CMMI-Dev 1.3

An experienced BTI consultant will work with your process improvement (PI) team to ensure that each selected process is CMMI compliant at your selected CMMI level. BTI will:

• Provide a written analysis of the process description and process planning and implementation documents against the CMMI to identify any gaps
• Work with your PI team to identify solutions to close any identified gaps

Highly skilled Business Transformation Institute process engineers will help you analyze your business services and needs to determine your driving process requirements. With Business Transformation Institute's assistance, you will be able to answer these questions:

• What do my processes need to do to meet both strategic and immediate objectives?
• Who are my customers-who get value from processes?
• What performance measures do my processes need to satisfy-response times, agility, defect prevention?
• How do my processes interact, support, and are supported by other processes?
• What constraints must my processes satisfy-legal, regulatory, safety, financial, security, standards compliance (e.g., CMMI, SOX 404, People CMM, ISO)?

Business Transformation Institute answers these questions using traditional systems engineering methods and techniques like "Suppliers, Inputs, Process, Outputs, Customers" (SIPOC) analysis, Critical to Quality tree, Balanced Scorecard, and Quality Function Deployment. We help you use these requirements for process automation, process analysis to decrease variability and eliminate non-value-added waste, business-smart ISO 9001 and CMMI compliance, and new process development.

Business Transformation Institute process improvement experts will help make your processes deliver value to customers more efficiently, faster, at lower cost, and with less waste. BTI will help you develop or improve the process, train, deploy, and measure the process to make sure it is meeting your goals. We will make sure you have good processes suitable to your business objectives.

Key benefits you receive from BTI will help you implement robust processes that:

• Delight customers
• Follow a plan so you know what is supposed to happen, when it should happen, and how it should happen
• Have the right resources-with no waste-to get the job done
• Have clearly assigned roles and responsibilities so there is no confusion about who has to do what
• Have appropriately trained and experienced people executing the processes so mistakes do not happen from lack of knowledge
• Place suitable controls on critical information and products so that the information and products are available, up-to-date, and secure
• Involve all of the people and groups that have a stake in the processes' success since effective collaboration is the best path to a good result
• Identify and correct defects as early as possible since avoiding mistakes or catching them quickly is cheaper than fixing them later
• Give management insight as to how the processes are performing so that management knows when to intervene-or not
• Enable continuous gains in effectiveness while reducing costs and avoiding defects as the only way to stay competitive

Getting an accurate, repeatable, and credible CMMI capability or maturity level doesn't have to mean spending long weeks of staff time and tens of thousands of dollars on an appraisal. There is a way of using the existing appraisal tools to produce results faster, less expensively, and with greater verifiable accuracy. Business Transformation Institute's CMMI appraisal approach produces results for up to 30% less in cost and duration than a typical Class A appraisal that meets Software Engineering Institute (SEI) SCAMPI rules.

Our methodology exists within the framework of the SCAMPI methods, so our approach is recognized and accepted by the SEI as a good SCAMPI appraisal. Our methods scale to provide the largest organizations with high credibility appraisals, while being tailorable to fit the cost needs of the smallest groups. Business Transformation Institute process appraisers can help you measure your process capability or prepare to be appraised by independent examiners. We can plan and conduct your appraisal to provide management and staff with the information needed to understand how well your processes are working and what the process strengths and weaknesses may be. Or, if you need help from experts who have seen many appraisals before-and who know all of the "gottchas", Business Transformation Institute can help you get ready by gathering appropriate evidence and artifacts and building an explanatory framework to help you present your most effective case. Business Transformation Institute can help!

