The feature interaction problem in telecommunications systems

The development of telecommunications features is difficult for many of the same reasons that software development is difficult. The need for rapid feature introduction requires separation of applications from the system, allowing multiple vendors to concurrently develop features. A key obstacle to the concurrent development of features, the feature interaction problems is examined. As a framework for studying feature interactions their effects on customers and developers are discussed, and tools and methods that exist or are emerging that reduce their impact on the development process are considered