What should be the Scope of CMMI Consulting Assignments with respect to time-duration? Should a CMMI Consultant services continued after the completion of CMMI Appraisal? What kind of activities CMMI Consultants would perform in case if their services are continued after the CMMI Appraisal also?

CMMI FAQ 0

2nd September, 2014

Typically the CMMI Consultant is hired for the period before the CMMI Appraisal. This can be two years before the appraisal which is actually rare in Indian situations. It is true for American situations. In India, the CMMI Consultant is normally hired around a year before the appraisal. This may not always be true but generally this is the case. The CMMI Consultants are made responsible for the conduct of activities like gap assessments at process and project level, process base-lining, remediation of gaps and appraisal support which are planned over a year’s time. However the suggestion is that the CMMI Consulting assignment should not get closed at the time of completion of CMMI Appraisal. It should have a follow-through and a post-appraisal phase CMMI Consulting for at-least 06 months. Why this would be beneficial is because prior to appraisal, the activities are reasonably at a fast-pace, and this pace reaches a crescendo at the time of CMMI Appraisal. After the CMMI Appraisal, it is the time to consolidate and seek benefits out of the best practices that have been implemented. It is the right time to introspect and evaluate and make any course corrections with respect to various issues like process base-lining or metrics management or process capability base-lining, etc. It is also a good practice to plan for the re-appraisal that is going to happen after three years at this stage itself. The services of CMMI Consultants can be taken at this stage to determine the next Target CMMI Maturity Level, projects or work-areas for inclusion or exclusion, domains to be covered, modification of SEPG, etc. And a CMMI roadmap can be prepared at this stage for coming three years. The Process Improvement Plan for coming three years can also be prepared and necessary modifications can be made at this stage on the basis of lessons learnt from activities and experiences before and at the time of the CMMI Appraisal. CMMI Consultant’s help can be taken in determining the more appropriate metrics especially in the area of engineering metrics like code quality and design quality. The continuation of services of the CMMI Consultant after the CMMI Appraisal is sometimes also referred as CMMI Maintenance Phase. CMMI maintenance can cover complete range of activities like continuous compliance assessment at process and project level, Metrics Management Support, Remote Quality Assurance, On-site Quality Assurance, etc. We have prepared a subject-specific micro website and explained the issues related to CMMI Maintenance. These can be referred at www.cmmi-maintenance.com. The services of CMMI Consultants can be continued after the completion of CMMI Appraisal for the CMMI Maintenance and Re-Appraisal Phase. This is real value for money. The added advantage is that the CMMI Initiative within the client organization is not left in a limbo but is an integrated effort over time and the client organization is acquires an Appraisal-Ready condition all the time.