Standard CMMI Appraisal Method for Process Improvement (SCAMPI)

2.2 Verify and Validate Objective Evidence (continued)
Interfaces
with Other
Processes
Summary of
Activities
During the conduct of an appraisal, the team must gather and analyze a great
deal of detailed information. Processes described earlier in this document
clarify how data are gathered and examined. The process described here is
focused on understanding the information revealed by the data. The processes
described after this one are focused on carefully recording important
information and making reliable and valid rating judgments based on the
verified and validated data.
The initial objective evidence provided by the organization is used to
understand how practices are intended to be implemented. Members of the
appraisal team then seek information to confirm that the intended practices are
indeed implemented. This first validation activity (2.2.1) may reveal gaps in
the actual implementation that are not apparent in the initial objective
evidence provided by the organization. The next verification activity (2.2.2)
then compares the implemented practices to the practices in the CMMI model.
This activity may also reveal gaps in the implementation(s) that will later bear
on the ratings assigned by the team. Standard characterizations to capture the
extent of practice implementation, first at the project level and then at the
organizational unit level, are recorded by the team, along with descriptions of
gaps in implementation. When team members have achieved their planned
coverage of data collection, the descriptions of gaps are validated with the
members of the organization. This final activity prior to rating allows team
members to build confidence that their investigation has been thorough, and
the members of the organization are provided with an opportunity to correct
any perceived errors in the appraisal data.
CMU/SEI-2001-HB-001
Page II-87