Modeling SPI Sustainment in Software-Developing Organizations: A Research Framework

While software process improvement is well established as a practice, it still presents challenges for some adopters. Drop-outs from SPI programs are not uncommon. The paper argues that SPI sustainment is a function of the organizational context of the program, not just of the program (or SPI ‘product’) itself. Critical in this context is the organization’s operational capabilities and capacity for change, as well as key external factors that, together, can influence SPI outcomes. SPI sustainment is not an established topic of research. To foster interest and progress in responding to the problem, the paper makes a theoretical contribution by developing and proposing a research model of SPI sustainment, called SUSTAIN, from published research on process improvement. Four testable propositions are developed from the model. Implications of the model and plans for future work are also discussed.