Process improvement is the first step for every organization that wants to have a process culture. All organizations are in the process of change and process improvement studies are a study that should be based on some basic data that should be planned. Otherwise, it is likely to fail. ISO 15504 standard, or better known by the name SPICE standardis one of the most comprehensive process standards in this field.

SPICE, which consists of the initials of English Software Process Improvement and Capability Determination, is defined as the determination of software process development capability level. The purpose of the SPICE model is to establish a common principle for different software process evaluation models and methods. In this way, a joint report is obtained for the evaluation results.

The generated reference model defines the basic objectives required for quality software engineering at the highest level. As a result, the software is applied to every software organization seeking qualification in terms of acquisition, development, operation and support. The reference model does not search for the company to have a certain structure, to have a certain management philosophy, and it is not based on a specific software technology or development methodology or software lifecycle model.

The SPICE model can be expressed as process evaluation in information technologies. This model is a standard developed by the International Standards Organization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

ISO 15504 Software Process Evaluation Systemhas two dimensions. These include process dimension, inward process improvement studies, and process competence dimension define outward-oriented talent determination studies. That is, there are processes in the first dimension and in the second dimension there are talent levels.

There are five processes in the process dimension:

  • Processes that directly affect the customer and the supplier (customer)
  • Engineering processes
  • Processes that make up the project
  • Support processes
  • Organization processes (oganization)

A skill level is determined for each of these processes. These skill levels are:

  • 0: Incomplete level
  • 1: Performed level
  • 2: Managed level
  • 3: Institutionalized level
  • 4: Predictable, measured level (predictable)
  • 5: Continuously improving level (optimizing)

The Public Information and Communication Technology Projects Preparation Guide issued by the State Planning Organization was drawn up to determine the general principles and principles to be followed in the investments of the official bodies in the field of information and communication technologies.

This guideline is intended to prevent potential failures in the software projects of the official bodies, on the other hand to encourage quality certification in the sector and to contribute to international competitiveness. In order to achieve this, it is envisaged to implement the TS ISO / IEC 2007 standard (SPICE) level 15504 software quality models as of 2 year, depending on the amount and scope of the project.

ISO 15504. Software Process Evaluation System standardIn 1995, it was developed together by the International Standards Organization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

In software development projects, management generally suffers from problems such as poorly understanding the development processes or the lack of good planning or good management of the project. To avoid these problems, more disciplined development processes were needed and standards were started to be developed. SPICE is one of these developed standards.

SPICE is designed to improve software processes and determine process capabilities. SPICE has the following basic principles:

  • Standardization
  • Assessment, skills identification and improvement
  • Adapt to other models
  • Measuring development
  • Consistency and repeatability
  • No certification purpose

We mentioned above that there are two dimensions of the ISO 15504 Software Process Evaluation System: process size and capability levels.

The criteria for process size are as follows:

  • Processes are methods of doing business.
  • Processes usually consist of sub-processes and processes.
  • Processes are documented and updated continuously.
  • Processes have inputs and outputs.

For example, subprocesses of engineering processes, software requirements analysis, designing software works, performing software and testing software are sub-processes.

Another model of software processes is Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI). This process model is a model that evaluates the maturity of organizations' software planning, development, configuration and similar software processes. 1986 began to be developed in the year.

While this model focuses more on management processes, ISO / IEC 15504 standard focuses more on engineering processes.