The Assessment Team, operating under a Certified Third-Party Assessor Organization (C3PAO), is formally tasked with conducting the CMMC assessment. A core responsibility during the "Conduct Assessment" phase is to collect, review, and analyze objective evidence to verify its adequacy and sufficiency. Based on this evaluation, the Assessment Team determines whether the Organization Seeking Certification (OSC) has successfully met the CMMC practices and objectives for all in-scope assets. This process is fundamental to the integrity of the assessment and the final recommendation for certification.

A. OSC: The Organization Seeking Certification (OSC) is the entity being assessed; it provides evidence but does not have the authority to verify its own sufficiency for certification.

C. Authorizing official: This term is specific to other frameworks like the Risk Management Framework (RMF) and is not a defined role within the CMMC assessment process for verifying evidence.

D. Assessment official: This is a generic and imprecise term. The official CMMC documentation specifically designates the "Assessment Team" as the responsible party for conducting the assessment activities.

1. U.S. Department of Defense. (2023

July). CMMC Assessment Process (CAP) for CMMC Level 2

Version 1.0. Section 3.3

"Conduct Assessment

" Page 10. This section explicitly states

"During this phase

the Assessment Team collects and analyzes evidence to determine if the OSC has met the CMMC requirements included in the assessment scope."

2. U.S. Department of Defense. (2021

November). Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) Model Overview

Version 2.0. Page 5. This document outlines the CMMC ecosystem

noting that C3PAOs and the certified assessors that comprise their assessment teams are responsible for conducting CMMC assessments.