An article by Steve McConnell from IEEESoftware.com notes that, surprisingly, software development process maturity (ie., rigorous technical management procedures) doesn’t seem to matter as much as “soft” factors like: seniority of personnel, good communication, motivation, analyst experience, etc.
The unstated implication is that the academics and big corporations concentrate too much on process maturity (eg. ISO 9001 & CMMI), because that’s easy to quantify, rather than actually being important.