Advantages of the use of computerized adaptive testing for maturity evaluation of the environmental management system in industries/Vantagens do uso de testes adaptativos computadorizados para avaliacao da maturidade do sistema de gestao ambiental de industrias/ Ventajas del uso de tests adaptativos informatizados para evaluación de la madurez del sistema de gestión ambiental de industrias

The Computer Adaptive Test (CAT) selects the most informative items for respondents, which is an advantage over non-adaptive methods that use computer or paper and pencil. This paper aims to present the advantages of using CAT for maturity evaluation of the Environmental Management System in industries. The test considers aspects relating to environmental policy, planning, implementation and operation, checking and corrective action, and review by management, focusing to continuous improvement. In this sense, we conducted a simulation study to evaluate the effect of different CAT stopping rules and compared the results with the original version of the test. Results show that there could be a reduction of 71% in the test length in deploying a CAT without compromising the validity and accuracy of the measure, benefiting both respondents and those responsible by development and application of tests.