The purpose of an appraisal is to conduct a formal or informal comparison of the organization’s processes and artifacts to each other and to a reference model to establish compliance. Appraisals are commonly used for three purposes: internal process improvement, business pursuit and vendor evaluation. Formal appraisals may be used to enable an organization to broadcast publicly their attainment of a particular qualification/certification/maturity level. The durations listed below are based on our historical data and can serve as a starting point for estimating budgets and schedules.
- SCAMPI Class C Appraisal (Formal or Informal) (5-10 Days depending on scope)
At this point in an engagement an organization may have just documented their processes and not have begun broadly using them yet. A SCAMPI Class C Appraisal is a limited scope appraisal used to determine that an organization’s processes have been sufficiently documented such that following them would likely lead to an appraisal finding of compliance with the guidelines presented in the SCAMPI Method Definition Document (MDD). This is done substantially through a document review of process artifacts: policies, process steps and sub-steps and procedures; role and responsibility definition; identification of inputs, entry criteria, outputs and exit criteria; measures; quality assurance checklists from both a process governance perspective and a work product standards compliance perspective; training; tailoring; supporting information such as templates, samples, fill-in guides and examples; levels; categories; process areas; practices; etc. It is typical to schedule high level interviews with key process group and project implementation staff to facilitate locating and understanding the review artifacts and the processes the organization is following. A SCAMPI Class C Appraisal may be conducted solely by an Authorized SCAMPI Class C Team Lead; however, it is common to employ a team to start to develop an appraisal expertise in the organization. The deliverable from this service is a detailed mapping of the in-scope processes to the CMMI specific and generic practices and the level of practice satisfaction and institutionalization for each.
- SCAMPI Class B Baseline Appraisal (Formal or Informal) (5-10 Days depending on scope)
As a baseline appraisal, a SCAMPI Class B-like appraisal gives us an initial understanding of an organization’s management, engineering, support, and process improvement processes and serves as an input into developing a success oriented Roadmap going forward to achieving the targeted CMMI Maturity Level in the future. A SCAMPI Class B Appraisal is a limited scope appraisal used to determine that the processes as documented have been used, and are useable. Building on the concepts of a SCAMPI Class C, in a SCAMPI Class B, actual project implementation artifacts are reviewed to determine that they could reasonably have been produced by adhering to the documented processes. As with a SCAMPI Class C, it is typical to schedule interviews with key process group and project implementation staff to facilitate locating and understanding the review artifacts and the processes the organization actually follows. A SCAMPI Class B Appraisal must be led by an Authorized SCAMPI Class B Team Lead, and must make use of a SCAMPI Appraisal Team of at least two trained people, one of whom may be the SCAMPI Team Lead. The deliverable from this service is a detailed mapping of the in-scope processes to the CMMI specific and generic practices and the level of practice satisfaction and institutionalization for each. Additionally, we recommend the development of a success oriented roadmap for achieving the targeted CMMI Maturity Level.
- Readiness Review (3-5 Days depending on Maturity Level)
A readiness review is a required component of the SCAMPI methodology. The minimal form of readiness review simply ensures the PIIs are sufficiently developed to direct the appraisal team to the correct artifacts so they can be evaluated during the appraisal onsite period. Using this method, Assess-IT cannot with any degree of assurance predict whether an organization will achieve the maturity level they are seeking. Note: per SEI guidance, more than one Readiness Review may be necessary. At the onset of an engagement, Assess-IT estimates two Readiness Reviews or a Readiness Review and a Class C, or Class B appraisal used as a baseline review.
- Hi Fidelity Readiness Review Extension (2-5 Days depending on Maturity Level)
A Hi-Fidelity Readiness Review©, permits us to delve more deeply into the quality of selected artifacts to make a determination as to whether to proceed with the appraisal as scheduled, or to delay it until passage is more assured. Because we have empanelled a trained appraisal team to conduct the High-Fidelity Readiness Review©, we can use any data collected during the readiness review, as appropriate, to jump-start the appraisal.Note: per the SCAMPI MDD, this method carries some risk. Once the appraisal team starts to judge the quality of the artifacts, the appraisal 90 day clock starts, and the appraisal must be completed.
- Formal SCAMPI Class A Appraisal (8-10 Days depending on Maturity Level)
A SCAMPI Class A Appraisal builds on the concepts presented in Classes B and C, in that the process are evaluated against the reference model and process implementation is verified through the examination of organizational and project artifacts, both process and implementation. The extension to A is the formal selection of Basic Units and Support Functions that accurately represent the organization’s mix of projects, methods, clients, environments, etc. A formal SCAMPI Class A appraisal consists of: selecting the organization’s projects, CMMI process areas, model representation and model itself to assess against; selecting and training the appraisal team (usually up to eight members of the organization being appraised); preparing for, scheduling, and conducting document and artifact reviews and staff interviews; consolidating and corroborating data; developing findings; presenting preliminary and final findings; issuing a CMMI maturity level rating recommendation, if desired and warranted; and registering and reporting the appraisal to the SEI. The Formal SCAMPI Class A will be conducted in strict accordance with the SCAMPI MDD that may be found on the SEI’s website.