Appraisal Sponsor Roles and Responsibilities

I am looking for information regarding the roles and responsibilities of the appraisal sponsor.

My organization is preparing for an external appraisal and I'd like to provide the sponsor with a summary of her role and what she will be expected to do for the appraisal such as review and sign the appraisal plan, attending the opening and findings briefings etc.

It sounds like you have a pretty good understanding already of the appraisal sponsor’s duties. It would be helpful to you to ask this question of your Lead Appraiser to see if he or she has any specific requests for the appraisal sponsor. As a Lead Appraiser, these are my expectations. The appraisal sponsor:

1. Provides the funding and senior management commitment for process improvement and the appraisal
2. Does not serve on the appraisal team
3. Meets at least once with the Lead Appraiser to discuss the appraisal
4. Provides the business objectives for the organization
5. Signs the Appraisal Input Document, Appraisal Plan, and Appraisal Disclosure Statement
6. Attends the Opening Briefing to reinforce why the appraisal is being conducted and the importance of everyone to support the appraisal team
7. Meet with the appraisal team before the Final Findings presentation to privately receive the results and prepare the proper message for the organization at the Final Findings Presentation
8. Attend the Final Findings Presentation and at the conclusion of the presentation thank the appraisal team for their efforts and thank the organization for their efforts regardless of the outcome. If the results were bad news, turn it into a positive statement of encouragement, etc.
9. Complete the feedback form in SAS for the appraisal results
10. Receive the appraisal results and maintain the appraisal record for three years
11. Do not publicly disclose the appraisal results until the SEI has completed its quality review and announced the results to the Lead Appraiser and appraisal sponsor

Appraisal Team Member Qualification Requirements

What are the requirements to be an Appraisal Team Member (ATM) in SCAMPI A appraisal?

I have heard many opinions on ATM qualifications, such as:

1. Not part of process definition
2. Not involved with Process Implementation
3. Not being an SEPG member.

I am unaware of any criteria set by the SEI on this topic.

The ATM qualifications are spelled out in the SCAMPI Method Definition Document (MDD) Section 1.3.2 SELECT TEAM MEMBERS. I have extracted the pertinent text here.

Parameters and Limits
The minimum acceptable team size for a SCAMPI A appraisal is four people (including the appraisal team leader).
All team members must have previously completed the SEI-licensed Introduction to CMMI course.
With regard to engineering field experience, the team (as a group) must have an average of at least 6 years of experience, and the team total must be at least 25 years of experience in each of the disciplines to be covered in the appraisal.
With regard to management experience, the team (as a group) must have a total of at least 10 years of experience, and at least one team member must have at least 6 years of experience as a manager.
The team must, in aggregate, have representative experience in the lifecycles being appraised.

Optional Practices
Although not required in the Parameters and Limits section above, the following are considered recommended best practices and should be employed whenever feasible:

• Each member should have good written and oral communication skills, the ability to facilitate the free flow of communication, and the ability to perform as team players and negotiate consensus.
• At least half of the team members should have participated in a previous process appraisal.
• Team members should be perceived by the appraisal sponsor as credible.

Additional appraisal team member selection considerations include

• Consider the personal characteristics of individual team members (e.g., communication preferences and personality types) and how these characteristics may affect the dynamics of the team.
• Use one or more authorized SCAMPI Lead Appraisers as team members.

And there is one more ATM requirement that is documented in the MDD errata. The Appraisal Sponsor cannot be an Appraisal Team Member.