Assessment of tools in the telecommunications industry: a customer perspective

The Information Technology Procurement and Supplier Quality department of Bell Canada is responsible for the procurement of complex software products. To assess and manage the risks related to these acquisitions, we have developed methods and tools that combine process capability assessment and software product assessment. This provides us with a generic view of the deployment of software tools among our suppliers. The paper presents two points related to software tools in telecommunications companies. The first one is the characteristics of the telecommunications industry that influence the introduction of software tools. The second point is the introduction process of software tools viewed as a new technology for a software development organization.