The EpiCenter
Introduction

The EpiCenter is pleased to announce that the Appraisal Daemon© system is
almost ready for sale - watch this space for information on this exciting
assessment tool system.
Introducing Appraisal Daemon©

Appraisal Daemon is named after the Greek term ‘Daemon’ [pronounced ‘dee-
man’, the same as ‘demon’] which indicated a being that provides a communication
link between the Gods and Humans.  The concept was introduced into the software
seemed appropriate for the function of this tool.

Appraisal Daemon has been specifically designed by an SEI-Certified Lead
Appraiser to support the conduct of both process improvement and benchmark
appraisals.  All major Critical Success Factors for appraisals are addressed in the
tool.

The Appraisal Daemon consists of a significant amount of Visual Basic® software
embedded in a Microsoft Excel® workbook with multiple spreadsheets.  It is
distributed as an Excel workbook with macros.

Appraisal Daemon’s major features are summarized below

  • Multiple Team Members – The Appraisal Daemon has a mechanism
    for distributing copies of the tool to multiple team members and then
    automatically combining evidence and observations back into a master file.  
    This feature allows team members to be in different locations, or to work in
    separate sub-teams.  It promotes collaboration and coordination of findings
    among the team.

  • Model Reference and Multiple Models – The Appraisal Daemon
    displays the key elements of the selected Target Model for reference during
    the appraisal.  Team members can ensure that Observations and Objective
    Evidence artifacts are mapped to appropriate model elements at any level of
    the model (e.g., Practice, Goal, Maturity level).

    The Appraisal Daemon supports importing one of several defined Target
    Models.  Individuals can easily create new models and / or subsets of
    models.  Models are currently defined for:

            CMMI-SVC Staged Level 5 v1.2 and v1.3
            CMMI-DEV Staged Level 5 v1.2 and v1.3
            CMMI-DEV Continuous Level 5 v1.2 and v1.3
            CMMI-DEV Staged Level 3 v1.2 and v1.3
            CMMI-DEV Staged Level 3(no SAM) v1.2 and v1.3
            CMMI-DEV Staged Level 3(no SAM no IPPD) v1.2 and v1.3
            CMMI-DEV Staged Level 2 v1.2 and v1.3
            CMMI-DEV Staged Level 2(no SAM) v1.2 and v1.3
            ITIL-V2 Service Support and Delivery
            ISO / IEEE 20000

  • Mapping Objective Evidence – Appraisal Daemon provides a
    spreadsheet for identifying documentation and other artifacts that are
    evidence for the appraisal.  Documents that are available for on-line viewing
    are linked into the spreadsheet with hyperlinks allowing the team members
    to click and open the documents.  Automated tools allow the evidence
    collection team to open windows folders, select files to be linked, and create
    the links in the spreadsheet for multiple documents at once.  

    A free add-on tool, File Indexer is provided with the Appraisal Daemon
    System that defines a folder structure for storing objective evidence files,
    indexing files in the folder structure into an Excel table, and importing the
    links into the Appraisal Daemon tool.

    Objective Evidence is categorized in the tool with Owner Instantiation, Type of
    artifact, Type of evidence, and related Target Model Element.  Once an
    artifact is linked in, it can be duplicated and linked to other Target Model
    Elements quickly.  All of the categories are user-adjustable from lists so they
    can be customized based on the assessment team’s preferences.

    The Appraisal Daemon also provides functions for collecting and
    independently verifying evidence before it is presented to the appraisal
    team.  Charts can be produced to document the progress of the evidence
    collection activities.

  • Instantiations – Appraisal Daemon provides for up to 6 Instantiations
    providing evidence / observations for the organization.  Each Instantiation
    can be separately rated for each Target Model element.

  • Ratings – Ratings and Characterizations are provided at multiple levels
    within the tool.  Each rating element has a customizable list of rating values.  
    The Appraisal Team Lead can set the values at the beginning of the
    appraisal for all team members.  Most of the rating values can be transferred
    automatically to a tracking chart providing a visual reference.  The tool also
    provides color indicators for the ratings making them easily visible.  Ratings
    are provided for:

            Team Progress Rating
            Objective Evidence Type / Verification
            Project Characterization by Model Element
            Organization Model Element Characterization
            Model Element Risk or Satisfaction Rating
*  CMM, CMMI, Capability Maturity Model are registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office by Carnegie Mellon University

*  SCAMPI is a registered Service Mark of Carnegie Mellon University

* The ISO 20000 model is only available to organizations who have previously purchased the model documentation

* ITIL is registered by the British Office of Government Commerce under license from Her Majesty's Stationary Office
Larry Bramble is the
author of the Appraisal
Daemon System
====================
What's New:

January, 2011
Initial offering of the
Appraisal Daemon System for
commercial use.
Do you use industry
models and frameworks
like CMMI-SVC,
CMMI-DEV,
ISO 20000?

If so, the
Appraisal Daemon
is the system you need
for
Compliance Reviews,
Audits,
Internal Assessments,
Formal Assessments,
Evidence Collection