ISO/IEC TS 15504-9:2011 documents guidelines for target process profiles for capability determination and improvement purposes. It provides guidance for establishing target process profiles for the following purposes:

• by or on behalf of an organization with the objective of specifying a target process profile to meet specified needs;
• by or on behalf of an organization with the objective of specifying a target process profile against which to assess the actual ability of the organization to meet that target;
• by or on behalf of an organization with the objective of specifying a target process profile against which to assess the actual ability of another organization to meet that target;
• by or on behalf of an organization with the objective of determining the need for improvement based upon any capability gap between the actual capability and the target process profile.