A CMMI appraisal is an activity that helps you to identify the strengths and weaknesses of your organization’s processes and to examine how closely the processes compare to CMMI best practices.
Appraisal activities can be performed at any stage of your CMMI adoption. There are 4 types of appraisals (Benchmark, Sustainment, Evaluation, and Action Plan Reappraisal) that are proven to be best practices that enable more rapid and effective improvement efforts. They provide reliable, clear, consistent, and actionable focus on performance improvements that will have the most impact on the business and help build and improve capability.
| Appraisal Type | Description | Benefit |
|---|---|---|
| Benchmark | Identify opportunities for organizations to improve how they implement processes and their overall business performance. | Provides a rigorous method capable of achieving high accuracy and reliable appraisal results. Ratings are valid for 3 years. |
| Sustainment | Appraisal “check-up” to determine if the organization is maintaining their appraisal level. A Benchmark Appraisal must be done first to establish the organization’s rating. | Provides organizations with more frequent insight and validation of their performance improvement with a reduced scope on the appraised organization. Ratings are valid for 2 years. |
| Evaluation | An informal and flexible approach used to help organizations prepare for an appraisal and determine opportunities for improvement. | Requires fewer activities and resources than a Benchmark or Sustainment Appraisal, and helps an organization to understand, with a relatively high degree of confidence, its progress toward a target rating. No ratings are provided during this appraisal. |
| Action Plan Reappraisal | A “second-chance” for organizations that narrowly failed to achieve their targeted appraisal level in a previous Benchmark or Sustainment appraisal. | An organization that satisfies the criteria for conducting an APR can potentially obtain the target rating without completely starting over. |
Many organizations find value in measuring their capability and performance by conducting an appraisal to identify and prioritize their business improvement efforts, eventually earning a CMMI maturity level or capability level rating.
KMS’s lead appraiser has been certified in the Development, Service, and Supplier domains, and KMS has conducted Maturity Level 2 and Maturity Level 3 appraisals for Government agencies as well as commercial organizations. KMS can help you determine what appraisal type is best for your organization and achieve your organization’s CMMI goals!
Contact us today to get started!
ISACA NEWS AND INFORMATION
Women in CMMI is a new initiative from ISACA. Monthly meetings will typically be held on the last Thursday at 10:00 am EST. They will be hosted in Zoom and open to everyone. The goal of the meetings is to create an opportunity to network, host speakers, have break-out rooms, and ultimately grow this community at a global-scale.
April 2023: CMMI V3.0 was released. This new release includes 8 domains (Development, Services, Suppliers, People, Virtual, Data, Safety, and Security) and new practice areas. You can purchase a subscription of the model viewer or pdf version.
CMMI Tech Talks are short, informative sessions on YouTube that provide insight on CMMI topics and help in implementing practice areas.
CMMI Adoption Guide for CMMI Credentials provides CMMI students and certification candidates with technical information and references to prepare for CMMI courses and to prepare and study for CMMI exams and CMMI observations.
See also: CMMI Case Studies.