Standard CMMI Appraisal Method for Process Improvement (SCAMPI)

2.1.4 Examine Objective Evidence from Interviews (continued)
Implementation
Guidance
Interviews provide the most flexible source of detailed data. Face-to-face
interaction with people who enact the practices being investigated allows the
team to seek detailed information and to understand the interrelationships
among various practices. Detailed information to address specific data
collection needs can be sought and verified in real time.
It is important to avoid sampling interviewees for a session such that two
people in the same reporting chain (e.g., a superior and one of his or her direct
reports) are in the same interview session. This applies to members of the
appraisal team as well. People who have this type of relationship with one
another may be uncomfortable with the expectation for them to be completely
candid during the interview.
Samples of interviewees are typically grouped into categories that roughly
correspond to life-cycle phases, engineering disciplines, organizational
groupings, and/or PA affinities. As stated previously, interviews of
project/program management personnel are typically grouped by project,
while FARs sampled for a given interview come from across the
organizational unit.
There are three basic forms of interviews used in SCAMPI. They are
described below.
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CMU/SEI-2001-HB-001