Effects of process maturity on quality, cycle time, and effort in softwareproduct development

The information technology (IT) industry is characterized by rapid innovati on and intense competition. To survive, IT firms must develop high quality software products on time and at low cost. A key issue is whether high leve ls of quality can be achieved without adversely impacting cycle time and ef fort. Conventional beliefs hold that processes to improve software quality can be implemented only at the expense of longer cycle times and greater de velopment effort. However, an alternate view is that quality improvement, f aster cycle time, and effort reduction can be simultaneously attained by re ducing defects and rework. In this study, we empirically investigate the re lationship between process maturity, quality, cycle time, and effort for th e development of 30 software products by a major IT firm. We find that high er levels of process maturity as assessed by the Software Engineering Insti tute's Capability Maturity Model(TM) are associated with higher product qua lity, but also with increases in development effort. However, our findings indicate that the reductions in cycle time and effort due to improved quali ty outweigh the increases from achieving higher levels of process maturity. Thus, the net effect of process maturity is reduced cycle time and develop ment effort.