An empirical study of factors that affect the transition time between CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) levels in Saudi Arabia

In recent years, software process improvement (SPI) has been the concern of software industries. Numerous studies have been done in the 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 CMMI (capability maturity model integration) levels, and why there are obvious differences in the organizationsʹ transition time between CMMI levels. The objective of this research is to identify the factors that can affect the transition time between CMMI levels. We conducted 10 interviews in 7 different Saudiʹs software companies to extract the factors and compare these factors with what are in the literature to avoid redundancy. Based on this, we designed a questionnaire. We sent out 117 requests to participants, and 46 responded from 12 companies. We 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, after which we identified 21 factors that are considered effective factors on the transition time between CMMI levels. Also, we identified two new factors (Turnover of staff and Imposed partner) which were not identified in the literature.