Requirements Specification for Open Source Software Selection

Abstract

Open source software has been widely used. The software world is enjoying the advantages of collaboration and cooperation in software development and use with the advent of open source movement. However, little research is concerned about the practical guidelines of OSS selection. It is hard for an organization to make a decision whether they should use the OSS or not, and to select an appropriate one from a number of OSS candidates. This thesis studies how to select an open source software from requirements engineering perspective. It covers the introduction of open source software and requirements engineering. According to the literature review, a software requirements specification template and a selection model are built. These are further verified in a case study of media player selection.

Key words and terms: open source, open source software, license, requirements engineering, software requirements specification, open source software selection.