Guest Editors' Introduction: Integrating COTS into the Development Process

B uilding and evolving software systems is an arduous, costly, lengthy, and complex task. The resulting systems are similarly complex. We're thus constantly searching for ways to reduce such costs, time, and complexity while increasing system func-tionality and quality. Not surprisingly, our quest for " silver bullets, " as described by Frederick Brooks back in 1987, 1 hasn't produced significant