Jorn Johansen,
Whitebox, Denmark
Jan Pries Heje,
Roskilde University, Denmark
Jens Hojriis Aarup,
Systematic, Denmark
Susana Boavida,
Critical Software, Portugal
We are in a situation where competitiveness is becoming more and more important. The technological possibilities are growing exponentially and are getting even more complex. Projects are getting bigger and bigger and now include infrastructure, technological platforms, distributed development across many teams and organisations, structured research, focused business development, regulation and compliance with standards, and much more. All of which can only be countered by organizational maturity.
The Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) and the ISO based Software Process Improvement and Capability Determination (SPICE) maturity models supporting organizations advancements towards higher maturity. They have 5 levels of maturity, where level 4 and five are the high maturity levels.
Today more than 75% of all CMMI appraisals are performed in China. Why is it so? Since the launch of the Smart Manufacturing 2025 strategy China have poured massive investments into improving their innovation, manufacturing and development capabilities. In Chinas eyes, achieving high maturity is not only a necessity, it is a force multiplier.
This topic must be addressed in the European Union and other countries. We want to put our innovative manufacturing and development up front, we want to focus on our operational excellence. Yes, we want modularization, we want sustainability, we want safety, etc. But to get there in an effective way, European companies must focus on become more mature – or even achieve high maturity.
We are also looking into development of very complex high security systems of systems projects involving several organizations (e.g. the European Skyshield defense system including satellite connections), where high maturity is required to ensure the needed level of quality.
To many, even at political level, it is not clear what the benefits of achieving high maturity or even being a mature company really is. This is one of the reasons why there are relatively few High Maturity companies within the European Union.
This calls for the need of a High Maturity group within the European Union, where European companies can assist and help each other to become even more mature, and where from where the benefits and how to succeed with High Maturity can be told and spread. If your organization has achieved high maturity in a software maturity assessment like CMMI (e.g., Level 4 or 5), it means you've developed strong, disciplined processes, with quantitative management and continuous improvement built into your operations. However, high maturity doesn't mean you're free from problems - it just changes the nature of the challenges you face. <!--COMMENTING OUT PROGRAM
Workshop Program 09.09.2026
Local Time
07.00 - 08.00
CET Time
Local Time
08.00 - 08.45
CET Time
Local Time
08.45 - 09.30
CET Time
Local Time
09.30 - 10.00
CET Time
Local Time
10.00 - 11.00
CET Time
Jan Pries-Heje, Roskilde University, Denmark,
Jorn Johansen, Whitebox, Denmark
Mary Roselind Michael, HELLA GmbH & Co KGaA, Germany, Damjan Ekert, ISCN GmbH, Austria, Brigitte Kurz-Grießnig, Engineering Center Steyr GmbH & CO KG, Austria, Ralf Mayer, Bosch Engineering GmbH, Germany, Valeria Franzitta, Bosch Engineering GmbH, Germany, Alexander Much, Safionyx GmbH & Co KG, Germany, Alexander Feulner, Process Fellows GmbH, Germany
Local Time
11.00 - 12.30
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12.30 - 13.15
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13.30 - 14.30
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Peyman Jahanshahi, Dekimo Experts, High Tech Campus 83, 5656 AG Eindhoven, The Netherlands, and System Engineering Department, CarUX Technology Europe B.V., 6411 NK Heerlen, The Netherlands
Ernesto Orozco-Jimenez, Mirna Munoz, CIMAT, Mexico, Adriana Pena, Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico, Jezreel Mejia, , CIMAT, Mexico
Local Time
14.45 - 16.45
CET Time
Local Time
17.15
CET Time
Local Time
18.30 - 22.00
CET Time
(link to social event page)
After that buses will bring the attendees to a dinner and buses will bring after dinner the attendees back to the hotels. If you plan to do private travel arrangements, please use the recommended travel agency which we recommend on the travel page.
Background of Workshop Chairs
Jorn Johansen, Whitebox, Denmark
I have almost always participated in the EuroSPI conferences, because I find EuroSPI through its various participants (private, public, universities and consultants) has a basis that creates very valuable discussions and share beneficial experience. EuroSPI Certificates and Services. The next conference takes place September 17. to 19. in Riga. You can also find me at LinkedIn. Shortly: I’m an engineer of education, has been developer and project manager at Brüel & Kjær for 15 years. The following 30 years I have been an assessor and helped companies improve their maturity in product development or project delivery. Over time more than 700 assessments in close to 300 different companies.
Jan Pries-Heje, PhD, R., Roskilde University, Denmark
Jan Pries Heje is Professor in Computer Science and Information Systems at Roskilde University, Denmark. He is Head of the Sustainable Digitalization Research Group, and Director of Studies for Master in Project Management and Organizational Change. He has more than 25 years of experience working as Project and Research manager and doing research focusing on designing and building innovative solutions to managerial and organizational IT problems. He serves as Editor-in-Chief for IFIP Select, and Senior Editor for Journal of the AIS. He is Conference Chair for the upcoming International Conference on Information Systems (ICIS) to be held in Lisbon in 2026.
28 years ago he was trained as maturity assessor using the European Bootstrap model. He worked three years as an assessor with the Danish company DELTA. After that he returned to Academia where he has done research in process improvement for the last 25 years. He was the lead for research in a 3-year 60 million DKK Innovation Consortium where the ImprovAbility model was developed. That model later became the ISO 33014 standard for process improvement. He was also, together with Jørn Johansen, responsible for creating the SPI Manifesto.
Susana Boavida, Critical Software, Portugal
She is holding a degree in Computer Engineering, Susana found her passion early in process improvement and CMMI. Link to her LinkedIn Profile.
With nearly 20 years of experience, she plays a key role in advancing high-maturity practices at Critical Software, contributing to the evolution of quality and agility in complex, multi-standard environments. She has led CMMI Level 5 initiatives, blending agile methods with structured governance. Susana also designed and implemented a company-wide QMS focused on both compliance and business value, supporting both regulatory needs and organizational agility.
Jens Hojriis Aarup, Systematic, Denmark
Most of my professional life I have spent developing and maturing IT organisations from a high maturity perspective. I hold a degree in Computer Science and as such I have worked as a developer, team lead, but mostly as project manager and manager in various Danish companies. For almost 20 years I have enhanced and improved organisational capabilities using the CMMI model as a base in combination with best practises from various domains. As such, I have advanced several generations of CMMI ML5 process libraries (QMS). Each accelerating business value while supporting a multi model compliance picture. Link to his LinkedIn Profile.