The ISO/IEC 15504 Measurement Framework for Process Capability and CMMI

Abstract

The requirements for conformance of a process model to the international standard for process assessment, ISO/IEC 15504, cover a range of requirements. The most significant of these are the need to establish a complete and unambiguous mapping between the model and a relevant Process Reference Model, and to develop a mechanism for translating the outputs from an assessment into the standard process profiles defined in ISO/IEC 15504. A key issue in the mapping is the need to determine the relationship between the candidate Process Assessment Model and the Measurement Framework for process capability defined in ISO/IEC 15504-2. This paper reports the results of an analysis of the relationship between CMMIÒ, as a candidate conformant assessment model, and the Measurement Framework; it is shown that, while in general terms a complete mapping can be established, there are specific areas where coverage is weak, and it is necessary to move outside the capability aspects of CMMI® to obtain complete coverage.