Do the Lead Appraisers work for the SEI?
Not all of them. In fact, just a few do. The rest are licensed to appraise through Partners (formerly known as Transition Partners), and some of them are also “visiting scientists” — a loose way of saying “very part time”. SEI does however administer and train people to be authorized to take leadership roles and responsibilities for leading appraisals and delivering Introduction to CMMI instruction. In particular, SEI controls very closely how and when it allows people to become SCAMPI Lead Appraisers. Even still, while the cadre of people with the authority to observe candidate Lead Appraisers on behalf of the SEI is small, only a few of them are actually SEI employees. The rest are visiting scientists.
