Sunday, December 6, 2009

SCAMPI A Appraisal Questions for FAR Groups

Can you share the Questionnaires for a ML 3 SCAMPI A appraisal? Currently my organization is preparing for SCAMPI A and I want to trained the interviewees as this is their first experience an appraisal.

I am looking for some questions based on each Process Area, so the FAR Group Members will be prepared to answer them.

I have searched on Google but not able to find any information. :(


I am not surprised that you have not been able to find what you are looking for on the internet. A Lead Appraiser will not share his or her questions with you. Simply because the Lead Appraiser does not want the interviewees to be trained on what answers to provide, thereby biasing the results of any SCAMPI appraisal. If you and the organization are nervous about the appraisal, don’t be. There is no preparation for the interviews necessary. All that is expected by the Lead Appraiser is that any interviewee should be able to talk about HOW they perform their job duties. If people cannot do that, then the organization is not ready for an appraisal.

If you still feel uneasy, talk to your Lead Appraiser and have him or her conduct a Class B appraisal with interviews. A Class B or SCAMPI B appraisal can function as a dress rehearsal for a SCAMPI A without having the organization and the people worry about “flunking” or “passing” the appraisal. The interviewees will have the experience of being interviewed.

If you still want to perform an internal set of interviews, simply take the CMMI and step through the applicable practices with different groups of people (project managers, configuration managers, developers, testers, etc.) and ask them HOW they perform the Specific and Generic Practices. There is no set of standard questions. Each Lead Appraiser has their own style of questioning interviewees.

2 comments:

Priyank said...

Its bit natural asking this question as i also felt same while was participated in SCAMPI, but it’s really an easy and manageable job, right way to perform is to ask you team what they have done during their duties? …..nothing else is expected then their role and responsibilities in project and organization.

Henry Schneider said...

Dear Priyank,
Thank you for your comment. It is very natural feeling anxious about and appraisal without having experienced one in the past. It is more so if management is really pushing the organization hard to achieve a specific Maturity Level and no one wants to feel like they are the cause of "failing" the appraisal. However, one person cannot cause the appraisal to "fail."

Another way to think of the appraisal interview is to view it as an indepth conversation where you tell some how you perform your job. Now, if you can't tell someone how you perform your job, then there is a problem.