Abstract

During recent years, software process improvement (SPI) has been more concerned by a software industry. Numerous studies have been made in development of SPI standards and models, or to identify factors that affect SPI success. However, these studies did not provide answers to questions about the factors that affect the transition time between capability maturity model integration (CMMI) levels, and why there are obvious differences in the organizations’ transition time between CMMI levels. The objective of this research is to identify the factors that can affect the transition time between CMMI levels. The study conducted 10 interviews in 7 different Saudi’s software companies to extract the factors and compare these factors with what are in the literature to avoid redundancy, based on that, the study designed a questionnaire. It sent out 117 requests to participants, of which 46 responded from 12 companies. The study asked the participants to rank each factor on a five-point scale (high, medium, low, zero and not sure) to determine the effect of each factor. It identified 21 factors that are considered effective factors on the transition time between CMMI levels. Also, the study identified two new factors (turnover of staff and imposed partner) which were not identified in the literature.

Key words: Software process improvement, capability maturity model integration (CMMI), factors, transition time, empirical study.