ISO/IEC 15504, also known as
SPICE (Software Process Improvement and Capability Determination), is a "framework for the assessment of processes" developed by the Joint Technical Subcommittee between ISO (
International Organization for StandardizationThe International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO , is an international-standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded on 23 February 1947, the organization promulgates worldwide proprietary industrial and commercial...
) and IEC (
International Electrotechnical CommissionThe International Electrotechnical Commission is a not-for-profit, non-governmental international standards organization that prepares and publishes International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies – collectively known as "electrotechnology"...
).
ISO/IEC 15504 initially was derived from process lifecycle standard
ISO 12207ISO 12207 is an ISO standard for software lifecycle processes. It aims to be 'the' standard that defines all the tasks required for developing and maintaining software....
and from maturity models like Bootstrap, Trillium and the
CMMThe Capability Maturity Model is a service mark and a concept that was developed in the field of software development that provides a model for understanding the capability maturity of an organization's software development business processes...
.
Overview
ISO/IEC 15504 is an international standard. ISO/IEC 15504 is concerned about the many national maturity model proposals and establishes an international standard in this area. ISO/IEC 15504 presents a reference model as an international reference.
ISO/IEC 15504 is the reference model for the maturity models (consisting of capability levels which in turn consist of the process attributes and further consist of generic practices) against which the assessors can place the evidence that they collect during their assessment, so that the assessors can give an overall determination of the organisation's capabilities for delivering products (software, systems, IT services).
ISO/IEC 15504 was developed by the Joint Technical Subcommittee between ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (International Electrotechnical Committee).
History
A working group was formed in 1993 to draft the international standard and used the acronym,
SPICESPICE is a general-purpose analog electronic circuit simulator.It is a powerful program that is used in IC and board-level design to check the integrity of circuit designs and to predict circuit behavior.- Introduction :Integrated circuits, unlike board-level designs composed of discrete parts,...
. SPICE initially stood for "Software
Process ImprovementIn organizational development , Process improvement is a series of actions taken by a Process Owner to identify, analyze and improve existing processes within an organization to meet new goals and objectives. These actions often follow a specific methodology or strategy to create successful results...
and Capability Evaluation", but
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
concerns over the meaning of the last word meant that SPICE now means "Software Process Improvement and Capability Determination".
Even though the formal ISO standards number, ISO 15504, is now the correct reference, SPICE is still used for the user group of the standard, and the title for the annual conference. The first SPICE was held in Limerick, Ireland in 2000, "SPICE 2003" was hosted by ESA in
NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
, "SPICE 2004" was hosted in
PortugalPortugal , officially the Portuguese Republic , is a country located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of mainland Europe and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west and south and by Spain to the north and east...
, "SPICE 2005" in
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
, "SPICE 2006" in
LuxembourgLuxembourg , officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg , is a small, landlocked country in western Europe, bordered by Belgium, France, and Germany...
, "SPICE 2007" in
South KoreaSouth Korea, officially the Republic of Korea and often simply referred to as Korea, is a country in East Asia, located on the southern half of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by China to the west, Japan to the east, and North Korea to the north. Its capital is Seoul, the second largest...
, "SPICE 2008" in
NurembergNuremberg is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. It is situated on the Pegnitz river and the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal and is Franconia's largest city. It is located about 170 kilometres north of Munich, at 49.27° N 11.5° E. The population is...
,
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
and SPICE 2009 in
HelsinkiHelsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the southern part of Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, by the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it the most populous municipality in Finland by a wide margin...
,
FinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland
, is a Nordic country and democracy situated in the Fennoscandian region of northern Europe. It borders Sweden on the west, Russia on the east, and Norway on the north, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland...
.
The first versions of the standard were focused exclusively on
software developmentSoftware development is the set of activities that results in software products. Software development may include research, new development, modification, reuse, re-engineering, maintenance, or any other activities that result in software products...
processes. This was expanded to cover all related processes in a software business, for example,
project managementProject management is the discipline of planning, organizing, and managing resources to bring about the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives...
