assessed either by the organization itself, or by an independent assessor. The organization can determine a target capability for suppliers, based on the organization's needs, and then assess suppliers against a set of target process profiles that specify this target capability. Part 4 of the ISO/IEC 15504 specifies the high level requirements and an initiative has been started to create an extended part of the standard covering target process profiles. Target process profiles are particularly important in contexts where the organization (for example, a government department) is required to accept the cheapest qualifying vendor. This also enables suppliers to identify gaps between their current capability and the level required by a potential customer, and to undertake improvement to achieve the contract requirements (i.e. become qualified). Work on extending the value of capability determination includes a method called Practical Process Profiles - which uses risk as the determining factor in setting target process profiles. Combining risk and processes promotes improvement with active risk reduction, hence reducing the likelihood of problems occurring. Acceptance of ISO/IEC 15504 ISO/IEC 15504 has been successful as: ISO/IEC 15504 is available through National Standards Bodies. It has the support of the international community. Over 4,000 assessments have been performed to date. Major sectors are leading the pace such as automotive, space and medical systems with industry relevant variants. Domain-specific models like Automotive SPICE and SPICE 4 SPACE can be derived from it. There have been many international initiatives to support take-up such as SPICE for small and very small entities. On the other hand, ISO/IEC 15504 may not be as popular as CMMI for the following reasons: ISO/IEC 15504 is not available as free download, but must be purchased from the ISO. (Automotive SPICE, on the other hand, can be freely downloaded from the link supplied below.) CMM, and later CMMI, were originally available as free downloads from the SEI website. However, beginning with CMMI v2.0 a license must now be purchased from SEI. The CMM, and later CMMI, were originally sponsored by the US Department of Defense (DoD). Now, however, DoD no longer funds CMMI or mandates its use. The CMM was created first, and reached critical 'market' share before ISO 15504 became available. The CMM has subsequently been replaced by the CMMI, which incorporates many of the ideas of ISO/IEC 15504, but also retains the benefits of the CMM. Like the CMM, ISO/IEC 15504 was