrant further study.

If there are no suitable OTS products, then this section alerts the client that he may have to shoulder the cost of building something.

We suggest that this section include three headings:

• Is there a ready-made product open source or commercial off-the-shelf software that could be bought?

• Can ready-made components be used for this product?

• Is there something that we could copy?

For each of these headings, set out the alternatives that you think are suitable. If your findings are preliminary, then say so. It is useful to add approximate costs, availability, time to implement, and other factors that may have a bearing on the decision.

The point of this section is to consider alternative ways the product can be implemented, not to try and force-fit the requirements into a marginal product.