Preparedness Tips

How to Ensure Your Assessment is a Success

Here at Kreative, we’re all about preparedness. Whether it be for internal audits of your quality program, quality certifications like CMMI or ISO, or even certifications to maintain your security posture like CMMC – we always have a plan in place to prepare! Preparing for an assessment is a major milestone for any best practices models. That’s why this September, we shared several important tips with our social media followers to help prepare for assessments. Being prepared will ensure that the organization is compliant with the model and that consultants like Kreative have done their due diligence in making sure the customer is ready. So, what types of activities can our customers expect to participate in prior to an assessment? Read some of our preparedness tips below to learn how your organization can ensure your assessment is a success!

Preparedness Tips

1. Version Control – Ensure that all documentation and work products are compliant and the most current version is uploaded to your document repository. During assessments, documentation is showed to the lead appraiser or auditor to demonstrate compliance. It is imperative that the documentation that is being presented is the most up-to-date version.
2. Perform internal audits – Internal Audits are performed prior to the 3rd party assessment/audits. By performing these audits, your organization is monitoring risks, opportunities, compliance, and effectiveness with any relevant laws or regulations and against the targeted standard. We use internal audit checklists which address the requirements of the model/standard as we review objective evidence. Once the audits are complete, we work with our customers to close out any findings prior to the assessment.
3. Conduct Dry Runs – We like to make sure that our customers feel confident and are prepared before going into an assessment. With managing and leading over several hundred assessments/audits, we provide guidance on ‘what to expect’.
4. Close Out Actions – Quality assessments consist of 2 major milestones (ISO: Stage 1 & Stage 2; and CMMI: Readiness Review and Benchmark). The first milestone is to ensure that the customer is ready enough to move on to the final milestone. During Stage 1 or Readiness Review, actions can be identified that have to be addressed before going into the final milestone which determines the certification/rating. We work with our customers to make sure these are closed out for success.
5. Training – As part of ISO and CMMI efforts, high-level training of the model/standards is administered. This ensures that both the Process Owner and the Practitioners both understand the intent of the model/standard and its application to their organization and customer for best practices. The effectiveness of this training is collected to ensure that the intent is understood, and any feedback is communicated. We provide our customers with these courses so that refresher training can be done annually.
6. Conduct Management Review– We work closely with our customers to perform Management Reviews. This is a way for Senior Leadership to have insight on business goals and objectives, performance, process improvements, and internal audit activities. The Management Review is done prior to the Readiness Review (CMMI) and Stage 1 (ISO), and any actions are documented and tracked to closure. These activities ensure Senior Leadership commitment.

Need more helpful tips to prepare for your upcoming assessment? Contact Kreative! Visit our Contact page and request a free consultation with a process SME who can help get your organization on track.