How Software Process Improvement Helped Motorola

n many companies, the Capability Maturity Model1 plays a major role in defining software process improvement. Frequently, organizations contemplating software process improvement (SPI) seek assurances that tangible benefits will result from such activities. Pockets of data across industry2 show that CMM-based process improvement is making a difference in those organizations committed to improvement. Raytheon yielded a twofold increase in its productivity and a return ratio of 7.7 to 1 on its improvement expenditures, for a 1990 savings of $4.48 million from a $0.58 million investment. Over a period of four and a half years, from mid-1988 to the end of 1992, the company eliminated $15.8 million in rework costs.