The OOSPICE project aims at creating a capability assessment package for component-based development (CBD), which complements and extends the ISO 15504 technical report (SPICE) and its pending standard. In addition, it will offer support for process definition, creation and tailoring in the CBD domain. The major deliverables are a process reference model for CBD, a process assessment methodology, a new CBD methodology and supporting toolset, and an underpinning CBD process metamodel. Here, we evaluate the various terminologies in current usage in OO, CBD, capability assessment and the ISO standards, and then describe the important architectural framework of the project, which brings together the two previously disparate fields of process and methodology metamodeling with capability assessment and improvement. Additionally, we show how elements of preexisting standards, such as ISO 15504 and ISO 12207, as well as elements of existing OO process metamodels can be successfully reused to create a standard for this new focus on component-based systems development.