CMMI Appraisal Cost Guide

Appraisal, not certification

Capability Maturity Model Integration is a process improvement model owned and administered by ISACA through the CMMI Institute. CMMI came out of the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, moved to the CMMI Institute, and passed to ISACA when ISACA acquired the CMMI Institute in 2016. CMMI V3.0 was published in 2023.

An organisation is not certified to CMMI. It is appraised, and the outcome is a maturity level or capability level rating rather than a certificate issued by a certification body. There is no Stage 1 and Stage 2 audit sequence, there are no annual surveillance audits, and no ISO accreditation body is involved. Anyone describing a CMMI engagement in those terms is describing an ISO scheme, not CMMI.

Appraisals are conducted by a Lead Appraiser authorised by ISACA, leading an appraisal team. A Benchmark Appraisal rating is valid for three years. A Sustainment Appraisal, available to organisations that already hold a Benchmark rating, is valid for two years. Ratings are published in ISACA’s Published Appraisal Results System, known as PARS.

Where the money goes

A CMMI programme has distinct cost components, and quotations differ mainly in how many of them they include.

• The appraisal itself. The Lead Appraiser’s time for planning, the readiness review, the on-site or virtual appraisal period, data collection and verification, rating and reporting.
• The appraisal team. A Benchmark Appraisal requires a team, and team members must be trained as Appraisal Team Members. Some of that team may be your own staff, which converts an external fee into internal time.
• Training and licensing fees payable to ISACA. Model training, ATM training and appraisal registration are ISACA’s products, priced by ISACA rather than by the appraiser.
• Preparation and process improvement work. Usually the largest element by far. Defining the process set, deploying it across projects, generating objective evidence over time and closing gaps found in a readiness review.
• Internal effort. Project teams producing and maintaining evidence, interviews, and the process group’s own time.

The variables that move the quotation

Two organisations of the same headcount can receive very different appraisal proposals. These are the drivers to check against any quotation:

• Appraisal type. A Benchmark Appraisal is the full exercise that produces a three year rating. A Sustainment Appraisal is lighter but requires an existing Benchmark rating. An Evaluation Appraisal is an internal exercise that produces no published rating.
• Target level. The rating being sought determines how many practice areas fall in scope and how much evidence has to exist. A higher maturity level brings in quantitative practice areas that require data history, not just documented process.
• Domain or view in scope. CMMI V3.0 covers several domains including development, services, supplier management, people, data, security, safety and virtual working. Appraising more than one domain widens the practice area set.
• Number of practice areas. Directly determines the volume of evidence to be collected and verified, and therefore the appraisal period.
• Size of the organisational unit and the sampling. The number of projects or basic units sampled, and how they are distributed, drives the interview and evidence load more than total company headcount does.
• Number of locations. Multiple delivery centres mean more sampling and, where the appraisal is on site, more travel.
• Appraisal team size and composition. Larger scopes need larger teams, and each member needs the required training.
• Current maturity and evidence readiness. An organisation whose processes are already defined and evidenced needs far less preparation than one starting from ad hoc practice. This is where most of the variance lives.
• On site or virtual. Virtual appraisals remove travel cost but do not remove appraisal effort.
• Timing. Compressed timelines usually cost more, because evidence has to be generated and verified in parallel rather than accumulated naturally.

Reading a CMMI proposal properly

A few checks separate a sound proposal from a weak one.

• Confirm the Lead Appraiser is currently authorised by ISACA. Authorisation is verifiable, and an appraisal led by someone who is not authorised cannot produce a published rating.
• Confirm which appraisal type is being proposed and what rating, if any, it produces.
• Confirm which ISACA fees are inside the quotation and which are payable separately.
• Confirm what preparation work is included, and whether the readiness review is inside the fee.
• Confirm the scope in writing: the organisational unit, the projects to be sampled, the domain and the practice areas.
• Treat a guaranteed rating as a warning sign. The rating follows the evidence.

How Univate supports CMMI programmes

Univate works on the preparation side: process definition against the model, deployment across projects, evidence architecture, gap closure and readiness review, and Appraisal Team Member support. The appraisal itself is conducted by an authorised Lead Appraiser, and the rating decision rests with the appraisal, not with us. We scope first and then quote a fixed fee for a defined deliverable set, with ISACA fees and appraiser fees identified separately.

Frequently asked questions

Is CMMI a certification?

No. CMMI organisations are appraised rather than certified. The outcome is a maturity level or capability level rating awarded through an appraisal led by a Lead Appraiser authorised by ISACA, and the result is published in the Published Appraisal Results System, PARS, operated by ISACA.

Does CMMI have Stage 1 and Stage 2 audits or annual surveillance?

No. Those belong to ISO management system certification schemes. CMMI uses appraisals conducted by an authorised Lead Appraiser and an appraisal team. There is no surveillance audit cycle.

How long does a CMMI rating last?

A Benchmark Appraisal rating is valid for three years. A Sustainment Appraisal, which is available to organisations that already hold a Benchmark rating, is valid for two years.

Who sets CMMI appraisal fees?

The Lead Appraiser or partner organisation prices the appraisal engagement. Training, appraisal registration and related items are ISACA products priced by ISACA. There is no single published fee, so cost is quoted per organisation against a defined scope.

What has the biggest effect on cost?

Readiness. The number of practice areas and projects in scope sets the size of the appraisal, but the amount of preparation needed to produce and verify objective evidence is where most of the variance sits.

Can Univate conduct the appraisal as well as the preparation?

The appraisal is conducted by an authorised Lead Appraiser. Univate works on process definition, deployment, evidence readiness and gap closure ahead of the appraisal, and supports the organisation through it.

Univate Solutions supports organisations across India, the GCC, South East Asia, Africa and the United States. Speak to a consultant about your scope.

Univate Global delivers ISO certifications, data privacy compliance and cybersecurity frameworks across its international markets.