Evaluating the Internal Consistency of the Base Questions in the Express Process Appraisal

This paper describes a study to assess the reliability of a CMMI^reg ARC 1.1 Class C process appraisal method called Express Process Appraisal (EPA). The EPA was developed by the Centre for Software Process Technologies to address the process improvement appraisal needs of small to medium sized software development organisations in Northern Ireland. The results from a series of appraisals are subjected to Cronbach ´s Alpha Coefficient analysis in order to determine the internal consistency of the question set used by the EPA. This approach identified issues in the questions associated with two process areas. This paper details these issues, the data, and analysis method used, as well as providing a discussion into possible reasons behind the identified issues.