Handling an ISO/IEC 15504 SPICE Assessment Wave, An Unique Incident

This paper reports the initial background, concepts, progression and outcomes of a ISO/IEC 15504 SPICE assessment wave occured at Turkey, handled by Turkish Standards Institution (TSE). It explains the certification programme of TSE and the continuous management of certified companies. The general status and profiles of certified companies depending on their behavioral approach to ISO/IEC 15504 SPICE standard are also indicated. On the later parts of the paper, the most common mistakes of many companies in the common scope of OMM level-2 of ISO/IEC 15504-7 are reported. As the “Turkish SPICE Wave” initiative affected many organizations and reshaped a whole sector in a different way, the outcomes of the wave rendered the selection of ISO/IEC 15504-7 standard questionable in terms of the compatibility to VSE’s (Very Small Entity); as the results makes an observer wonder whether selecting ISO/IEC 29110 standard instead of ISO/IEC 15504 SPICE could be more beneficial and easy to use for small scale companies.