,
configuration managementConfiguration management is a field of management that focuses on establishing and maintaining consistency of a system's or product's performance and its functional and physical attributes with its requirements, design, and operational information throughout its life...
,
quality assuranceQuality assurance, or QA for short, refers to planned and systematic production processes that provide confidence in a product's suitability for its intended purpose. Refer to the definition by Merriam-Webster for further information . It is a set of activities intended to ensure that products ...
, and so on. The list of processes covered, grew to cover six business areas:
- organizational
- management
- engineering
- acquisition supply
- support
- operations.
In a major revision to the draft standard in 2004, the process reference model was removed and is now related to the
ISO 12207ISO 12207 is an ISO standard for software lifecycle processes. It aims to be 'the' standard that defines all the tasks required for developing and maintaining software....
(Software Lifecycle Processes). The issued standard now specifies the measurement framework and can use different process reference models. There are five general and industry models in use.
Part 5 specifies software process assessment and part 6 specifies system process assessment.
The latest work in the ISO standards working group includes creation of a maturity model, which is planned to become ISO/IEC 15504 part 7.
The ISO/IEC 15504 standard
The Technical Report (TR) document for ISO/IEC TR 15504 was divided into 9 parts. The initial International Standard was recreated in 5 parts. This was proposed from Japan when the TRs were published at 1997.
The International Standard (IS) version of ISO/IEC 15504 now comprises 6 parts. The 7th part is currently in an advanced Final Draft Standard form and work has started on part 8.
Part 1
of ISO/IEC TR 15504 explains the concepts and gives an overview of the framework.
Nationality of editors of ISO/IEC 15504 5 parts are below.
- Part 1, Japan, South Africa.
- Part 2, Japan, U.K.
- Part 3, U.S.A, Italy.
- Part 4, U.K., Israel.
- Part 5, France, Finland.
Reference model
ISO/IEC 15504 contains a reference modelA Reference model in systems and software engineering is a model of something that embodies the basic goal or idea of something and can then be looked at as a reference for various purposes.- Overview :...
. The reference model defines a process dimension
and a capability dimension
.
The process dimension in the reference model is not the subject of part 2
of ISO/IEC 15504, but part 2 refers to external process lifecycle standards including ISO/IEC 12207 and ISO/IEC 15288. The standard defines means to verify conformity of reference models.
Processes
The process dimension
defines processes divided into the five process categories of:
- customer-supplier
- engineering
- supporting
- management
- organization
With new parts being published, the process categories will expand, particularly for IT service process categories and enterprise process categories.
Capability levels and process attributes
For each process, ISO/IEC 15504 defines a capability level on the following scale:
| Level | Name |
|---|
| 5 |
Optimizing process |
| 4 |
Predictable process |
| 3 |
Established process |
| 2 |
Managed process |
| 1 |
Performed process |
| 0 |
Incomplete process |
The capability of processes is measured using process attributes. The international standard defines nine process attributes:
- 1.1 Process Performance
- 2.1 Performance Management
- 2.2 Work Product Management
- 3.1 Process Definition
- 3.2 Process Deployment
- 4.1 Process Measurement
- 4.2 Process Control
- 5.1 Process Innovation
- 5.2 Process Optimization
Operations research or Quantitative management, as termed in the USA, Canada, South Africa and Australia, and operational research, as termed in Europe, is an interdisciplinary branch of applied mathematics that uses methods such as mathematical modeling, statistics, and algorithms to arrive at...
.
Each process attribute consists of one or more generic practices, which are further elaborated into practice indicators to aid assessment performance.
Each process attribute is assessed on a four-point (N-P-L-F) rating scale:
- Not achieved (0 - 15%)
- Partially achieved (>15% - 50%)
- Largely achieved (>50%- 85%)
- Fully achieved (>85% - 100%).
The rating is based upon evidence collected against the practice indicators, which demonstrate fulfillment of the process attribute.
Assessments
ISO/IEC 15504 provides a guide for performing an assessment
.
This includes:
- the assessment process
- the model for the assessment
- any tools used in the assessment
Assessment process
Performing assessments is the subject of parts 2 and 3 of ISO/IEC 15504. Part 2 is the normative part and part 3 gives a guidance to fulfill the requirements in part 2.
