A Push for Software Process Improvement in Thailand

Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) is considered by far the most comprehensive and well-known model for Software Process Improvement (SPI). The cost of having CMMI appraisal, including effort, time, and money is almost certainly out of reach for most very-small-sized, small-sized, and medium-sized software companies in Thailand. Thus most of them resort to the less expensive and locally invented standard in hope that they could improve their software processes and still stay competitive financially. However, to compete successfully in a long run, they need to formally implement and institutionalize SPI, using the more well-known and mature model such as CMMI. As more and more multinational companies outsource to Asia Pacific region, it even becomes imperative for the software companies to deliver high quality products in time and within budget to demanding customers. Due to the aforementioned needs, Software Industry Promotion Agency (SIPA), one of the leading government's arms that promote, support, and steer a software industry in Thailand, funded us in 2008 to thoroughly and formally investigate a status of the Thai software industry with respect to SPI, specifically the impact of adopting CMMI on the Thai software industry. The obtained results would then be used to form both near-term and long-term macro strategies, which would help lay down directions and push burgeoning Thai software companies to become competent players in a global software market.