Reference document

Org
ISO/IEC
Pubnum
TR 15504-4
Date
2004-07
Version
Title
Software Process Assessment Part 4: Guidance on use for process improvement and process capability determination

Applicability

ISO/IEC 15504-4 2004 provides guidance on how to utilize a conformant process assessment within a process improvement programme or for process capability determination. Within a process improvement (PI) context, process assessment provides a means of characterizing an organizational unit in terms of the capability of selected processes. Analysis of the output of a conformant process assessment against an organizational unit’s business goals identifies strengths, weaknesses and risks related to the processes. This, in turn, can help determine whether the processes are effective in achieving business goals, and provide the drivers for making improvements.

Process capability determination (PCD) is concerned with analysing the output of one or more conformant process assessments to identify the strengths, weaknesses and risks involved in undertaking a specific project using the selected processes within a given organizational unit. A process capability determination can provide a fundamental input to supplier selection, in which case it is often termed a supplier capability determination.

ISO/IEC 15504-4 2004 describes the PI and PCD processes and how to deploy them, and provides guidance on

  • utilizing process assessment,
  • selecting Process Reference Model(s),
  • setting target capability,
  • defining the assessment input,
  • inferring process-related risk from assessment output,
  • steps of process improvement,
  • steps of process capability determination,
  • comparability of assessment output analysis.

Responsible Party

Name
NCIA/CTO/SEA

Status

URI
https://www.iso.org/standard/37462.html

History

Flag Date RFC Version
added 1998-11-11 0.1
changed 2000-02-25 0.2
changed 2005-09-23 0.7
changed 2010-11-02 5
changed 2017-01-14 9-19 10
changed 2022-12-20 14-62 15
changed 2023-03-23 14-73 15
UUID
116f5639-3a4b-4e81-a5c6-7160a1c953a1