Appraisals: Practice or Subpractice level?

For successful SCAMPI appraisals, is there any reason to prepare process compliance at the sub-practice level? Would appraisers be looking for evidence at that level?

This is a question answered by taking the 3-day Introduction to CMMI class and also by your Lead Appraiser. There are three CMMI components: Required, Expected, and Informative. An appraisal only covers the Required (Goals) and Expected (Practices) components. Your Lead Appraiser should also be providing some training or guidance on how to build the PIIDs, which contain the objective evidence for an appraisal. And the whole appraisal team is involved in reviewing the PIIDs during the Readiness Review to determine if the evidence is proper for a SCAMPI appraisal.

If a Lead Appraiser or the appraisal team is appraising you to the sub-practice level, they have gone too far. The SCAMPI method is only concerned with appraising the organization to the Goals and Practices.

Configuration Management - SP 1.3-1 , SP 2.2.-1

I would like your opinion in relation to situation below.

Once a change was been verbally approved, is there some problem in relation to CM SP 1.3 (Create or Release Baselines) - sub-practice 1 and CM SP 2.2 (Control configuration items) - sub-practice 2, if the record of the modification in the schedule and the change control tool are done in subsequent periods until a maximum limit of time of the defined period for monitoring of the project?

Example:

Verbal approval of the change - Monday

Beginning of the work - Tuesday, with storage of the configuration items in the configuration system (without baseline).

Register of the change in the change control tool and record of the activities in the project schedule - Friday

Collection of the progress and effort - Next Monday (weekly Monitoring, all monday)

In advance, thank you very much.

The first problem I see is the verbal approval. Verbal approvals are difficult to document or provide as evidence and over time can be forgotten or misremembered, not to downplay the risks associated by not documenting decisions.

Secondly, since you are asking about the sub-practices, that makes me wonder if you have taken the SEI’s Introduction to CMMI class. If you have taken the class, your instructor should have made clear to you the distinction between the required, expected, and informative components of the model. The sub-practices are informative components and are therefore provided only as information to help you understand the intent of the Specific and Generic Practices and Goals. To be clear, you are neither required nor expected to implement the sub-practices.

If the weekly schedule you described works for your projects, then you should be able to map it to the Configuration Management (CM) Specific Practices (SPs). However, the described weekly schedule sounds like it may have some gaps.

I strongly suggest that you have an SEI-certified Lead Appraiser conduct a Gap Analysis (Class C appraisal) of your organization, especially CM, to determine the gaps between your implementation and the CMMI.

REQM - SP1.1 Query

In REQM – SP1.1 calls for “Criteria for evaluation and acceptance.” Can you tell me what this expected “criteria” would be?

I suggest looking at Requirements Management (REQM) Process Area in your copy of the CMMI. On page 490 in REQM Sub-practice 2 there is a list of example evaluation and acceptance criteria.

REQM does not expect the organization to have evaluation and acceptance criteria. What you are expected to provide is evidence that support the required components (Specific Goal 1 in this case; evidence that demonstrates that your requirements are managed and inconsistencies with project plans and work products are identified) and evidence that supports the expected components (Specific Practice 1.1 in this case; evidence that demonstrates that you have developed an understanding with the requirements providers on the meaning of the requirements). If your Lead Appraiser is telling you that you have to provide these criteria, then he or she should be challenged as to why they are telling you that you need to provide this evidence.

The evaluation and acceptance criteria are one way of developing this understanding. Please bear in mind the section title is TYPICAL Work Products, not EXPECTED Work Products, or REQUIRED Work Products. The list of Typical Work Products is merely a list of example work products.

Applicability of the Informative Material

I have been told that if an organization has to go for CMMI ML 5 the organization has to address all of the sub-practices even though they are informative material and if the company is only going for ML 3, then they can apply appropriate sub-practices. Is this true?

Please allow me to try to explain the model. There are at least two ways to look at the CMMI: 1) implementing the model and 2) appraising the organization against the model.

In addition, there are three CMMI components: Required, Expected, and Informative. These components only have meaning when you are talking about appraisals. The Required components are the Specific and Generic Goals, the Expected components are the Specific and Generic Practices, and everything else is an Informative Component.

When you are implementing the model, you should not be concerned about differentiating between the different types of components. From Chapter Two of the CMMI-ACQ (and this statement applies to ALL CMMI constellations): “All model components are important because the informative material helps you to understand the expected and required material. It is best to take these model components as a whole. If you understand all three types of material, you can then understand all the pieces and how they fit together to form a framework that can benefit your organization.”

When the organization is being appraised against the CMMI in a formal SCAMPI A appraisal, the organization will only be appraised against the Required and Expected components, regardless of the Maturity Level. However, the appraisal team may be evaluating the evidence and perhaps asking questions in the interview sessions at the sub-practice level just to gain a better understanding of how the organization is addressing each of the Required and Expected components. The organization will not be penalized if it is not performing one or more sub-practices. The appraisal team will be identifying and documenting weaknesses with the organization’s implementation of the goals and practices.

Because there has been a misunderstanding of what High Maturity means (ML 4 and ML 5), the SEI has been emphasizing that the proper implementation of the goals and practices for OPP, QPM, OID, and CAR means reading, understanding, and implementing the types of activities described in the Informative material. So, for a ML 4 or ML 5 SCAMPI, the organization will not be evaluated against the OPP. QPM, OID, and CAR sub-practices, but weaknesses will be noted at the goal and practice level if the organization has not properly implemented these Process Areas to meet the intent, which is gained by understanding the Informative material.