Abstract:

A model of software development process maturity, the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) is a staged evolutionary model which describes five levels of process maturity through which an organization can progress to define, assess, and improve its software development processes. Despite its ever-increasing adoption, there remain too few empirical and generalizable findings when it comes to key questions regarding the model’s adoption. Researchers and practitioners are still struggling to determine how CMM-based process improvement efforts affect key organizational concerns such as software project performance and the threat of risks in today’s dynamic and complex business environment.  In addressing this knowledge gap, the objective of this paper is to propose a research model that will allow for an empirical examination of the relationships between CMM software process maturity and the performance and risk exposure of software development projects.