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should agree on a common goal they want to achieve by implementing the
measures. This corresponds to the choice of how to derive the to-be-status.
• Information sources:The final structural components are the allowed sources of
information. Which persons or positions ought to be interviewed (employees,
managers, executives, etc.) and should external cross-functions also be part of
the process (neighbour departments, suppliers, etc.)? Which IT systems shall
be considered and are there any standard reports that can be used? Usually a
set of data will firstly be put together by the assessed unit itself by using reports
from systems and self-assessments. This could be completed by information
from external parties such as the production departments as internal clients to
allow a double-check. Gathering information from external parties also often
helps to uncover possible weaknesses and create internal awareness of them.
The content describes the criteria that separate a good and a poor execution
of the focal function. The content defines the extension of the topics that are taken
into consideration. Those topics have to be selected, structured and well defined and
represent the heart of the assessment model.
• Covered topics: For example, in purchasing and procurement, five chapters
could be looked at: organisation & competences, goal setting & controlling,
strategic core processes (analysis, strategy, and realisation), supplier management
and process integration. For each of those areas certain criteria must be defined.
Which topics are covered depend very much on what is understood under the
focal function and what the goals of the assessment are or which pain-points
have to be tackled. Reference models such as the SCOR model can help to
define the scope precisely and with a cross-company dimension.
• Best practices: When the covered topics are seen as the vertical axis of a set
of criteria, then the corresponding best practices mark the highest value of the
horizontal axis. This means, for every topic and criterion at least the best possible
characteristic has to be set by a complete maturity assessment model. In case of
CMMI and many other models all of the criteria leading up to this best practice,
have to be met in order to achieve the highest maturity level. An example for
a best practice in the criterion “supplier risk management” as part of supplier
management could be the provision of a thorough risk-analysis for each supplier.
• Documents of evidence: Documents of evidence are mostly used, as the
name suggests, as evidence to proof that certain criteria are fulfilled by an
assessed unit or organisation. The depths of the description depend on the
degree of standardisation of the procedures and documents used. As this
last point is often the goal of maturity assessments, it is crucial to find the
right degree of detail. Sometimes it is necessary to check the documents of
evidence carefully to detect deceit. For example, it might be useful to double
check provided reports with other data in the system or check the creation
date of a document in the properties. A document of evidence for the criterion
“supplier risk management” could be a risk analysis for selected suppliers
(selection criterion: highest purchasing volumes and/or random selection).