An exploration of the relationship between software development process maturity and project performance

Software projects have a high rate of failure. Organizations have tried to reduce the rate through methodological approaches but with little perceived success. A model of software development maturity (the capability maturity model (CMM)) describes managerial processes that can be used to attack software development difficulties from the managerial control perspective at five maturity levels. Our study examined performance of projects in relation to the activities at these various levels of maturity. A survey of software engineers indicated that the activities associated with the managerial control of development related positively to project performance measures. However, not each level of maturity demonstrated observable benefits, indicating that greater caution is needed in the planning and implementation of the activities. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.