[comp.software-eng] SEI Software Process Program

mcp@sei.cmu.edu (Mark Paulk) (06/23/89)

In article <43f1e8da.17e7e@gtephx.UUCP> sheppards@gtephx.UUCP (Scott Sheppard) writes:
>
>     I read an article in the June issue of Electronics magazine
>     called 'It's Time To Grow Up',  written by Jack Shandle. 
>     The piece describes the levels of maturity of all software
>     companies in terms of five levels.  The first level is
>     characterized by being 'chaotic', and is occupied by 84% of
>     the companies surveyed.  The second level is 'intuitive' and
>     is occupied by only 14% of the companies surveyed, while the
>     third level or 'quantitative' level is occupied by a meager
>     2%.  No companies were in the fourth or fifth levels.    
>
>     The information in the article was from an organization based
>     in Pittsburgh at Carnegie Mellon University, called the
>     Software Engineering Institute (SEI), directed by Watts
>     Humphery.  
>
>     I am very interested in finding more out about the ranking
>     system used by SEI, and was wondering if anyone out there
>     knew of any information relating to them, or knew of any
>     contacts within the company that I could get in touch with.  
>
>     Your help is appreciated.  
>-- 
>Rob McDougall				Perle Systems Inc; Scarborough, Ontario
>nunc est bibendum                     
>                                        UUCP: ....!uunet!mnetor!perle!rob

The SEI is a federally funded research and development center.  The Software
Process Program, headed by Watts Humphrey, has (currently) three projects:

	Software Process Assessment - works with companies to improve their
		software development process via self-assessment and
		SEI-assisted assessment
	Software Process Development - develops process guidelines
	Software Capability Evaluation (my project) - assists government
		evaluation teams apply assessment instrument via training,
		assessment instrument revision

Our technical reports are available from NTIS/DTIC, or you can write

	Software Engineering Institute
	Carnegie Mellon University
	Pittsburgh, PA  15213-3890

and request the list of externally available reports.  We have an annual
Affiliates Symposium (held in May).  I believe we had over 500 attendees
this year.  Since our mission can be summed up as technology transition for
software engineering, it's fairly easy to get our reports and/or become 
affiliated.

Relevant publications include

W.S. Humphrey,
"Characterizing the Software Process,"
IEEE Software, Vol. 5, No. 2, March, 1988, pp. 73-79.

W.S. Humphrey,
MANAGING THE SOFTWARE PROCESS,
Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1989.

W. S. Humphrey and W. L. Sweet, 
"A Method for Assessing the Software Engineering Capability of Contractors",
SEI Technical Report CMU/SEI-87-TR-23, September 1987.

W.S. Humphrey, D.H. Kitson, and T. Kasse,
"The State of Software Engineering Practice: A Preliminary Report,"
SEI Technical Report CMU/SEI-89-TR-1, February, 1989.

T.G. Olson, W.S. Humphrey, and D.H. Kitson,
"Conducting SEI-Assisted Software Process Assessments,"
SEI Technical Report CMU/SEI-89-TR-7, February, 1989.
--
Mark C. Paulk 
    mcp@sei.cmu.edu
      "The essence of true adulthood is deferred gratification."