ylä, Finland e-mail: mirja.pulkkinen@titu.jyu.fi P. Tyrväinen and O. Mazhelis (eds.), Vertical Software Industry Evolution, Contributions to Management Science, DOI 10.1007/978-3-7908-2352-3_8, C Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2009 M. Pulkkinen and J. Veijalainen Interviews in Europe and Asia 1.1 Interview Process The scheme to interview was semi-structured (Fontana and Frey 2000), i.e., topical areas were given and the interviewees had the opportunity to direct the conversa- tion, ask back and reflect on the topic. In this way, they had the opportunity to bring into the discussion the points they considered as important regardless of whether they had been asked questions about them. However, to guide the conversations, a list of topical areas was shared with the interviewees. That ensured that the resulting information was useful for comparing the telecom industry software developments to the general model of the software market development. The list of topics included, among other things: 1. Own software development VS acquiring software products or services. 2. Procurement of applications and systems, selection of providers of software and services. 3. Service orientation in architectures. Further, business process developments related to system implementation and the respective cost effects were discussed. Views about software market evolution and the technologies, integration and technology evolution were also brought up. These areas were considered, to detect possible explanations for the findings in the software "make or buy" decisions and, in the latter case, the selection of the supplier when acquiring systems and applications. There was a requirement that persons to be interviewed should occupy positions involved in the respective decision making on software development, application portfolio management and software (license) procurement. These positions vary from CEO to IT-architect. Each interview was recorded and transliterated for further analysis. The analysis of the qualitative data follows the