TABLE OF CONTENTS This chapter discusses the Software Engineering Institute's (SEI's) defined approaches to CMMI-based appraisals. Appraisals, assessments, and evaluations are by no means a new subject. There are a number of appraisal methods [1] that have been developed to measure and evaluate an organization against the family of Capability Maturity Models (CMMs) in addition to other models and standards. A community of appraisers, assessors, and evaluators has grown around these methods. The CMMI product suite introduces some new concepts, but mostly builds on the history of these previous methods and the best practices of the assessor and evaluator community. There are three classes of CMMI Appraisal Methods: Class A, Class B, and Class C.
The SEI has released three guiding documents for CMMI appraisals:
Appraisal Requirements for CMMI , Version 1.2 (ARC, V1.2) This technical report contains the requirements for three classes of appraisal methods Class A, Class B, and Class C. These requirements are the rules for defining each class of appraisal method.
Standard CMMI Appraisal Method for Process Improvement (SCAMPI ? ) A, Version 1.2: Method Definition Document (MDD) This handbook contains the only approved Class A appraisal method. This method satisfies the Class A requirement of the ARC.
Handbook for Conducting Standard CMMI Appraisal Method for Process Improvement (SCAMPI) B and C Appraisals, Version 1.1 This handbook contains the approved methods for Class B and C appraisals.
