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What Should Government Contractors Do Before a CMMC Assessment?

Published: September 18, 2026

Table of Contents

Before a CMMC assessment, government contractors should confirm which CMMC requirements apply to them, clearly define the environment being assessed, review their implementation of the required security practices, organize supporting evidence, address known gaps, and make sure the people involved can explain how cybersecurity actually works inside the organization.

The key word there is actually.

Preparing for CMMC shouldn’t become a last-minute exercise in creating policies that don’t reflect what employees and systems are doing. An assessment evaluates whether applicable security requirements are implemented correctly, operating as intended, and producing the required security outcome. For CMMC Level 2, the Department of Defense's current assessment guide addresses 110 security requirements from NIST SP 800-171 Revision 2.

At Exact IT Consulting, we believe the better approach is to understand your environment early enough to find and address problems before they become assessment findings.

Do You Know Which CMMC Level and Assessment Type Apply to You?

Start here, because not every contractor goes through the same CMMC process.

CMMC includes different assessment requirements based on the applicable level and contract requirements. Level 1 uses annual self-assessments. At Level 2, some organizations may have a self-assessment requirement while others require a certification assessment conducted by an accredited Certified Third-Party Assessment Organization, or C3PAO.

Before working toward an assessment, confirm what your current or anticipated contracts require and what information your organization handles.

If you are unsure, that uncertainty needs to be resolved early. Preparing for the wrong assessment can cost your team considerable time without actually getting you closer to your contractual requirements.

Have You Clearly Defined Your CMMC Assessment Scope?

One of the first practical questions to ask yourself is:

What exactly is being assessed?

For a contractor handling Controlled Unclassified Information, or CUI, that means understanding where that information enters your organization, where it is stored, how it moves, who can access it, and which systems are involved in protecting it.

That could include endpoints, servers, cloud environments, applications, networks, security systems, people, and service providers depending on your environment.

Scope deserves attention well before the assessor arrives.

If your organization cannot clearly describe where CUI exists and which assets are involved, it becomes much harder to demonstrate that those assets are being protected appropriately.

Should You Complete a Readiness Assessment First?

In many cases, yes.

A readiness or gap assessment gives you a chance to look at your environment through the requirements you expect to be assessed against before the formal assessment begins.

The goal is not to give yourself a reassuring score.

You are trying to find out what an assessor may find while you still have time to do something about it.

For each applicable requirement, ask three questions:

Is it implemented?

Can we prove that it is implemented?

Does the evidence match what actually happens in our environment?

That last question is particularly important.

A written policy saying multi-factor authentication is required does not help if systems within the assessment scope are not actually enforcing it.

What Evidence Should You Have Ready?

CMMC assessment preparation is not just about having cybersecurity tools. You also need evidence showing how your security requirements are being met.

The exact evidence will depend on the requirement being assessed and your environment.

That might mean policies, procedures, system configurations, screenshots, technical records, logs, diagrams, training records, account information, inventories, security plans, or other artifacts that demonstrate what your organization is actually doing.

Assessors can use three methods when evaluating CMMC Level 2 requirements: examine, interview, and test. That means they may review documentation or other evidence, speak with the people responsible for a process, and test mechanisms to determine whether the requirement is being met.

A folder full of documents alone is not enough.

Your documentation, your technology, and your employees' explanations need to tell the same story.

Is Your System Security Plan Current?

Your System Security Plan, or SSP, should reflect the environment you actually operate.

If it describes systems that have been replaced, processes nobody follows, or controls that have not been fully implemented, updating it the week before an assessment will not solve the underlying problem.

Treat the SSP as a working description of how your organization meets its security requirements.

As your systems, vendors, applications, employees, and processes change, the documentation supporting your security program should change with them.

This is one reason we recommend connecting CMMC preparation with your larger IT planning process. Security documentation becomes much easier to maintain when your technology decisions are documented and reviewed rather than handled as isolated projects.

What Should You Do About Security Gaps You Find?

Prioritize them based on the CMMC requirements and the amount of work needed to correct them.

Do not assume every missing requirement can simply be placed on a Plan of Action and Milestones, or POA&M.

