ISO/IEC 15504 is published as a full international standard under the general title Information Technology — Process Assessment. It consists of the following parts:

• Part 1 - Concepts and vocabulary
• Part 2 - Performing an assessment
• Part 3 - Guidance on performing an assessment
• Part 4 - Guidance on use for process improvement and process capability determination
• Part 5 - An exemplar process assessment model for software life cycle processes
• Part 6 - An exemplar process assessment model for systems life cycle processes 
• Part 7 - Assessment of organizational maturity (expected publication 2008)

The main changes that occur from the ISO/IEC TR 15504 to ISO/IEC 15504 are as follows:

1. The name change from Software Process Assessment to Process Assessment
2. The restructuring of the standard from 9 parts to 5 parts
3. The inclusion of an exemplar assessment method
4. The removal of the Process Dimension which now resides in an annex to ISO/IEC ISO 12207 and is published as ISO/IEC 12207 AMD1 and AMD2
5. The introduction of the concept of Process Reference Models
6. The revision and alignment of the Capability Dimension with ISO9001: 2000

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Process Reference Models may be developed outside of the ISO standardization providing they meet certain requirements for conformity and compliance. Process Reference Models exist or are already under development in the areas of:

• Software lifecycle processes – through ISO/IEC 12207 AMD1/2
• System lifecycle processes – through ISO/IEC 15288
• Human centered lifecycle processes - through ISO 18529
• Component-based development processes – through the OOSPICE project
• IT service management processes - through ISO/IEC 20000
• Quality management system processes - through SPICE for 9000 (S9K)
• Automotive embedded software – an initiative of The Procurement Forum and The SPICE User Group with the major European car manufacturers - through Automotive SPICE ,
• Medical device software - through the Medi SPICE initiative

ISO/IEC 15504 Part 5 contains an exemplar Process Assessment Model (PAM). The Process Assessment Model comprises a process dimension and a capability dimension. The Process Assessment Model additionally provides a set of indicators of process performance and process capability.

Read the full story to learn about the Process Dimension, the Capability Dimension, Process Attributes and the rating scheme.