Software Process Improvement Laboratory

Process capability assessment provides tangible evidence of the achievement of a level of process capability in selected processes of an enterprise.

For an organisation to improve product or service quality it must have:

• a proven, consistent and reliable method for assessing the state of its business activities, and
• a means of using the results as part of a coherent improvement programme.

Using process assessment within an organisation should encourage:

• a culture of constant improvement and establishing mechanisms to support and maintain that culture;
• the development and maintenance of processes to meet business requirements; and
• the most effective use of resources.

Why assess process capability?

Purchasers of software products and services benefit from the use of process assessment. When used for determining capability it will:

• reduce uncertainties in selecting suppliers of software intensive systems by enabling the risks associated with the contractor's capability to be identified before contract award;
• enable appropriate controls to be put in place for risk containment; and
• provide a quantified basis for choice in balancing business needs, requirements and estimated project cost against the capability of competing suppliers.

What is process capability?

Process capability is a measure of the ability of an enterprise to manage its processes. The levels of capability in the applied international standard (ISO/IEC 15504) process capability model range from 0 to a maximum level of 5. The required level of process capability is based upon an assessment of the risk of the non-performance of that process and its potential impact on achieving business goals.

Why is process capability important?

International and local experience indicates that most software enterprises barely have the capability to effectively perform the basic technical tasks of their business processes, as indicated in the following figure. This lack of technical and managerial capability represents a significant business risk for suppliers and purchases.

chart

What does the SPI-LAB process capability assessment programme offer?

The programme has two elements:

• Process capability assessments are planned and executed.
• Certificates are issued that attest to the achievement of capability in the targeted processes of the targeted enterprise.