Exploring impacts of software development process maturity on project risk

The failure of IS projects is a common occurrence in many organizations around the world. One explanation for the high failure rate is that managers are not taking prudent measure to understand and manage the risks associated with IS projects. As organizations continue to invest substantial resources and efforts on IS projects, controlling the risks involved in such projects in order to increase their performance becomes critical. The Capability Maturity Model (CMM) is taken as a reference model for improving software development process maturity. Our study examined the impacts of software development process maturity level on project risk. A survey was conducted to the corporate IS managers and professionals in Taiwan. The results found that the more mature project¿s software development process should reduce project risk level.