The final findings presentation is a key mechanism for transitioning ownership of the assessment findings back to the organization. This is accomplished partly when the people in the organization recognize that their feedback during the draft findings meeting has been incorporated into the final findings.
The final findings presentation delivers the assessment’s results to the sponsor and to anyone else the sponsor wants to include, as well as everyone who participated in the assessment. The presentation should sound as if it were an articulation of what the organization itself had said, and the assessment team should stress that its major contribution has been to gather together information that no one person in the organization could have possibly known, and to analyze this information in light of current state-of-the-art software engineering standards.
The Lead Assessor usually presents the introduction, the summary chart listing the KPA/PA and maturity level ratings, the statement of organizational strengths and weaknesses, and a list of recommendations.
The Lead Assessor must present this material in the most positive manner. No one fails an assessment, and the fact that an organization has chosen to be assessed almost always means that a significant part of its operations is oriented toward improvement. Even if the organization has not attained the maturity level it sought, the Lead Assessor should explain, for example, that the current organizational processes provide an excellent basis for immediate improvements of particular kinds, or that the organization is in fact performing activities on some projects at a very high level, and that with work, the whole organization can be brought up to that level. Technical issues should never be described as insurmountable, and the Lead Assessor should explain how organization-wide cultural issues that perpetuate certain problems can be changed and how this in turn can facilitate the institutionalization of many technical improvements in a very short timeframe.
Organization N hoped to be Level 2 but did not quite make it because it had mounted a too-ambitious SQA program that failed to perform certain Level 2 functions. At the final findings meeting, the Lead Assessor pointed out that the SQA plans were highly sophisticated and, when refined, would greatly benefit the entire corporation. He also noted that it would not be very long before the SQA program would be up and running, and that when it was, the organization would be well on its way not just toward Level 3 but toward Level 5. Without making specific promises, his optimism transformed the mood of the meeting, and the organization did in fact keep up with process improvement and before too long was reassessed at Level 2.
At the end of the presentation, the president or managing director thanks the team and addresses the organization. His speech is the beginning of the next phase of the improvement process.
In most final findings presentations, questions are permitted, but they are rarely asked. Participants sometimes are requested to offer reactions to the presentation on a questionnaire stating whether they believe that the findings were accurate, if they believe action would be taken based on the assessment results, and so on.
This information can be useful to the organization in moving forward with the process improvement initiative.