Measuring the ROI of software process improvement

Software process improvement has been on the agenda of both academics and practitioners, with the Capability Maturity Model as its de facto method. Many companies have invested large sums of money in improving their software processes, and several research papers document SPI´s effectiveness. SPI aims to create more effective and efficient software development and maintenance by structuring and optimizing processes. SPI assumes that a well-managed organization with a defined engineering process is more likely to produce products that consistently meet the purchaser´s requirements within schedule and budget than a poorly managed organization with no such engineering process. We discuss about the measuring the ROI in software process improvement.