Here's how Business Transformation Institute delivers results. We will:

• Maximize the information gained from each project, program, or instantiation being appraised using Design of Experiment (DOE) techniques
• Manage the time spent on the least efficient, most exploratory part of an appraisal: the interview
• Prepare you to succeed in an appraisal rather than wasting your time
• Manage the scope of the appraisal to match your needs

Business Transformation Institute, Inc. understands that appraisals cost you scarce time and money. We know that you want to succeed in your appraisal. BTI supports your appraisal preparations by:

• Helping you to assemble your case so that your good process implementation stands out
• Organizing your artifacts to support a clear, logical telling of your process story
• Helping you avoid wasting your time on collecting evidence you don't need or missing evidence that you do need

Preparing for a CMMI appraisal is a science, not an art. BTI helps organizations prepare for appraisals methodically, efficiently, and effectively. Succeeding in an appraisal-if the organization is doing the processes-requires good preparation. Knowing how to best collect, organize, and present the artifacts can be challenging if the people in the organization preparing for the appraisal have only done an appraisal one or two (or no) times. One of BTI's experienced process engineers will help you to identify and collect the right artifacts, wrap them in the right words and present your case of process institutionalization.

BTI will provide an SEI-authorized SCAMPI Lead Appraiser to work with you to complete a SCAMPI Class A, Class B, or Class C appraisal at your selected Capability or Maturity Level for your selected process areas. For organizations planning an appraisal against the requirements of CMMI Maturity or Capability Level 4 or 5, BTI will provide a SEI-certified High Maturity SCAMPI Lead Appraiser. BTI’s CMMI services encompass the following appraisal types:

 

• SCAMPI Class A Appraisal: A Standard CMMI Appraisal Method for Process Improvement (SCAMPI) Class A appraisal is the SEI’s formal benchmark appraisal that provides a Maturity Level rating or Capability Level ratings. A SCAMPI A appraisal must be led by an SEI-authorized Lead Appraiser and requires a team of four to nine people, including the Lead Appraiser. A SCAMPI A is the most accurate of the CMMI appraisal types.
• Class B Appraisal: This is less formal appraisal type that is still intended to provide high-fidelity results. A Class B appraisal does not provide a Maturity Level rating or Capability Level ratings. Similar to a SCAMPI Class A appraisal, this appraisal type requires an appraisal team. A Class B appraisal is often conducted as a risk-reduction activity in preparing for a SCAMPI A appraisal.
• Class C Appraisal: Sometimes known as a “gap analysis”, this is the least formal appraisal type and is intended to provide results quickly and cost-effectively. A Class C appraisal does not provide a Maturity Level rating or Capability Level ratings. This appraisal type can be conducted by a single person—it does not require an appraisal team.

Class B and Class C appraisals are highly adaptable to the customer’s needs—click here to contact us to discuss the details of your requirements!

	Class C Appraisal	Class B Appraisal	SCAMPI Class A Appraisal
Creation of an appraisal plan showing all activities, inputs, outputs, constraints, risks and planned activities.
Briefing for all participants that will introduce them to the reason for the appraisal, the appraisal activities, and the expected output.
Review sessions in which time project process documentation as well as implementation documentation (such as project plans) will be reviewed and mapped against the requirements of a customer-selected CMMI capability or maturity level for each process area included in the appraisal scope.
Affirmation collection sessions with project managers, senior management and practitioners in order to understand their activities and map those activities against the requirements of a customer-selected CMMI capability/maturity level for each process area included in the appraisal scope.
Data consolidation sessions during which the appraisal team will map information gathered during the document reviews and interviews against the requirements of a customer-selected CMMI capability or maturity level and determine strengths and weaknesses relative to the CMMI model for each process area included in the appraisal scope.
Credit with the SEI for all appraisal team members for having participated in an appraisal.
Preliminary findings briefings to all appraisal participants to present draft findings and allow participants to respond with additional artifacts and testimony.
Closing briefing to all participants in which the findings, as well as recommendations, will be discussed.

	Class C Appraisal	Class B Appraisal	SCAMPI Class A Appraisal
Appraisal Plan
Practice-level findings down to the project or task level, if requested by the customer
Opening Briefing
Preliminary Findings Briefing
Findings Briefing
Improvement Recommendations
Appraisal Disclosure Statement		.

BTI offers a number of public and on-site training courses for CMMI. Please see our Training Courses page on this website for more information.