Agile Methods and Maturity Models Assessments: What's Next?

The adoption of Software Process Improvement (SPI) initiatives, based on reference models, such as CMMI-DEV, is largely described in the literature. Challenges and benefits are already known, especially when these models are combined with agile methods. However, little is known on what happens after the appraisal. Do companies continue to use maturity models-based processes? Do they sacrifice agile practices? The objective of this study is thus to identify how software processes evolve in companies that use agile methods and have been assessed against maturity-based reference models. We performed a case study in four companies. Our results show that companies that use agile methods struggle to use, maintain and evolve their processes along with maturity models after the official assessment.