Software process maturity and organizational politics

Abstract

The discipline of information systems development has witnessed a tremendous interest in improving software processes. It is believed that improving a systems development organization's software processes will alleviate problems with productivity and systems quality. In this paper we explore the limitations of the theories and models behind software process maturity. Through an action research project with a systems development organization, we illustrate how maturity models ignore issues of structural conflicts and contradictory demands manifest in most organizations. This limits the models' ability to explain software practice and thus limits their usefulness for guiding organizational change processes. © 2001 by Springer Science+Business Media New York.