System acquisition based on software product assessment

The procurement of complex software product involves many risks. To properly assess and manage those risks, Bell Canada has developed methods and tools that combine process capability assessment with a static analysis based software product assessment. This paper describes the software product assessment process that is part of our risk management approach. The process and the tools used to conduct a product assessment are described. The assessment is in part based on static source code metrics and inspections. A summary of the lessons learned since the initial implementation in 1993 is provided. Over 20 products totalling more than 100 million lines of code have gone through this process.