Current CMMC rules permit POA&Ms only under defined circumstances. Level 1 does not permit them, while Level 2 allows limited POA&M use subject to specific requirements and a 180-day closeout period for conditional status.

That makes early preparation important.

If you discover a problem that requires a new technical solution, policy change, employee training, network redesign, or coordination with a third-party provider, you need enough time to make the change and confirm that it works.

Do Your Employees Need to Prepare for a CMMC Assessment?

The people involved in relevant security processes should understand their responsibilities and be able to explain what they actually do.

That does not mean employees should memorize scripted answers.

In fact, a script can create problems when the documented answer does not match the employee's actual workflow.

Think about the people who manage accounts, approve access, administer systems, handle CUI, respond to security events, maintain backups, oversee vendors, train employees, or manage relevant policies.

If an assessor asks how a process works, the person responsible should understand that process.

This is where a mock interview or internal walkthrough can be useful. Ask employees the types of questions an assessor might ask and compare their answers with your policies and technical environment.

If the three do not match, you have found something worth addressing.

What About Your Vendors and External IT Providers?

Do not forget about third parties while preparing your own organization.

Government contractors frequently rely on cloud platforms, managed service providers, security vendors, software providers, and other external companies as part of their IT environment.

You need to understand which external services touch the systems, information, or security functions relevant to your CMMC scope and what role those providers play.

Your provider should also understand that CMMC support involves more than installing security products.

For example, if you work with an MSP, you should know which security responsibilities belong to your internal team and which are handled by the provider. Those responsibilities should be understood before the assessment, not discovered during it.

How Early Should You Start Preparing?

Start before you have an assessment date looming over you.

There is no single preparation timeline that fits every contractor because environments and readiness levels vary. A company with a clearly defined CUI environment, mature documentation, and established security processes is in a very different position from a company discovering its requirements for the first time.

The first readiness review gives you a much better idea of how much work is ahead.

If major gaps exist, remediation can involve technical projects, policy development, employee training, vendor coordination, documentation, and testing. Those activities take time.

A rushed CMMC project is much harder to manage than a planned one.

How Do You Know When You Are Ready for the Assessment?

You should be able to move beyond saying, "We think we're compliant."

Your organization should understand its assessment scope, applicable requirements, current security practices, supporting evidence, and any remaining areas that require attention.

Your documentation should reflect reality.

Your technical controls should operate the way your documentation says they do.

Your employees should understand the processes they are responsible for.

And leadership should understand what the organization is attesting to.

CMMC is ultimately about protecting sensitive government information, not simply passing an assessment. The preparation process should leave you with stronger security practices that continue after the assessor leaves.

How Can Exact IT Help You Prepare for CMMC?

If you are unsure where to begin, we can help you turn CMMC preparation into a manageable process.

At Exact IT Consulting, we can work with government contractors to understand their technology environment, identify security gaps, prepare for applicable CMMC requirements, and develop a plan for addressing the IT and cybersecurity work that needs attention.

The goal is to know where you stand before your formal assessment begins.

Talk with Exact IT about CMMC support and your current readiness.

Questions You May Still Have About CMMC Assessments

Is a CMMC readiness assessment the same as a certification assessment?

No. A readiness or gap assessment can help you understand where your environment may fall short, but it does not replace a required CMMC certification assessment. A Level 2 certification assessment is performed by an accredited C3PAO.

Does every Level 2 contractor need a C3PAO assessment?

No. Current CMMC rules provide for both Level 2 self-assessments and Level 2 certification assessments, depending on the applicable requirement. Contractors should confirm which applies to their contracts rather than assuming one assessment type applies to every Level 2 organization.

Can we use a POA&M for anything we have not finished?

No. CMMC limits the use of POA&Ms, and they are not permitted for Level 1. Contractors should understand the applicable restrictions before relying on a POA&M as part of their assessment strategy.

What happens during a Level 2 assessment?

Assessors can examine evidence, interview relevant people, and test mechanisms to determine whether applicable requirements are satisfied. That is why preparation needs to cover documentation, technology, and real business processes rather than focusing on paperwork alone.