"Evaluation of an an organization’s process performance capability against a model (e.g., Automotive SPICE PAM). The goal is the rating and improvement of processes (process capability)." (Lars Dittmann et al, "Automotive SPICE in Practice", 2008)
"(1) The comparison of the actual environment and data to requirements and expectations. (2) The first high-level step in the Information and Data Quality Improvement Cycle." (Danette McGilvray, "Executing Data Quality Projects", 2008)
"An appraisal that an organization does internally for the purposes of process improvement. The word assessment is also used in the People CMM in an everyday English sense (e.g., performance assessment)." (Sally A Miller et al, "People CMM: A Framework for Human Capital Management" 2nd Ed., 2009)
"A judgment about the implications of an influencer on either one or more means (such as particular courses of action) or one or more ends, such as particular desired results." (David C Hay, "Data Model Patterns: A Metadata Map", 2010)
"Activity of determination of quantitative or qualitative value of a product, service, activity, process in regard to given quality or acceptance criteria." (IQBBA, "Standard glossary of terms used in Software Engineering", 2011)
"Assessment is the process of evaluating or estimating the nature, ability, or quality of a thing. As a synonym for measurement, assessment implies the need to compare one thing to another in order to understand it. Assessment implies drawing a conclusion - evaluating - the object of the assessment (NOAD) whereas measurement does not always imply so." (Laura Sebastian-Coleman, "Measuring Data Quality for Ongoing Improvement ", 2012)
"Evaluation of an organization's successful execution of processes and standards. For OPM3, various tools to assess organizational project management maturity exist in the marketplace with variations of granularity." (Project Management Institute, "Organizational Project Management Maturity Model (OPM3)" 3rd Ed., 2013)
"The outcome of an evaluation of a process or event. Example: a scored exam constitutes an assessment of learning." (Gregory Lampshire, "The Data and Analytics Playbook", 2016)
"A systematic evaluation process of collecting and analyzing data to determine the current, historical or projected compliance of an organization to a standard." (ASQ).
"inspection and analysis to check whether a standard or set of guidelines are being followed, that records are accurate, or that efficiency and effectiveness targets are being met" (ITIL)