| SEI Level | Quality Defects /KSLOC | Productivity SLOC /Hour | Cost $ Millions | Cost $/SLOC | Development Time |
| 1 | 9.0+ | 1.0 | $33 M | $66 | 40 Months |
| 2 | 3.0 | 3.0 | $15 M | $30 | 32 Months |
| 3 | 1.0 | 5.0 | $ 7 M | $14 | 25 Months |
| 4 | 0.3 | 8.0 | $ 3 M | $6 | 19 Months |
| 5 | 0.1 | 12.0 | $ 1 M | $2 | 16 Months |
| SEI Level | Duration (Months) | Effort (Man-Months) | Faults Detected during Development | Faults Delivered | Total Cost |
| 1 | 29.5 | 593.5 | 1348 | 61 | $5,440,000 |
| 2 | 18.5 | 143.0 | 328 | 12 | 1,311,000 |
| 3 | 15.2 | 79.5 | 182 | 7 | 728,000 |
| 4 | 12.5 | 42.8 | 97 | 5 | 392,000 |
| 5 | 9.0 | 16.0 | 37 | 1 | 146,000 |
Project performance compared to estimated performance. This example demonstrates different projects in the US Air Force. From Steve McConnell The Business of Software Improvement. IEEE SOFTWARE Vol. 19, No. 4; JULY/AUGUST 2002, pp. 5-7 Steve McConnell