The principal contribution of this research is a perspective-based model of quality for software engineering processes that is derived from the combined experience of a range of software engineering practitioners using a well tried qualitative analysis technique, namely Grounded Theory. According to the model, stakeholders judge the overall quality of a software engineering process in terms of four distinct quality attributes: suitability, usability, manageability and evolvability. Furthermore, such judgments are influenced by properties related to the semantics, architecture, representation and enactment of the software engineering process. The model provides both a terminological framework that can be used to facilitate precise discussion of software engineering process issues and a set of criteria that can be used to support activities for software process engineering.