AbstractMany companies still oppose the CMM because of lack of resources and the common view that the CMM is more suitable for large organizations. Tailoring the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) to small projects is necessary to encourage more organizations to use the CMM. This paper summarizes our experience in developing a process framework for small projects, based on eight key process areas of the CMM. Details of the process framework are presented. A tool set was developed to support the proposed process framework. The proposed process framework was applied to four pilot projects. Results from the pilot projects were compared to similar projects completed earlier. Positive results were obtained in the reduction of documentation and overhead effort, while maintaining the software quality. The proposed process framework has gained a wide acceptance, as developers understand the benefits of a common process. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.