Independent. Insightful. Effective.
It starts with getting to know each other—the sponsor or assessment coordinator, but also the project and the product. This is the foundation for defining an appropriate assessment scope.
Formal assessments conducted under the Automotive SPICE® Guidelines and INTACS® rules are always carried out by at least two certified assessors. The lead assessor must maintain independence—meaning they must not have previously worked on the project as a consultant or even as a developer.
There is some flexibility in staffing the co-assessor role. In some cases, a quality staff member from the client organization serves as co-assessor; in others, it's another assessor from the consulting firm. This approach doesn't conflict with the required independence and leads to excellent knowledge transfer.
Good processes are recognizable by how well they fit the company, the product, and the project team—not by how closely they mirror the wording of the Automotive SPICE® reference process word for word.
Both the positive observations and the weaknesses identified together are compiled into an assessment report. In a typical CL2 assessment covering 15 processes with about 6 days of interviews, this can quickly result in a report of over 100 pages.
A 60–75-minute feedback presentation is then held on the final day, addressed to all interview participants and to management. Clearly worked-out weaknesses and improvement suggestions form the starting point for helping the organization help itself.
With the assessments carried out by our experienced assessors, we see clearly in the vast majority of cases that a substantial portion of the identified weaknesses have been resolved by the time of later assessments.