Choosing the Assessment Sponsor (Ensuring the Hands-On Role of Senior Management)
The executive who has made a decision to schedule an assessment must choose whether he or she will be the official assessment sponsor or whether another senior manager will act in that role. It is extremely important that the assessment sponsor be of sufficient rank to lend real authority to the assessment effort follow-on process improvement implementation. Ideally the assessment sponsor should be the president or a managing director of the division whose organization is being assessed.
The assessment sponsor’s job is to demonstrate the company’s genuine commitment to the assessment and to process improvement by words and support and to provide guidance to the Lead Assessor and the assessment team regarding both the organizational and reference model scope of the assessmentthat is, the projects to be included for in-depth analysis and the maturity level of the reference model to be investigatedand the selection of an assessment team. The sponsor participates in planning meetings, the opening kick-off meeting, and the final findings presentation. Evidence of the sponsor’s support of the assessment activities is an important aspect of creating an open, non-threatening atmosphere in the assessed organization. The sponsor funds the assessment activities as well as the follow-on activities that result from the assessment.