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Assessment Indicators
A process assessment model shall be based on a set of assessment indicators that:
a) explicitly address the purpose and process outcomes, as defined in the selected process reference model, of each of the processes within the scope of the process assessment model;
b) demonstrate the achievement of the process attributes within the scope of the process assessment model;
c) demonstrate the achievement (where relevant) of the process quality levels within the scope of the process assessment model.
The assessment indicators generally fall into three types:
a) practices that support achievement of either the process purpose or the specific process attribute.
b) information items and their characteristics that demonstrate the respective achievements.
c) resources and infrastructure that support the respective achievements. [ISO/IEC 33004:2015, 6.3.1]
In this assessment model, only practices and information items are used.
Practices are representing activity-oriented indicators, where Information items are representing result-oriented indicators. Both practices and information items are used for judging objective evidence to be collected and accumulated in the performance of an assessment.
As a first type of assessment indicator, practices are provided, which can be divided into two types:
They provide an indication of the extent of achievement of the process outcomes. Base practices relate to one or more process outcomes, thus being always process-specific and not generic.
They provide an indication of the extent of process attribute achievement. Generic practices relate to one or more process attribute achievements, thus applying to any process.
As a second type of assessment indicators, information items (II) including their characteristics (IIC) are provided in Annex B.
These are meant to offer a good practice and state-of-the-art knowledge guide for the assessor. Therefore, information items including their characteristics are supposed to be a quickly accessible information source during an assessment.
Information item characteristics shall not be interpreted as a required structure of a corresponding work products, which is defined by the project and organization, respectively.
Please refer to chapter 3.3.2 for understanding the difference between information items and work products.
ISO 33004:2015 requires the mapping of assessment indicators to process attributes as shown in figure 3.
The capability of a process on level 1 is only characterized by the measure of the extent to which the process outcomes are achieved. According to ISO 33003:2015, a measurement framework requires each level to reveal a process attribute. Therefore, the only process performance attribute for capability Level 1 (PA.1.1) has a single generic practice (GP 1.1.1) pointing as an editorial reference to the respective process performance indicators (see figure 3 and chapter 4).
PA 5.2
PA 5.1
PA 4.2
PA 4.1
PA 3.2
PA 3.1
PA 2.2
PA 2.1
GP, II/IIC
GP, II/IIC
GP
BP, II/IIC
Process assessment model (Automotive SPICE)
Process capability indicators
Process performance indicators
PA 1.1
Measurement framework
Capability levels
Process attributes
Rating
Scale
Rating method
Aggregation method
Process capability level model
CL 5
CL 4
CL 3
CL 2
CL 1
Process reference model (Automotive SPICE)
Domain and scopes
Process purposes
Process outcomes
Outcomes of process 1
Outcomes of process 2
Outcomes of process 3
Figure 3 — Relationship between assessment indicators and process capability
The detailed mapping of base practices / indicators and generic practices / indicators to process outcomes and achievements, is provided in corresponding tables in chapter 4 and 5, respectively.
In order to judge the presence or absence of process outcomes and process achievements an assessment obtains objective evidence. All such evidence comes either from the examination of work products related to a specific output of the processes assessed, or from statements made by the performers and managers of the processes. Sources for such evidence is either repository content of the assessed processes, or testimony provided by the performers and managers of the assessed processes.
As described in chapter 3.3.1, this process assessment model provides information items serving as indicators to guide the assessor when judging a process attribute achievement.
3.3.2.1. Information items versus work products
ISO/IEC 33001 provides the following definition of the term “information item”:
