Software Engineering Institute Carnegie Mellon

Software Process Improvement Works!

Pat Ferguson (Advanced Information Services Inc.)
Gloria Leman (Advanced Information Services Inc.)
Prasad Perini (Advanced Information Services Inc.)
Susan Renner (Advanced Information Services Inc.)
Girish Seshagiri (Advanced Information Services Inc.)

Technical Report
CMU/SEI-99-TR-027

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The Advanced Information Services Inc. (AIS) Development Group was motivated by business needs to begin its Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) initiative in 1992. We chose the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Capability Maturity Model® (CMM®) as the process maturity framework and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) standards as the guidelines for software engineering.

We can relate the changes in AIS process capability to three different eras. The first was the time before 1992, during which AIS did not use a model for software process improvement. During the second era, 1992 to 1995, the CMM was used. Data indicate that project schedule and effort predictability improved with the introduction of the CMM framework. The third era began in 1995 when AIS piloted the Personal Software ProcessSM (PSP). ith the adoption of the PSP, data reflect an increase in product quality and improvements in productivity levels.