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.

Appraisal Team Size

We are a small IT company (40 members) that wants to get Maturity Level 3 as a first effort. We are thinking about forming an appraisal team (for a SCAMPI A appraisal) composed of 3 internal members and 1 external team leader. Is there any problem or recommendation about this approach?

The SCAMPI method requires a minimum appraisal team size of four people including the Lead Appraiser. And it is a good practice to have at least two appraisal team members be from the organization being appraised. So having three internal team members plus the Lead Appraiser meets the minimum SCAMPI requirements for an appraisal. From my experience, I would suggest adding some external team members. Having additional people will ease the burden on the team for evaluating the evidence and will also provide some outside perspectives on your processes. Your Lead Appraiser should be able to suggest the proper team size and recommend some external team members. And many times, external team members are willing to participate for free since they may be looking for appraisals in order to maintain their credentials, etc.

Providing Evidence for a SCAMPI Appraisal

If I am an appraisal team member, is it a problem if I am also helping to prepare the evidence for the appraisal?

V1.2 of the SCAMPI Method Definition Document (MDD) does not specify who should prepare the Process Implementation Indicator Descriptions (PIIDs). In practice the PIIDs can be prepared by the project teams, the appraisal team members, or some combination. There are pros and cons for each approach. If done by the project teams, the PIID preparers may not fully understand how the PIIDs will be used by the appraisal team and therefore it could take many iterations to get the PIIDs in an acceptable shape for the SCAMPI. If prepared by the appraisal team, there is the risk that the team members may get too close to the information and lose some of their appraisal objectivity. The best approach is for the project teams and appraisal team members to collaboratively address the Readiness Review issues and prepare the PIIDs. And as a best practice, try to maintain some independence on the appraisal team by having the team members help prepare the PIIDs for PAs other than the PAs assigned to their mini-teams.