Success factors and motivators in SPI

The authors report in this article from a survey of medium-sized and large software companies in Denmark where major variations were found in the practice of software process improvement (SPI). Many software companies intend to do SPI; but few companies invest the necessary effort in improvement, and few perform maturity assessments. In general, across the surveyed companies, the effects of SPI are very limited. The study also found that internal motivators are more frequent than external motivators. This article presents and discusses the survey and the results. It also discusses implications for IT organizations and professionals and recommends: (1) assessing the maturity level; (2) allocating sufficient resources to SPI; and (3) creating a positive feedback loop between SPI benefits and SPI efforts.