Comments on 'a critical look' (software capability evaluations)

It is maintained that the article by T. Bollinger and C. McGowan, entitled 'A critical look at software capability evaluation', see ibid., p.25-41 (1991), contains a serious flaw. The article argues that the process-maturity grading system used by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) is unfair and provides too narrow a basis for evaluating software organizations. The present authors point out that SEI instructs Software Capability Evaluation (SCE) auditors not to base their compact-award recommendations on maturity grades for software vendors. Other common misconceptions about the SEI assessment method communicated by the article are addressed. They fall into six categories: SCE's purpose, especially in relation to process assessment; how the SCE method works in practice; the statistical methods used to determine levels; the ongoing process of refining the method; the maturity framework; and the coverage of technology issues.>