Benefits of CMM-Based Software Process Improvement: Executive Summary of Initial Results

Data from 13 organizations were collected and analyzed to obtain information on the results of software process improvement efforts that were based on the capability maturity model (CMM). We report the cost and business value of improvement efforts, as well as the yearly improvement in productivity, early defect detection, time to market, and post-release defect reports. Case studies of improvement efforts and results in 5 organizations are summarized. We end with conclusions about the results of software process improvement (SPI) efforts.