Evaluating Large COTS Software Packages: Why Requirements and Use Cases are Important

Over the last 5 years a quiet revolution in business systems development has taken place towards the use of enterprise-wide, off-the-shelf software solutions. At the end of 1997, BusinessWeek estimated the value of this global enterprise applications package (EAP) market at $10billion and still growing. This market is currently dominated by a small number of large suppliers, and in particular SAP, which has one-third of this market share and dwarfs its next 6 contenders (Oracle, J.D. Edwards, BAAN, PeopleSoft and SSA) combined. Today, SAP's R/3 software runs the back offices of half of the world's 500 top companies, scheduling the manufacture of washing machines at Generic Electric Co. and shipping soda pop on time at Coca-Cola Co. The impact of SAP's R/3 and its major competitors on software system development has been significant, however there has been little research into key issues which arise from this impact. This paper reports some preliminary research which aims to redress this imbalance.