One of the requirements is to use a conformant assessment method for the assessment process. The actual method is not specified in the standard although the standard places requirements on the method, method developers and assessors using the method. The standard provides general guidance to assessors and this must be supplemented by undergoing formal training and detailed guidance during initial assessments.
The assessment process can be generalized as the following steps:
- initiate an assessment (assessment sponsor)
- select assessor and assessment team
- plan the assessment, including processes and organizational unit to be assessed (lead assessor and assessment team)
- pre-assessment briefing
- data collection
- data validation
- process rating
- reporting the assessment result
An assessor can collect data on a process by various means, including interviews with persons performing the process, collecting documents and quality records, and collecting statistical process data. The assessor validates this data to ensure it is accurate and completely covers the assessment scope. The assessor assesses this data (using their expert judgment) against a process's base practices and the capability dimension's generic practices in the process rating step. Process rating requires some exercising of expert judgment on the part of the assessor and this is the reason that there are requirements on assessor qualifications and competency. The process rating is then presented as a preliminary finding to the sponsor (and preferably also to the persons assessed) to ensure that they agree that the assessment is accurate. In a few cases, there may be feedback requiring further assessment before a final process rating is made.
Assessment model
The process assessment model (PAM) is the detailed model that is used for an actual assessment. This is an elaboration of the process reference model (PRM) provided by the process lifecycle standards.
The process assessment model (PAM) in part 5 is based on the process reference model (PRM) for software: ISO/IEC 12207.
The process assessment model in part 6 is based on the process reference model for systems: ISO/IEC 15288.
The standard allows other models to be used instead, if they meet ISO/IEC 15504's criteria, which include a defined community of interest and meeting the requirements for content (i.e. process purpose, process outcomes and assessment indicators).
Tools used in the assessment
There exist several assessment tools. The simplest comprise paper-based tools that are manually used. In general, they are laid out to incorporate the assessment model indicators, including the base practice indicators and generic practice indicators. Assessors write down the assessment results and notes supporting the assessment judgment.
There are a limited number of computer based tools that present the indicators and allow users to enter the assessment judgment and notes in formatted screens, as well as automate the collated assessment result (i.e. the process attribute ratings) and creating reports.
Assessor qualifications and competency
For a successful assessment, the assessor must have a suitable level of the relevant skills and experience.
These skills include:
- personal qualities such as communication skill
Communication skill or communication skills may refer to*Rhetoric,*Communication, or*English studies....
s.
- relevant education and training and experience.
- specific skills for particular categories, e.g. management skills for the management category.
- ISO/IEC 15504 related training and experience in process capability assessments.
The competency of assessors is the subject of part 3 of ISO/IEC 15504.
In summary, the ISO/IEC 15504 specific training and experience for assessors comprise:
- completion of a 5 day lead assessor training course
- performing at least one assessment successfully under supervision of a competent lead assessor
- performing at least one assessment successfully as a lead assessor under the supervision of a competent lead assessor. The competent lead assessor defines when the assessment is successfully performed. There exist schemes for certifying assessors and guiding lead assessors in making this judgment.
Uses of ISO/IEC 15504
ISO/IEC 15504 can be used in two contexts:
- Process improvement, and
- Capability determination (= evaluation of supplier's process capability).
Process improvement
ISO/IEC 15504 can be used to perform
process improvementIn organizational development , Process improvement is a series of actions taken by a Process Owner to identify, analyze and improve existing processes within an organization to meet new goals and objectives. These actions often follow a specific methodology or strategy to create successful results...
within a technology organization. Process improvement is always difficult, and initiatives often fail, so it is important to understand the initial baseline level (process capability level), and to assess the situation after an improvement project. ISO 15504 provides a standard for assessing the organization's capacity to deliver at each of these stages.
In particular, the reference framework of ISO/IEC 15504 provides a structure for defining objectives, which facilitates specific programs to achieve these objectives.
Process improvement is the subject of part 4 of ISO/IEC 15504. It specifies requirements for improvement programmes and provides guidance on planning and executing improvements, including a description of an eight step improvement programme. Following this improvement programme is not mandatory and several alternative improvement programmes exist.
