Measuring Process Capability versus Organizational Process Maturity

The SEI’s Capability Maturity Model for Software has popularized the notion of measuring the software process maturity of organizations. ISO’s SPICE project is currently creating a set of international standards for software process management that harmonize existing approaches. One of the objectives is to create a way of measuring process capability, while not using a specific approach such as the SEI’s maturity levels. The approach selected is to measure the implementation and institutionalization of specific processes; a process measure rather than an organization measure. Maturity levels can be viewed as sets of process profiles using this approach. This paper discusses the capability levels being developed by SPICE and how the CMM’s maturity levels would map onto them.