In this paper, the authors elaborate the results obtained after analyzing and assessing the software process activities in five small to medium sized Indian software companies. This work demonstrates a cost effective framework for software process appraisal, specifically targeted at Indian software Small-to-Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). Improvisation deals with the unforeseen. It involves continual experimentation with new possibilities to create innovative and improved solutions outside current plans and routines. The framework explicitly focuses on organizations that have little or no experience in software process improvement (SPI) programmes. The companies involved in this assessment have no CMMI experience prior to the work. For Indian software SME’s, it has always been difficult to find the resources, both time and money, which are necessary to engage themselves properly in SPI. To alleviate this, we have developed a low-overhead and relatively non-invasive solution tool to support SMEs in establishing process improvement initiatives. The paper initially describes how the framework was developed and then illustrates how the method is currently being extended to include a questionnaire based approach that may be used by the appraised organization to perform follow-on self-assessments. The results obtained from this study can be used by organizations to achieve the CMMI standards. Finally, the results are discussed for consistency by incorporating a scientific based approach to avoid ambiguities which arise while arriving at a result.