Software Process Improvement Frameworks as Alternative of CMMI for SMEs: A Literature Review

Abstract

Recently, software development industry is one of the most rapidly growing businesses and is considered as worthy economic activity of which the SMEs take the main role in such business. Somehow, most of SMEs cannot afford or successfully implement SPI framework like CMMI officially as a result of the financial requirements and difficulties associated to experience, effort and time constraints. The objective of this study is to present a study that investigates some alterative frameworks for SMEs, which take the advantage of CMMI model and agile approach. This study identifies the alternative frameworks’ advantages and limitations through a literature review. Additionally, a general comparison is provided to show the gap in this study area with some recommendations as guidelines for development of SPI framework for SMEs, based on CMMI and agile methodologies. Key