Early experience with an IPSE

British Telecom and Imperial Software Technology are collaborating to produce ISTAR, a second-generation integrated project support environment(IPSE). This product is now entering the stage of beta-site testing within BT, and IST is negotiating licences for the use of the product. To gain early experience with IPSEs and to help specify ISTAR, BT has built and operated a first-generation IPSE(IPSE1), incorporating much of the philosophy underlying ISTAR. IPSE1 has been used by a variety of (BT) customers with varying degrees of success. The largest and most successful user is BT´s Belfast System and Software Engineering Centre, where registration has been achieved under the BSI registered firm scheme against BS5750. This paper outlines the philosophy used in ISTAR and IPSE 1(and also indicates the differences between the two). It then provides some background to the difficulties of introducing IPSEs into a work environment and some of the advantages and disadvantages found by both user and support organisations.