Software Tools Assessment

t’s common knowledge that to stay competitive, your software organization must continuously improve product quality and customer satisfaction, as well as lower software development costs and shorten delivery time-all critical variables for software engineering practice.’ You can pursue these challenges in many ways. One such way is to improve your development processes and organizational structures using frameworks such as the SEI’S Capability Maturity Model,’ Total Quality Management,3 the Quality Improvement Paradigm,4 or the Process Cycle.5 Another option is to adopt appropriate software tools. Tools have long been recognized as an effective way to improve software development variables such as productivity and product quality. However, to make effective use of specific tools you should first understand how a tool will affect these critical variables in your project.