Quantifying the effects of process improvement on effort
B.K. Clark · IEEE Software · 2000
When organizations make many improvements concurrently, software project managers have no way of determining how much improvement is due to process maturity versus other factors. Using a 161-project sample, the article isolates the effects on effort of process maturity versus other effects, concluding that an increase of one process maturity level can reduce development effort by 4% to 11%.