Testing and Evaluation Guide: Best Practices for Commercial Off-the-Shelf Systems (Exposure Draft)
Fast Facts
Federal agencies spend billions every year buying commercially available off-the-shelf products, including airport security scanners and sensors for ship navigation systems. Agencies use rigorous testing and evaluation to determine whether a product will meet their needs.
In our new guide, we provide the best practices agencies should follow to effectively test and evaluate products before purchase.
This guide can help agency officials make informed purchasing decisions and avoid wasteful spending.
We are seeking public comments on our guide. Please send your comments to TEGuideComments@gao.gov no later than December 14, 2026.
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Highlights
Why GAO Did This Study
From September 2026 through December 14, 2026, GAO is seeking input and feedback on this exposure draft from all interested parties. Please use this link TEGuideComments@gao.gov to provide us with comments on the guide.
Federal agencies spend billions of dollars each year buying commercially available off-the-shelf (COTS) products. When agencies want to buy a COTS product, first they need to determine whether a vendor’s product is right for them. One way that agencies assess a product is by conducting testing and evaluation (T&E). Agencies can then use the results of the T&E to inform their purchasing decisions.
Prior GAO work has identified problems with how agencies conduct T&E. Also, there is no widely accepted process or organization for sharing best practices for T&E.
GAO developed this guide to provide best practices for conducting COTS T&E. GAO has developed this guide to serve multiple audiences:
- The primary audience for this guide is federal agencies—specifically, T&E practitioners, program managers, and procurement officials. Agency staff can implement the best practices in this guide to improve their T&E, procure effective technologies, and reduce risks of cost and schedule overruns.
- GAO and other oversight organizations can use this guide to evaluate how effectively federal agencies conduct T&E when buying a COTS product.
- Vendors can use this guide to evaluate the performance of their products against agency requirements.
For more information, contact Karen Howard at HowardK@gao.gov.