Services / C3PAO Readiness Review

Verify · Before You Pay for the Real Thing

A go/no-go verdict before you pay for the real assessment

For contractors with documentation complete and a C3PAO engagement approaching — the dress rehearsal with the cheap consequences.

Book a Go/No-Go Review

Phase 2's C3PAO mandate is suspended (July 13, 2026) — but primes and select solicitations can still require the assessment. If one is on your calendar, schedule the review before your assessment window, not inside it. Registered Practitioner — readiness advisory only. Formal CMMC assessments are conducted by certified C3PAOs.

$7,500

$12,500 if Lumos didn't author your SSP and evidence framework (Modules B + C)

2 weeks

Schedule before your assessment window

Mock interview

Your team, assessor-style questions, recorded

The wrong place to discover a gap is mid-assessment

A failed C3PAO assessment costs the assessment fee, the remediation scramble, and months of schedule — and most failures trace to things a rehearsal would have caught: an SSP section that doesn’t match reality, an artifact nobody can produce, a staff answer that contradicts the policy.

The Readiness Review runs your documentation, evidence, and people through assessor-style scrutiny while the consequences are still cheap. The verdict is direct and honest: go, go with fixes, or no-go — with the specific reasons either way.

What you get in 2 weeks

Go/no-go verdict

A direct answer backed by a red/yellow/green readiness scorecard — not a hedge. If it's no-go, you get the shortest path to go.

Mock assessor interview

The centerpiece: your staff answering assessor-style questions, recorded, with coaching notes on every weak answer.

Documentation stress-test

SSP, policies, and evidence index challenged the way an assessor reads them — claim by claim, artifact by artifact, with every gap logged in an evidence deficiency list.

Final-mile punch list

Every finding sized and sequenced, so the weeks before your assessment go to the right fixes.

Two weeks, week by week

Gate

Your clock starts here

SOW signed + payment + document checklist complete = your clock starts. Until then, nothing is counting against you.

Week 1

Documentation and evidence stress-test

Every 171A assessment objective checked against final-form evidence, plus a 30–40 artifact spot-check of your evidence index. Claims that don't trace become findings.

Week 2

Mock interviews and verdict

Staff interviewed assessor-style, gaps between policy and practice surfaced, verdict written with the punch list.

Week 2 · close

Recorded debrief

A recorded walkthrough of every finding and deliverable — so your team can replay it, and nothing lives only in one person’s head.

What we need from you

This checklist is how your timeline stays protected — the clock starts when it's complete, so nothing stalls mid-engagement.

✓ A complete SSP, policy set, evidence index, and current POA&M (Lumos-built or otherwise)

✓ Your staff available for the 2-hour mock-interview session — participant list agreed up front

✓ Your target assessment window, so the punch list is sequenced against real dates

✓ Willingness to hear a no-go if that’s the honest answer

Is the Readiness Review the right step now?

The Review works well for:

✓ Contractors with a C3PAO assessment scheduled or imminent
✓ Teams whose documentation is complete but never independently challenged
✓ Organizations that built documentation elsewhere and want a second set of eyes
✓ Owners who'd rather hear "not yet" from the review than from the assessor

Not the right fit:

✗ Documentation incomplete — finish Module B and C first; reviewing fragments wastes the fee
✗ More than ~6 months from any assessment window — gaps found now will have drifted by then
✗ Organizations wanting Lumos to perform the formal assessment — a C3PAO must do that
✗ Looking for hands-on technical implementation — your IT staff or MSP performs that work

Lumos is a solo practice led by a Cyber AB Registered Practitioner providing readiness advisory and documentation only — formal CMMC assessments are conducted by certified C3PAOs, and technical implementation is performed by your IT staff or MSP.

CISSP · ISSEP · CCSP · CSSLP · CISA · CISM · PMP Cyber AB Registered Practitioner 28 NIST engagements since 2017 Veteran & Native Hawaiian-Owned

Where this leads

After a go verdict, you proceed to your C3PAO with documentation that's already survived a rehearsal. The typical next step is the Retainer, so readiness doesn't decay while you wait for your slot.

Sprint / Snapshot Gap Analysis Module A Module B Module C Readiness Review Retainer

← Previous step: Module C: Policy & Evidence Next step: Readiness Retainer →

Questions about this engagement

Why two prices? +

Documentation Lumos authored is already known — verifying it takes less time. Outside documentation has to be read from zero, claim by claim, which is honestly more work: $7,500 when Lumos authored your SSP and evidence framework (Modules B + C), $12,500 otherwise — keeping the build in-house saves $5,000.

Is this an official assessment? +

No — and that's the point. Only a certified C3PAO conducts the formal assessment. This is the rehearsal designed to take the surprises out of the formal one, run by a Registered Practitioner under advisory scope.

What happens on a no-go? +

You get the specific findings, the punch list sequenced by effort and impact, and a realistic timeline to go — far cheaper than discovering the same list mid-assessment.

When should we schedule? +

Two to three months before your assessment window: close enough that findings stay valid, far enough that there's time to fix them. With Phase 2 suspended, your window is set by your contracts and primes — not a program date. Book the review when you book the assessment.