SPICE stands for System Process Improvement and Capability DEtermination. It is based on an international standard (the ISO/IEC 330xx series).

Automotive SPICE® assessments evaluate the “capability” of development processes. Official Automotive SPICE® assessments may only be conducted by intacs-certified Competent or Principal Assessors (see also: how to become a certified assessor).

Typically, Automotive SPICE® assessments are:

• requested by customers from their suppliers to assess how systematically the supplier operates (Capability Determination)
• initiated internally by an organization to launch its own improvement programs (System Process Improvement)

An assessment is performed by an assessor team (at least two certified assessors) and will be conducted with the following steps:

• Planning
  • Detailed goal and scope definition of the assessments
  • Preparation of the assessment plan and schedule
  • Preparation of the interviews and the kick-off meetings
  • Selection of example project and process documents
• Document Review
  • The assessor team receives the selected example documents per process area before the interview session starts.
  • Review of the provided documents by the assessor team
  • Remark: If no documents will be provided for review before the on-site interviews start, it will shorten the preparation effort. Therefore, during the interviews more time is needed to inspect the documents.
• Kick-off Meeting
  • Briefing of the assessor team together with the lead assessor
  • Short presentation of the assessed organization and the project
  • Presentation of the assessment schedule
• Interviews
  • The processes mentioned above will be assessed as defined in the schedule.
• Consolidation and Team Feedback
  • Final consolidation of the rating by the assessment team
  • First feedback with all participants: clarification of questions and, if necessary, evaluation of additional evidences
• Assessment Report
  • The results of the assessment will be assembled into a report and handed over to the sponsor.

We have several intacs® certifed assessors (see also About Us). We can take over the assessment lead, co-assessor or both.