Appraisals

Formal Appraisals

Why go for a formal appraisal?

A formal CMMI appraisal isn't just a compliance check; it's a strategic investment in your business and process maturity. You should go for it to gain:

Objective Insight: Get an honest, third-party assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of your processes. Appraisers provide data-backed findings that help you focus your improvement budget on the most impactful areas.
Predictable Performance: Achieving higher maturity means your processes are more stable and repeatable. This translates directly to more accurate scheduling, budgeting, and quality control in your service delivery.
True Institutionalization: The appraisal process forces your organization to standardize and embed best practices, ensuring process adherence isn't reliant on specific heroes but is built into your everyday business model.

Why not to go for a formal appraisal?

The main reason not to pursue an appraisal is having the wrong motivation. An appraisal will fail if the goal is only a piece of paper, without a commitment to change.

Lust for Certification: If your primary, or only, motivation is to get the certificate or the rating number to hang on the wall, stop. The appraisal process is expensive and time-consuming. Doing it without a genuine commitment to act on the findings and sustain improvements is a waste of resources.
Lack of Readiness: Don't schedule an appraisal before your organization has fully institutionalized the required processes and has months of clean adherence data. Rushing the process will result in a low rating, leading to high frustration and a loss of improvement momentum.
Absence of Business Goals: An appraisal is useless if it's not tied to a clear business objective (e.g., "We must reduce rework by 15%"). If you don't know why you need the maturity, the rating won't help your bottom line.

Preparing for the Formal Appraisal

Since the external appraisal verifies the history of your performance, preparation is everything. Do not schedule the official review until your organization is ready.

The Internal Readiness Check

Before you bring in the experts, conduct a rigorous Internal Readiness Check. Use your own QA function and process experts to review the evidence. You must verify that:

Evidence is Complete: All required plans, logs, minutes, and objective assurance reports are complete, accurate, and easily accessible.
Adherence is Consistent: The evidence consistently demonstrates that the processes were followed across the required historical time period (the "look-back" period, typically several months).
Teams are Informed: Team members understand the documented processes and their role in following them.

Focus on Evidence, Not Excuses

The external reviewer relies on objective proof. The best evidence is clean, consistent documentation that shows your process works in real life. Ensure your projects have:

Clear Documentation: Approved project plans, defined service procedures, and clear communication records.
Objective Assurance: Reports from your internal Quality Assurance (QA) that show non-compliances were identified, tracked, and closed.

The External Review: What to Expect

The assessment is a structured verification of your organization's processes by external experts. Plan for significant time commitment from key personnel.

The Three Key Activities

The assessment typically lasts one to two weeks and involves three main activities to gather facts:

Document Review: The external team reviews your official policies, procedures, and the specific evidence from the selected projects.
Project Sampling: A representative sample of your service projects is chosen for deep-dive verification.
Team Interviews: Key personnel—from Senior Management to team practitioners—are interviewed to confirm their understanding of the process and how they apply it day-to-day.

The Result is a Rating and Findings

The final output is not just a maturity rating; it's a detailed report that summarizes your organizational Strengths (what you do well) and Findings (the weaknesses or areas where you didn't meet the requirements). The Findings are the most valuable part.

After the Rating: Sustaining Improvement

The appraisal provides temporary validation, but your job as the internal implementer is to ensure lasting improvement.

The Findings Action Plan

Your immediate, top priority must be creating a formal Improvement Action Plan to systematically address every weakness identified in the findings report. This is where you realize the value of the investment, as you use the external perspective to fix your most critical systemic issues.

The Continuous Cycle

Remember, the rating is temporary. To maintain the capability and keep improving, your organization must demonstrate continuous adherence and improvement through your internal QA and Measurement processes in the years between formal reviews.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse