Process excellence and capability determination

BT's Systems Engineering department is faced with a constant challenge to deliver quality software against increasing customer demands. It is important to understand the processes BT uses and to be able to continually improve them. The first sr step was the adoption of IS09001 [I] and then IS09000-3 (TicklT) [2]) within BT. These standards were, however, while useful, considered too prescriptive to fully meet our needs. A new standard, ISO 15504 also known as SPICE, moves us forward from the prescriptive audit method towards a flexible assessment approach. SPICE provides a measure of the maturity of a process against a defined model of best practice, rather than a pass/fail result as with IS09001. This paper presents an overview of the emerging SPICE standard, together with a discussion on its potential benefits for Systems Engineering and BT.