Are you satisfied with your CMMI Appraiser?

Welcome back to Ask the CMMI Appraiser for today’s installment of CMMI User Stories.

As you know from our earlier posts, the SEI’s recent announcement about the CMMI raised a call for more detailed information about how people are experiencing the CMMI. In response, Broadsword decided to release excerpts from our new study of what CMMI users really think about the CMMI. Today’s post concerns the seventh question we asked CMMI users:

Were you satisfied with your experience working with your CMMI appraiser?

Organizations often report different experiences with different lead appraisers. We wanted to understand the level of satisfaction with the lead appraiser experience.

Very few responded that they were not satisfied, or did not know.

What does this data tell us? The market seems to be responding to the fact that most (not all) Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraisers are very experienced. Many have not only been practicing engineers/software developers/project managers with advanced degrees, but have also been executives, leaders, authors, and successful consultants for many years.

For example, this CMMI Appraiser has been a software developer, engineer, project manager, software architect, line manager, Chief Technology Officer, VP of Consulting, and CIO - all before I was a CMMI Appraiser.

So Certified Lead Appraisers are not your typical “CMMI consultants." Many of them can add significant strategic value to companies adopting the CMMI, due to their depth of experience. And because the cost of a Lead Appraiser is a fraction of the reward of a successful process improvement program that puts companies on the path to greatness, it makes sense that most CMMI users were satisfied.

For more CMMI User Story analysis, check back soon right here on Ask the CMMI Appraiser.

We’ve also made the information available in an eBook. If you would like to receive the complete set of user stories all at once, simply subscribe at the top of this page to receive eBooks. Provided that you are using a valid company email address (not a Yahoo, AOL or Gmail account), we will be happy to add you to the distribution list, and send you the eBook, along with others, in coming weeks.

Like this blog? Forward to your nearest engineering or software exec!

Jeff Dalton is a Certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, Certified CMMI Instructor, author, and consultant with years of real-world experience with the CMMI in all types of organizations. Jeff has taught thousands of students in CMMI trainings and has received an aggregate satisfaction score of 4.97 out of 5 from his students.

Visit www.broadswordsolutions.com for more information about running a successful CMMI program.