Evaluating, Selecting, and Measuring Subcontractors

During the past decade, it has become more commonplace to subcontract major portions of large software and systems engineering projects. Due to a lack of a well-defined set of tools or guidelines, this process has generally been ad hoc and inconsistent. Jim Nielsen describes Motorola's efforts to develop a comprehensive set of tools, processes, and measures to use in evaluating and selecting subcontractors and in predicting subcontractor performance and product quality.