Understanding and addressing the essential costs of evolving systems

A major attribute of telecommunications software systems is change. For evo lving telecom systems, significant expertise is needed to effectively handl e and capitalize on these changes. This paper discusses some of the key dim ensions of change that occur during telecom systems software development, t he areas of expertise that software developers apply in managing these chan ges, and some of the means by which high-performing project members have ov ercome the learning curves associated with these systems. We base our resul ts on data gathered from several Bell Labs multiyear development projects a nd interviews with experienced staff.