Effects of Process Maturity on Quality, Cycle Time, and Effort in Software Product Development

TLDR

The IT industry’s rapid innovation and competition drive firms to deliver high‑quality software on time and at low cost, yet the prevailing belief that quality gains require longer cycle times and more effort is challenged by the view that defect reduction can simultaneously improve quality, shorten cycles, and cut effort. This study empirically examines how process maturity relates to product quality, cycle time, and effort across 30 software products from a major IT firm. The authors assess process maturity using the Software Engineering Institute’s Capability Maturity Model™ and analyze its impact on quality, cycle time, and effort for each product. Higher process maturity correlates with better product quality but also higher effort, yet the quality‑driven reductions in cycle time and effort outweigh these increases, resulting in an overall decrease in development time and effort.

Abstract

The information technology (IT) industry is characterized by rapid innovation 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 levels of quality can be achieved without adversely impacting cycle time and effort. Conventional beliefs hold that processes to improve software quality can be implemented only at the expense of longer cycle times and greater development effort. However, an alternate view is that quality improvement, faster cycle time, and effort reduction can be simultaneously attained by reducing defects and rework. In this study, we empirically investigate the relationship between process maturity, quality, cycle time, and effort for the development of 30 software products by a major IT firm. We find that higher levels of process maturity as assessed by the Software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model™ are associated with higher product quality, but also with increases in development effort. However, our findings indicate that the reductions in cycle time and effort due to improved quality outweigh the increases from achieving higher levels of process maturity. Thus, the net effect of process maturity is reduced cycle time and development effort.