Toward a Specialized Quality Management Maturity Assessment Model

SW Quality Assessment models are either too broad such as CMMI-DEV and SPICE that cover the full software development life cycle (SDLC), or too narrow such as TMMI and TPI that focus on testing. Quality Management as a main concern within the software industry is broader than the concept of testing. The V-Model sets a broader view with the concepts of Verification and Validation. Quality Assurance (QA) is another broader term that includes quality of processes. Configuration audits add more scope. In parallel there are some less visible dimensions in quality not often addressed in traditional models such as business alignment of QA efforts. This paper compares the commonly accepted models related to software quality management and proposes a model that fills an empty space in this area. The paper provides some analysis of the concepts of maturity and capability levels and provides some proposed adaptations for quality management assessment.