Total Process Improvement - TPI - Test in a new way

TPI (Test Process Improvement Model) is a model which aims to aid in measuring the testing process maturity and also provides guidelines for improvements. Developed by Sogeti Nederland BV, it classifies the entire testing process into 20 key areas. It gives an approach wherein an organization can self assess the level at which it is in each of the 20 key areas. There are a maximum of 4 levels (A, B, C, D) for each of the key areas with A being the least and D the highest.
The manager can define a target required level for each of the areas. All key areas need not be at the same level. TPI also offers a set of improvement guidelines on how one could improves one’s process to a higher level for each of the areas. To reach a particular level there is a checkpoint which contains the set of requirements that the particular key area must satisfy to achieve that level.
There is a final maturity matrix which captures the levels and interdependencies between each of the key areas. Each of the rows of the matrix is a key area. The columns of the matrix are the maturity levels. There are 13 levels of maturity. Not all key areas at a given level map to a given level of maturity. For example if Test Strategy is at level A then the maturity for it is only 1 while if key area metrics is at level A the maturity is level 6. This is because all key areas do not have the same priority. In addition the 13 maturity stages are mapped into 3 categories: 1-5 is Controlled, 6-10 is Efficient and 11-13 is Optimizing.