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CMMI Appraisal

“If you don’t know where you are, a map won’t help.” Watts Humphrey, Managing the Software Process (1989)

BTI has a GPS to determine where you are and the CMMI roadmap to get to the next place!

Whether you are interested in working with the CMMI for Development or CMMI for Services, CMMI version 2.2 or CMMI version 3.0, or in systems, software, hardware engineering or any combination, BTI has the experience and knowledge to help you succeed with excellent return-on-investment. Members of the BTI team will be there every step of the way to help you navigate how to get the CMMI certification for a company.

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BTI is authorized by the CMMI Institute to assist organizations at any CMMI Maturity Level.  Less than 25% of CMMI Institute partners have this authorization.

BTI is one of only a handful of CMMI Institute partners who is able to work at any Maturity Level with full access rights on US government-sponsored projects with sensitive data.

BTI Offers all CMMI Appraisal Types

Benchmark appraisals, which are a formal, structured appraisal of an
organization’s processes implementation that uses a Random Sampling approach. 
Benchmark appraisals are used to award Maturity Level or Capability Level Ratings for
an organization and are valid for 3 years.

Prices vary by organization and scope.  Contact us for a quote.

Sustainment appraisals, which are a formal, structured appraisal of an
organization's processes implementation.  Sustainment appraisals are used following a
Benchmark appraisal to sustain the Maturity Level or Capability Level Ratings for an
organization and extend the validity of an organization’s rating for 2 years. Sustainment
appraisals also use a Random Sampling approach but only look at approximately one
third of the original model scope which provides a cost savings to the organization. Up to
three Sustainment appraisals can be conducted before another Benchmark must be
performed.

Prices vary by organization and scope.  Contact us for a quote.

Evaluation appraisals, which are less formal and also sometimes referred to as
Gap Analysis. This appraisal type can be tailored to meet the specific needs of the
organization. They are typically used to prepare for a Benchmark appraisal and to
investigate areas where process improvement is needed. There are no Maturity Level or
Capability Level ratings from an Evaluation appraisal. These appraisal types only provide
a risk rating of High, Medium, or Low against a practice.

Prices vary by organization and scope.  Contact us for a quote.

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Why BTI?

BTI makes the appraisal process easier for you with the knowledge and experience to help you succeed with excellent return-on-investment. Every member of our team has been an engineer, a software developer, or a project manager that’s been through this process and knows what it’s like to adopt processes and be appraised. Because of our experience and because we’ve seen products and services delivered in so many ways, we take a practical, not academic, approach to appraisals. As a result, we don’t try to force fit you to the CMMI model. We work with you to tailor your CMMI adoption to fit your needs and deliver business value.

The BTI team will be there every step of the way to help you navigate how to get a CMMI rating
for your company.

BTI is authorized by ISACA/CMMI Institute to assist organizations to any CMMI Maturity Level 1-5.  Less than 25% of CMMI Institute partners have this authorization and members of our staff have helped coauthor the CMMI model.

BTI is one of very few ISACA/CMMI Institute partners who can work at any Maturity Level with full access rights on US government-sponsored projects with sensitive data.

How Do You Get a CMMI Level Rating?

You may be asking yourself, “How do I get a CMMI rating?”

There are three key steps in getting a CMMI rating for companies:

  1. Understanding where your organization is currently at with respect to your business needs and process goals.
  2. Adapting your processes to meet the intent and value of the CMMI practices to work in the context of your organization.
  3. Appraise the organization to achieve the rating.

Overview of Three Steps in Getting CMMI Certification:

How do your organization’s processes compare to the CMMI?  Without understanding where you are starting, getting to your goal is just a random walk.

The main idea is to obtain this understanding (1) without disrupting the organization and (2) as quickly and inexpensively as can be achieved.

The standard way to get this understanding is through a “gap analysis”—and informal, quick look at the organization’s processes.  But that is the standard way . . . BTI has pioneered using process data mining to automatically extract process performance data from an organization’s tools and databases.  Although this does not entirely replace the standard gap analysis, it does make the gap analysis more thorough than could otherwise be achieved for the same effort.

CMMI provides a unique approach to improving an organization.

CMMI Model Structure
used with permission of ISACA

Each level builds on the previous one. Each goal and practice influences how well the specific goals and practices are performed.

Maturity Level 2 organizations are consistent within a project or team, but may act differently across projects or teams.

Maturity Level 3 organizations act consistently across projects and teams and treat their processes as organizational assets.

Maturity Level 4 organizations leverage the abundance of process performance data to model processes and predictively manage performance outcomes using quantitative measures.

Maturity Level 5 organizations are able to diagnose and repair process defects with a predictive understanding of benefits versus costs.

BTI has helped organizations to implement the CMMI that are small (12 people) and large (40,000 people), that are doing Agile or traditional life cycles, and that are working in systems, software, or hardware engineering.

What types of organizations does BTI appraise?  We have worked in small, single-location organizations to organizations doing technology development across multiple locations from Europe, North America, to Asia, to organizations that process payments accounting for 2.5% of the US government’s annual budget.

How do we appraise?  Thoroughly, flexibly, and efficiently.  BTI pioneered using the statistical sampling technique Design of Experiments (DoE) to identify exactly what needed to be looked at in an organization to maximize information gained per appraisal cost.  Most other CMMI appraisers do not even know how to spell DoE. To learn more about CMMI maturity levels, contact us today!

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    Here’s What Our Clients Are Saying About Us

    BTI succeeds in its mission when an organization is measurably better in a way that makes a real difference, is able to sustain the change for the better, knows that it is better, and is satisfied with the result.

    Business Transformation Institute, Inc. (BTI) joined in partnership with Raytheon SAS to help us bring together many diverse business units and to stabilize and improve our performance.  Throughout the years we have worked together and achieved CMMI Maturity Level 5 while bringing together geographically and process diverse units. This has allowed us to have a much higher fluidity in our staff and contract execution locations without suffering performance degradation.  Also, BTI has led the way in choreographing novel appraisal methodologies that have significantly reduced the cost of maintaining CMMI certification and ensuring that the programs do not suffer “set-back” during the gap between certification renewals.

    Alan Perkowski 1 E1695234482260
    Process Maturity Technical Director from Major Aerospace Company

    Having BTI’s LSS black belts onboard means that I can now safely retire.  Thank you!

    Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt from National Security Agency

    CNI was going to graduate from the federal government’s 8(a) program.  We had to be prepared to compete. Part of this is having good processes.  BTI helped us to do it.

    Phil Ricks 1 E1695234421930
    Corporate Quality Manager from Chickasaw Nation Industries

    I was fortunate to work with the BTI team on deploying the CMMI Level 2 practice at Western Union. There were a number of obstacles in garnering top-down changes and support everyone that the team was able to work through and make it successful.

    Implementing CMMI practices and procedures in an unstructured environment is surely difficult, but the BTI team was able to see the big picture and also make sure that the details were correctly addressed and implemented.

    I highly recommend the BTI team!

    John Oyhagary 1 E1695234675445
    Western Union Systems Development