Process capability in the Australian software industry-results from the SPICE trials

This paper is an initial report on the analysis of data from the Australian contribution to the international SPICE (Software Process Improvement and Capability dEtermination) project, Phase 2 trials. It should be viewed in the context of the overall international trials, where Australia is one of over 20 countries involved. The paper reports on the characteristics of the participating organizations and provides aggregated results of ratings of process capability. The value of these trials is now evident. They provide a means to evaluate the overall capability of the Australian software industry against the best in the world. Effective benchmarking by industry sector, and for the software development domain, is now a reality.