Process-based models

Esta página es una versión traducida de la página Modelos basados en procesos. La traducción está completa al 100 %.

⏱ 3 min · 📅 2026

Process-based models are frameworks for managing and improving software quality that base the quality of the result on the quality of the processes used to produce it. They start from the premise that if the processes are good and are followed consistently, the result will be predictably good. They are the "thesis" to which agility was the "antithesis".

SW-CMM

The Capability Maturity Model for Software (CMM-SW) was developed by the SEI (Software Engineering Institute) at Carnegie Mellon University in the 1980s. It defines five maturity levels for software development processes: initial, repeatable, defined, managed, and optimizing. It was the first widely adopted model for software process improvement.

CMMI

CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) is the evolution of SW-CMM. It integrates multiple earlier models and extends the scope beyond software. It retains the maturity-level structure of SW-CMM.

ISO family of standards

ISO 9000: generic quality management system, applicable to any industry.
ISO/IEC 12207: life cycle processes for software development, maintenance, and operation.
ISO 15504: (SPICE) assessment and improvement of software life cycle processes.

SWEBOK

The Software Engineering Body of Knowledge is a guide to the knowledge areas of software engineering, published by the IEEE Computer Society. It is not a process model but a taxonomy of the discipline's knowledge.

In Perspective

Process-based models were the initial response to the software crisis of the 1960s and 1970s. Their widespread adoption in the 1980s and 1990s produced organizations with well-documented processes that nonetheless struggled to adapt to contexts of high requirements uncertainty. The knowledge spiral describes how agility emerged as the antithesis of these models, not as a universal replacement.

Common mistake

Believing that process-based models are incompatible with agility. An organization can have mature processes (ISO certification, CMMI) and work with agile frameworks. The real tension is not between processes and agility, but between rigid processes that inhibit adaptation and processes that facilitate work without hindering continuous improvement.