CMM Versus SPICE Architectures

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 attempts to harmonize existing approaches. One of the SPICE 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. During the development of version 2 of the CMM, one of the technical issues to be decided is whether to re-architect the CMM by layering organizational maturity on top of the SPICE process capability framework. This paper discusses the pros and cons of these two approaches.