Compita is a world leader in the provision of cost effective process management products and services that support sustainable business advantage through optimisation of process efficiency and product quality.

Compita Ltd - Company Biography

Founded in 1991, Compita is a consultancy organisation specialising in the field of information technology process management. Focused upon the provision of highly specialised expertise, advice and skills transfer to software and systems engineering organisations, we have gained an enviable reputation for excellence and professionalism in our service provision to our primarily `blue chip' client base.

As well as process consultancy, our experienced consultants provide assessment services & assessor and lead assessor training for ISO15504 (SPICE), CMM^® and CMMI^®, and in recent years we have successfully developed software tools to support and add value to these services.

Additionally, Compita can deliver a wide range of off-the-shelf and bespoke skills training and process training courses in subjects ranging from Project Management and Team Leading skills to Requirements Capture and Risk Management.

The Early Days

In the early days, the company was based in the small town of South Queensferry on the banks of the river Forth, just to the north of Edinburgh. Compita was initially a 3 person organisation specialising in quality improvement programmes (QIPs) for SMEs. Compita helped position these companies for ISO9000 or TickIT certification.

1992 saw the launch of Software Technology Diagnostic, a framework for assessing process capability, and the launch of the first ISOclub. These clubs built on the QIP experience and used a Compita-developed set of procedures which enabled them to quickly build effective Quality Systems.

In 1993, Compita were invited to participate as technology consultants to the SPICE project, the working group which established the ISO15504 international standard. We remain Principal UK Experts to this programme.

Compita's training division was created in 1994, and quickly established Compita as a professional provider of skills training in central Scotland.

ISOPlus grew from the material developed for the ISOclubs and has been sold into 29 countries worldwide. Now called Quality Kit, it launched in 1995, and provides a full set of procedures and templates for a Quality Management System which supports ISO9000 or TickIT certification.

The Process Professional Portfolio

In August 1996, Compita launched its ground-breaking Process Professional Portfolio range of process management tools and products. In 1997 Assessor for CMM^® users was launched, and in the summer of 1998 this was endorsed as fully CAF-compliant by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI^SM) in Pittsburgh.

Since 1996 the Process Professional range has become the European standard for companies involved in self-assessment against either ISO15504 or CMM^®.  The launch in 2002 of our CMMI^® flavour of Process Professional ensures that this trend is set to continue.

1997 also saw the launch of the Business Excellence Benchmarking Group (BEBG), an independent knowledge-sharing forum facilitated by Compita, and now known as the Business Excellence Exchange (BEx²).

In 1998, Compita moved to our present headquarters (above) part of a modern, high-tech development in the town of Livingston, a busy and rapidly-growing business centre situated on the M8 corridor between Glasgow and Edinburgh. This central location, within easy reach of Edinburgh Airport, is ideally placed to enable further growth and development of our company and our capabilities.

Version 2 of Process Professional Manager was launched in 1999, and in 2000 this was followed by Assessor for CBA IPI and Assessor for CMMI^® and the launch of our Managed Services.

In 2001 the focus was on the creation of Business Professional, a wholly new enterprise providing applications to the ASP market place.  The second half of the year also saw Compita move into the Japanese market, conducting assessments as well as delivering training and consultancy support to many of Japan's largest corporations.

2002 brought the launch of our CMMI^® suite of methods, training and tools as part of the Process Professional Portfolio, including the PPA for CMMI^® assessment method, Introduction to CMMI^® , Assessor for CMMI^® , and Lead Assessor for CMMI^® training courses.

Building on our success in Japan, Compita Japan Company Limited was formally incorporated in 2003, giving us a base in Tokyo from where our first Japanese-speaking consultants and lead assessors have been able to work closely with our UK consultants to support our growing Japanese client base. To date, Compita have trained over 160 lead assessors in Japan.

2004 saw the launch of the PPA Assessor for CMMI^® tool, an invaluable aid to assessors everywhere, providing an easy to use assessment data repository with excellent report production facilities.

In 2005, Compita Europe was formed, giving Compita bases in both Belgium and The Netherlands and bringing our public schedule of training to a wider audience on mainland Europe. Our group of highly skilled and experienced improvement consultants and associates was expanded to offer expertise in a variety of European languages, including French, Dutch, Spanish and German.

CMMI^® v1.2 was released in 2006, and the PPA product suite now includes training and tools to support the new CMMI^® for Development model, as well as Upgrade training to help existing users transition.

The Future...

CMMI^® is growing in popularity in the UK and beyond, and we are concentrating our efforts to meet this demand. PPA for CMMI^® supports ARC Class A, B and C assessments, and our training suite is now well established. In order to promote and support best practice whilst offering the widest possible choice to our partners, Compita now offers SCAMPI^® Class A, B and C assessment services alongside the official SEI^SM Introduction to CMMI^® v1.2 training course.

We are also seeing rising interest in ITIL, the IT Infrastructure Library. Our future plans include a flavour of the PPA assessment method for ITIL, in order to extend our assessment support for clients into the IT support and maintenance arena, and full support for the forthcoming CMMI^® for Services model. We are currently involved in contributing to the SEI^SM's programme of review of this model.

Above all, we will continue to support our clients in their process improvement efforts.

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