Capability determination
An organization considering
outsourcingOutsourcing is subcontracting a service, such as product design or manufacturing, to a third-party company. The decision whether to outsource or to do inhouse is often based upon achieving a lower production cost, making better use of available resources, focussing energy on the core competencies...
software development needs to have a good understanding of the capability of potential suppliers to deliver.
ISO/IEC 15504 (Part 4) can also be used to inform supplier selection decisions. The ISO/IEC 15504 framework provides a framework for assessing proposed suppliers, as assessed either by the organization itself, or by an independent assessor.
The organization can determine a target capability for suppliers, based on the organization's needs, and then assess suppliers against a set of target process profiles that specify this target capability. Part 4 of the ISO/IEC 15504 specifies the high level requirements and an initiative has been started to create an extended part of the standard covering target process profiles. Target process profiles are particularly important in contexts where the organization (for example, a government department) is required to accept the cheapest qualifying vendor. This also enables suppliers to identify gaps between their current capability and the level required by a potential customer, and to undertake improvement to achieve the contract requirements (i.e. become qualified). Work on extending the value of capability determination includes a method called Practical Process Profiles - which uses risk as the determining factor in setting target process profiles. Combining risk and processes promotes improvement with active risk reduction, hence reducing the likelihood of problems occurring.
Acceptance of ISO/IEC 15504
ISO/IEC 15504 has been successful as:
- ISO/IEC 15504 is publicly available through National Standards Bodies.
- It has the support of the international community.
- Over 4000 assessments have been performed to date.
- Major sectors are leading the pace such as automotive, space and medical systems with industry relevant variants.
- Domain-specific models like Automotive SPICE and SPICE 4 SPACE can be derived from it.
- There have been many international initiatives to support take-up such as SPICE for small companies.
On the other hand, ISO/IEC 15504 has not yet been as successful as the
CMMICapability Maturity Model Integration CMMI is a process improvement approach that provides organizations with the essential elements of effective processes that ultimately improve their performance...
. This has been for several reasons:
- ISO/IEC 15504 is not available as free download but must be purchased from the ISO (Automotive SPICE on the other hand can be freely downloaded from the link supplied below.) CMM and CMMI are available as free downloads from the SEI website.
- The CMMI is actively sponsored (by the US Department of Defense).
- The CMM was created first, and reached critical 'market' share before ISO 15504 became available.
- The CMM has subsequently been replaced by the CMMI, which incorporates many of the ideas of ISO/IEC 15504, but also retains the benefits of the CMM.
Like the CMM, ISO/IEC 15504 was created in a development context, making it difficult to apply in a service management context. But work has started to develop an
ITILItil may mean:*Atil or Itil, the ancient capital of Khazaria* Itil, also Idel, Atil, Atal, the ancient and modern Turkic name of the river Volga.ITIL can stand for:*Information Technology Infrastructure Library...
-based process reference model that can serve as a basis for a process assessment model. This is planned to become part 8 to the standard. In addition there are methods available that adapt its use to various contexts.
Further reading
- ISO/IEC 15504-1:2004 Information technology Process assessment Part 1: Concepts and vocabulary
- ISO/IEC 15504-2:2003 Information technology Process assessment Part 2: Performing an Assessment
- ISO/IEC 15504-3:2004 Information technology Process assessment Part 3: Guidance on performing an assessment
- ISO/IEC 15504-4:2004 Information technology Process assessment Part 4: Guidance on use for process improvement and process capability determination
- ISO/IEC 15504-5:2006 Information technology Process Assessment Part 5: An exemplar Process Assessment Model
- ISO/IEC PRF TR 15504-6 Information technology Process assessment Part 6: An exemplar system life cycle Process Assessment Model
- ISO/IEC DTR 15504-7 Information technology Process assessment Part 7: Assessment of Organizational Maturity
- van Loon, H. (2007a) Process Assessment and ISO 15504 Springer ISBN 9780387300481
- van Loon, H. (2007b) Process Assessment and Improvement Springer ISBN 9780387300443
External links