SPICE is a major international initiative to support the International Standard ISO/IEC 15504 for (Software) Process Assessment.

The SPICE project was set up under the auspices of the International Committee on Software and Systems Engineering Standards through its Working Group on Process Assessment (WG10). The project had three principal goals:
•   to develop a working draft for a standard for software process assessment.
•   to conduct industry trials of the emerging standard.
•   to promote the technology transfer of software process assessment into the software industry world-wide.

The first goal of the project was achieved in June 1995, with the release of the Working Draft standard for software process assessment to WG10 for international ballot among the standards community. The Working Draft was commonly referred to as the SPICE document suite (or SPICE Version 1).

The SPICE Trials has been a focus for the SPICE project during the period 1994 to 1998. The SPICE Trials activity is now formally closed.

SPICE promotional activities are ongoing and are addressed through activities of the annual International SPICE Conference and the publication of articles and books. In order to support excellence and consistency in training for assessors, the SPICE project also developed and released a SPICE Assessor Training Syllabus that is currently used by the International Registration Scheme for Assessors (IntRSA).