The Impact of Software Process Maturity and Software Development Risk on the Performance of Software Development Projects

Despite the increasing efforts of organizations to improve the development processes of their software projects, there remain few empirical and generalizable findings when it comes to key questions regarding software process improvement initiatives. Rarely there was any empirical examination in an integrative model on how 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, we propose and test a research model that allows for an empirical examination of the relationships between software process maturity and the performance of software development projects while assessing the impact of risk on software project performance. Data were collected from officially CMM-appraised organizations to test developed hypotheses using proven metrics identified in the literature. Our findings support our theoretical framework in providing evidence of the positive impact of software development process maturity on the performance of software projects while underscoring the negative effect of risk on software project performance. Key results and a discussion of the findings are also provided.