The Appraisal Requirements for CMMI (ARC) V1.1 defines the requirements considered essential to appraisal methods intended for use with Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) models. In addition, a set of appraisal classes is defined, based on typical applications of appraisal methods. These classes are intended primarily for developers of appraisal methods to use with CMMI capability models in the context of the CMMI Product Suite. Appraisal methods, as used in this document, may be applied for different purposes, including assessments for internal process improvement and capability evaluations for supplier selection and process monitoring. This document defines the requirements for such methods, but not necessarily the conditions or constraints under which they might be applied.

The approach employed to provide guidance to appraisal method developers is to define a set of typical applications of appraisal methods (which are based on years of experience in the process improvement community) called appraisal method classes. Requirements are then allocated to each class as appropriate based on the attributes associated with that class. Thus, a particular appraisal method may be declared to be an ARC Class A, B, or C appraisal method. This designation implies the sets of ARC requirements that the method developer has addressed when designing the method.