Process assessment with a project focus

The author compares three process assessment techniques that measure improvement against the Software Engineering Institute´s capability maturity model (CMM), particularly the Computer Science Corporation´s software process audit method. The Software Engineering Institute has developed two approaches to determine an organization´s process maturity: software process assessments (SPA) and software capability evaluations (SCA), both of which use the SEI´s CMM as a yardstick. Computer Science Corporation´s software process audit method addresses the major limitations of the SPA, ie. SPAs occur too infrequently to track progress; SPA results are reported at the organization, not project level; and SPAs direct process improvement at the organizational level. The process-audit approach at CSC focuses on projects, specifically their conformance to the organization´s defined process. As such, a process audit fits between a SPA and an SCE.<>