Towards an ISO/IEC 15504-Based Process Capability Profile Methodology for Process Improvement (PRO2PI)

The ISO/IEC 15504́s Continuous Architecture offers an opportunity to advance the benefits of process improvement, over the CMM-based staged architecture. It allows the definition of a specific hierarchy of Process Capabilit y Profiles (PCP) that better addresses the organization business context to be used as reference for an effective improvement. A PCP is composed by a set of processes, each one in a capabilit y level. However, as a framework for process assessment, not process improvement, 15504 does not provide adequate support for defining PCPs, making difficult to use this opportunity. A research effort towards the development and experimentation of a methodology for the definition, operation and utili zation of a hierarchy of specific and dynamic ISO/IEC 15504-Based Process Capabilit y Profile for Process Improvement (PRO2PI) is under way. This article describes the rationality for this research, the main elements of the PRO2PI Methodology and some experiences and examples with its earlier versions.