Our Appraisal Expires at the end of this year, what should we do now?

I recently started to work for a cmmi level-3 company and in December 2009 our appraisal expires.

1.     What is the latest time to conduct a SCAMPI ?
2.     What is the minimum number of projects to present in the appraisals?
3.     Is there any significant change brought by the release of CMMI version 1.2?

1. Beginning with CMMI v1.2, the duration between appraisals is three years.  That means if you want to maintain your ML3 rating you will need to complete a SCAMPI "A" by December of 2009.  Depending on your current state of readiness there may be a lot to do.  Many clients I work with commission a SCAMPI "C" to evaluate their readiness before scheduling the higher-cost SCAMPI "A" to renew their rating.

2. SCAMPI v1.2 has clarified the sampling requirements to be (from the SCAMPI MDD): 

In appraisals where the reference model scope includes any project-related

PA, the organizational scope must include at least one focus project. If the

organizational unit includes more than 3 projects, then the organizational

scope must include sufficient focus projects and non-focus projects to

generate at least 3 instances of each practice in each project-related PA in

the model scope of the appraisal.

3.  There was quite a bit of change between v1.1 and v1.2.  Some PA's from ML3 were removed, and others were combined.  All ATMs must now be trained in CMMI v1.2 (there is an upgrade course available), and your LA must also be authorized (now certified) in v1.2

www.broadswordsolutions.com