1. SOFTWARE QUALITY ASSURANCE
SOFTWARE PROCESS
IMPROVEMENT AND
CAPABILITY DETERMINATION
Seminar: Oana FEIDI
Quality Manager – Continental Automotive

3. WHAT IS SPICE?
 SPICE – Software Process Improvement & Capability
dEtermination
 also known as ISO/IEC 15504 is an international standard
for SW process assessments
 a model that identifies a set of software best practices and
shows how they fit together to create an improvement path
for the software development process
 Mainly used in Europe and Australia by the automotive
industry
 Goal
 To provide assessment results that are repeatable,
objective, comparable

4. AUTOMOTIVE SPICE
 Automotive SPICE launched in April 2006
 its usage will increase mainly driven by HIS (Audi, BMW,
Daimler Chrysler, Porsche, Volkswagen), Ford & Volvo, Fiat
 If OEM’s target levels are not met, then:
 Suppliers are requested to improve the development processes
 In case of high risks/low capability levels, the suppliers are
excluded from sourcing
 (me) structure the way of working
 (me) identify the main weakness within the development
process and build improvement activities
 (me) “link” between inputs & outputs

5. THE GOAL OF PROCESS ASSESSMENT
& IMPROVEMENT
Rating
Process Assessment
Improvement
 The goal of an improvement is to change an organization’s
processes so that they achieve a higher ability to meet its
businesses goals
 Assessments deliver the input for any improvement by
detecting strength and weaknesses in the organizations
processes
 Assessments are also a tool used by customers to ascertain the
ability of their suppliers to meet their needs

6. SPICE STRUCTURE
The measure of the capability is done according to the two-
dimensional evaluations scheme of ISO 15504 (SPICE/
Automotive SPICE®):
Process Dimension Capability Dimension Two-dimensional
(Automotive SPICE®) (ISO 15504 'SPICE') Evaluations Scheme
It is possible to identify the
capability of certain processes
Includes processes in groups independent of the others

7. SPICE MODEL’S STRUCTURE
 Process dimension
 Characterized by set of purpose statements which describe in
measurable terms what has to be achieved in order to attain
the defined purpose of the process
 Process Capability dimension
 Characterizes the level of capability that an organization unit
has attained for a particular process or,
 May be used by the organization as a target to be attained
 Represent measurable characteristics necessary to manage a
process and improve its capability to perform

8. PROCESS OVERVIEW AND HIS-
SCOPE

9. PROCESS STRUCTURE

10. CAPABILITY DIMENSION

11. CAPABILITY LEVEL 1 & 2
Level 1 Level 2
 The purpose of the process  The performance of the
process is planned and
is generally achieved checked
 Work products proof  The responsibility for
developing the work products
implementation of base is assigned to a person or
practices team
 No documented process  Requirements for the work
products are identified,
 No planning or checks of documented and traced
performance of the process  Work products are put under
configuration management
 No quality requirements and quality assurance
for work product are  No documented or defined
expressed process

12. CAPABILITY LEVEL 3
 A documented standard process with tailoring guidelines
exists and is used in the project
 Historical process performance data is gathered
 Experience from the performance of the process is used for
process improvement
 Resources and needed infrastructure for the performance
of the process are identified and made available
 The process is not yet quantitatively understood or
managed
 Process improvement is reactive

13. PROCESS DIMENSION OVERVIEW
 Primary Life Cycle Processes Category
 Acquisition
 Supply
 Engineering: ENG.4 (Software requirements analysis), ENG.5
(Software design), ENG.6 (Software construction), ENG.7
(Software integration), ENG.8 (Software testing)
 Supporting Life Cycle Processes Category
 Support: SUP.1 (Quality assurance), SUP.2 (Verification),
SUP.8 (Configuration management), SUP.10 (Change request
management)
 Organizational Life Cycle Process Category
 Management: MAN.3 (Project Management), MAN.5 (Risk
Management)
 Process Improvement: PIM.3 (Process Improvement)
 Reuse: REU.2 (Reuse program management)

14. PROCESS ATTRIBUTES

15. MEASURE CAPABILITY LEVELS
 The fulfillment of a process attribute (PA) is
measured along a scale from 0 – 100% in the
following predefined stages:
 N (not achieved): 0 – 15%
 The are no or only very limited indications of PA fulfillment
 P (partially achieved): 16 – 50%
 There are some indicators that the PA is implemented to the
measured extent. In some aspects the process remains
unpredictable, though.
 L (largely achieved): 51 – 85%
 There is evidence that the PA is implemented to the measured
extend in a useful and systematic way. Process performance
might still show some weaknesses
 F (fully achieved): 86 – 100%
 There is evidence for a complete and systematic PA execution to
the measured extent. Process performance does not show any
significant shortcomings due to the analyzed processes

16. SPICE ASSESSMENTS
Assessment input:
• purpose Assessment instrument
• scope • process indicators
• constraints • process management indicators
• qualified assessor
• extended process definition
Process
Planning Data collection Data analysis Process rating REPORT
Assessment
Assessment output
• process capability level ratings
Process model • assessment record
• process purpose
• practices

17. TEST SPICE
http://www.pr-partner-koeln.de/media/downloads/sqs_te_testingexperience_0409_5796.pdf

20. DEBATE
 Let’s rate the base practices for ENG.8 (Software
testing) in your organization