Process Assessment Issues of the ISO/IEC 29110 emerging standard

International audienceThe emerging ISO/IEC 29110 standard "Software Engineering - Lifecycle Profiles for Very Small Entities (VSE)" is an ISO initiative to provide Very Small Entities (VSE) with a suitable set of profiles for Process Assessment and Process Improvement. The approach is conforming to ISO 15504 2-D model of process capability: a process dimension based on a Process Reference Model (PRM), and a capability dimension with a set of process attributes grouped into capability levels. The ISO/IEC 29110 standard is developing 4 profiles for VSEs developing generic software: Entry, Basic, Intermediate and Advanced. This paper establishes a reduced set of Base Practices profiled from ISO 15504-5 "An exemplar Process Assessment Model (PAM)". It applies recommendations of ISO/IEC 29110 DTR 29110-3 about assessment and questions the use of a separated capability dimension and its usability for a VSE