Business process capability can be understood as the ability of the process to maintain its repeatability in different instances. While maturity models determine the evolutionary improvement of a business process as a whole and are usually known as staged models, the concept of capability implies analyzing the process to define areas that can become the object of local improvement actions. This concept is more appropriate to the implementation of continuous improvement, and from the business point of view, it is a powerful concept since process improvement can be aligned with opportunities for improvement determined by the market in which the company acts. A new product development (NPD) reference model was designed whereby improvement actions are based on process areas and their levels of capability. The application of this model enabled us to realize that reference models can promote performance development by focusing on activities which increase process areas capabilities.