An assessment is a comparison of your current process capability to those process attributes contained in an industry model or standard.
Why Assessments ?An assessment is performed to determine the capability of a process through comparison with a standard or a model.
Some organizations, for strategic reasons, must achieve certification against a model in order to provide goods and services in certain business sectors. In this case, the assessment is considered to be for certification purposes; industry's formal recognition of your process capability.
Other organizations choose to use industry standard models as a guide or reference for process improvement efforts. In these instances, an assessment is performed to establish a baseline for future improvement initiatives and as a method to quantify improvement.
QAI's Appraisal and Assessment Services
Appraisals and assessments may involve individuals outside of the organization such as a Capability Maturity Model® Integration Integration (CMMI®) lead appraiser, but many times the assessment is conducted using internal resources to identify areas for improvement or in preparation for a formal assessment. Assessment uses a combination of auditing and interviewing techniques to answer a list of questions, which is tailored to fit the organization being assessed.
The Quality Assurance Institute performs appraisals and assessments against a majority of the leading industry models. Although the models offer structure and guidance, care must be taken to ensure that the model selected will meet the objectives of your organization. QAI can assist clients in preparation for the certification process and provide the advice on the process improvement by performing internal assessments or benchmarking against the following standards and models :
- The Software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI®)
- IT Service Management
- QAI's Quality Model
- QAI's Software Testing
- QAI's Security Assessments
The Software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Models® :
The Software Engineering Institute was established by US Department of Defense (DoD) to improve the practice of software engineering. Their key effort was a development of a Capability Maturity Model (CMM®) as an evaluation tool of prime contactors capability. Since 1991 several additional models were developed in various disciplines, including systems engineering, software engineering and software acquisition. The Capability Maturity Model® Integration (CMMIsm) Version 1.1 represents the evolution of the CMM® models into a single, comprehensive assessment model for System Engineering, Software Engineering, Integrated Product and Process Development, and Supplier Sourcing.
The CMMIsm model consists of five maturity levels and addresses the effectiveness of twenty-five process areas. DoD specifies that the supplier company must attain at least a maturity level three.
QAI can assist clients in preparation for the appraisal process by performing internal benchmarking against the model and advising on the process improvement. We are an official Transition Partner for the SEI CMMI® SCAMPI® Appraisal Service .
IT Service Management and ITIL
The development of the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is the recognition that organizations are increasingly dependent upon IT to satisfy their corporate aims and meet their business needs. This growing dependency leads to growing needs for quality IT services - quality that is matched to business needs and user requirements as they emerge.
This is true no matter what type or size of organisation, be it national government, a multinational conglomerate, a decentralized office with either a local or centralized IT provision, an outsourced service provider, or a single office environment with one person providing IT support. In each case there is the requirement to provide an economical service that is reliable, consistent and of the highest quality.
IT Service Management is concerned with delivering and supporting IT services that are appropriate to the business requirements of the organisation. ITIL provides a comprehensive, consistent and coherent set of best practices for IT Service Management processes, promoting a quality approach to achieving business effectiveness and efficiency in the use of information systems. ITIL processes are intended to be implemented so that they underpin but do not dictate the business processes of an organisation. IT service providers will be striving to improve the quality of the service, but at the same time they will be trying to reduce the costs or, at a minimum, maintain costs at the current level.
In partnership with ITpreneurs, we offer a complete range of services, including e-Learning, blended learning, consulting and assessments. Please visit our ITSM Campus to see our complete course listings. While there, try out one or more of our demo products.
QAI's Quality Model has been developed as a guide and reference to companies who want to improve their process capability. While other leading industry models' provide valuable information, they do not always tell you how to interpret and deploy their model. This assessment process will evaluate your current management, technology, people, product, quality control, and quality assurance process. Also, the assessment will evaluate the effectiveness of your organization and operating environment.
QAI can perform the assessment and recommend process improvement based on the QAI's own Quality Model. Typically, this model is used when the objective is an overall process improvement without the need for the formal certification, however, it will position an organization on the path to achieving desired maturity and capability level.
For most companies, software testing represents the only assurance of quality prior to moving applications into the production environment. QAI has long been recognized an industry leader in the field of software testing. We have developed an assessment instrument to evaluate the effectiveness of your test process. This assessment will focus on the organizational structure, your test process maturity (e.g. how well defined, well deployed), and the effectiveness of staff, tools, and techniques.
QAI's Security Assessment services are based upon a client centric approach. We first understand the basis of the client's security concerns, then review critical business processes and the associated data. Using our security assessment process, based upon international standards, we produce a business based risk assessment. Depending upon the degree of risk aversion, management can determine their security investment level, priorities, and schedules for risk reduction due to security issues. QAI has certified and experienced staff to perform these assessments.
