@techreport { cite854,
  title = "Safety Asurance of {Commercial-Off-The-Shelf} Software",
  author = "P. Lindsay and G. Smith",
  institution = "Software Verification Research Centre",
  address = "School of Information Technology,
   The University of Queensland, Brisbane 4072, Australia",
  number = "00-17",
  month = may,
  year = "2000",
  keywords = "COTS, safety, safety standards.",
  abstract = "Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) software is increasingly being suggested
for use in systems development, for reasons including cost, functionality,
useability, testedness, availability of support and upgrades. At the same 
time, standards for use of software in safety-related systems are becoming
increasingly stringent. This paper examines the issue of providing safety 
assurance for systems involving COTS software, and surveys what
international standards say about the issue. The strengths and weaknesses
of a number of different approaches are discussed. The paper suggests 
that “whole life-cycle” costing estimates, including estimates of the cost
of developing and maintaining safety assurance, be made prior to deciding
whether to use COTS components in safety-related applications.",
  url = "http://www.svrc.it.uq.edu.au/Publications/2000/svrc2000-00.html"
}