assessment and part 6 specifies system process assessment. The latest work in the ISO standards working group includes creation of a maturity model, which is planned to become ISO/IEC 15504 part 7. The standard The Technical Report (TR) document for ISO/IEC TR 15504 was divided into 9 parts. The initial International Standard was recreated in 5 parts. This was proposed from Japan when the TRs were published at 1997. The International Standard (IS) version of ISO/IEC 15504 now comprises 6 parts. The 7th part is currently in an advanced Final Draft Standard form and work has started on part 8. Part 1 of ISO/IEC TR 15504 explains the concepts and gives an overview of the framework. Reference model ISO/IEC 15504 contains a reference model. The reference model defines a process dimension and a capability dimension. The process dimension in the reference model is not the subject of part 2 of ISO/IEC 15504, but part 2 refers to external process lifecycle standards including ISO/IEC 12207 and ISO/IEC 15288. The standard defines means to verify conformity of reference models. Processes The process dimension defines processes divided into the five process categories of: customer-supplier engineering supporting management organization With new parts being published, the process categories will expand, particularly for IT service process categories and enterprise process categories. Capability levels and process attributes For each process, ISO/IEC 15504 defines a capability level on the following scale: The capability of processes is measured using process attributes. The international standard defines nine process attributes: 1.1 Process performance 2.1 Performance management 2.2 Work product management 3.1 Process definition 3.2 Process deployment 4.1 Process measurement 4.2 Process control 5.1 Process innovation 5.2 Process optimization Each process attribute consists of one or more generic practices, which are further elaborated into practice indicators to aid assessment performance. Rating scale of process attributes Each process attribute is assessed on a four-point (N-P-L-F) rating scale: Not achieved (0–15%) Partially achieved (>15–50%) Largely achieved (>50–85%) Fully achieved (>85–100%). The rating is based upon evidence collected against the practice indicators, which demonstrate fulfillment of the process attribute. Assessments ISO/IEC 15504 provides a guide for performing an assessment. This includes: the assessment process the model for the assessment any tools used in the assessment Assessment process Performing assessments is the subject of parts 2 and 3 of ISO/IEC 15504. Part 2 is the normative part and part 3 gives a guidance to fulfill the