1. Purpose and scope
Process definition turns the gap list into a process set people can follow. The aim is not a library of documents that restate the assessment model; it is a description of how this organisation plans, specifies, designs, builds, verifies, controls and releases its work, written so that following it produces the evidence the model looks for as a by-product. Processes written from the model downwards tend to be followed only before assessments. Processes written from real practice upwards, with the gaps then closed, tend to last.
Level two can be reached project by project, but level three needs an organisational standard process with tailoring rules, and the assessment will look for evidence that projects use it and that its performance is fed back. Even when the target is level two, a common process set saves each project from inventing its own and makes deployment, training and quality assurance far cheaper. This stage also designs the traceability and consistency strategy: which links must exist between stakeholder requirements, system and software requirements, architecture, detailed design, units, test cases and results, and how they are kept true when things change.
In scope: the standard process set, roles, templates and checklists, work product definitions, the traceability strategy, the tailoring guideline and the process improvement plan. Out of scope: configuring the tools and training people, which belongs to Process Deployment, Tools & Training.
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