A unique and complex SEI Assessment (CBA/IPI) had to be crafted for the customer. It included 20 projects and required 3 months to complete.

Situation

An outsourced organization was being assessed for SEI CMM Level 2. This organization used two major sub-contractors off shore. The customer wanted to include an appraisal of the sub-contractors as well as an SEI assessment of the core outsourced organization. The customer insisted on picking the projects and selected 20 projects in total – 3 times the norm.

Action Plan

• Made sure the SEI assessment designed was CMM Appraisal Framework (CAF) compliant and reviewed the details with the customer.
• Preliminary contacts with the sub-contractors management clearly identified the approach to be taken including the schedules and personnel to be interviewed.
• Interview questions for the sub-contractors were crafted.
  • Travel (international) to the sub-contactors was required.
• Extra resources had to be allocated to handle the large amount of projects selected for the assessment.
  • The assessment team was 10 professionals and 4 were SEI Certified Lead Assessors.
• After interviewing the core outsourced organization, the assessment team was split in 2 – half interviewing sub-contractor #1 and the other half sub-contractor #2.
• Data was consolidated and merged into the data from the outsourced organization.
  

Results

The SEI assessment completed on time and within budget. Over 300 professionals were interviewed and 20 projects and the associated documentation (over 700 documents) was reviewed. The outsourced organization achieved SEI CMM Level 2.