A Technical History of the SEI

The curriculum work was extended to address the educational needs at the bachelor and associate
degree levels, drawing on the body of knowledge defined in the master’s curriculum. The bachelor’s
level program [Mead 2010b] defines seven courses
that could fit into another degree program, such as software
engineering or computer science. These courses
provide students with fundamental skills for either entering
the field directly or continuing with graduate-level
studies. The associate’s degree program [Mead 2011b]
also provides fundamental skills students need for further
undergraduate-level work; those with prior undergraduate
technical degrees can become more specialized
in software assurance.
In 2013, the SEI developed on-demand software assurance
training for executives and a software assurance
competency model [Hilburn 2013]. The executive training
includes slide sets and videos featuring experts from
government and academia. The competency model helps
organizations and individuals determine software assurance
competency across a range of knowledge areas and
includes a framework for adapting the model to an organization’s
particular domain, culture, or structure.
The Consequence: More Well-Qualified
Software Assurance Professionals
The SEI software assurance curriculum helps meet the
demand for professionals with a breadth and depth of
software assurance knowledge. SEI materials ease the
way for universities and colleges to implement software
assurance programs and tracks. As of fall 2012, software
assurance courses are in place at Carnegie Mellon University,
Rochester Institute of Technology, Stevens Institute
of Technology, University of Detroit Mercy, University
of Houston, and the U.S. Air Force Academy;
others are in progress. In addition, (ISC), 2 a training organization,
has mapped its courses to the SEI curriculum.
Graduates of programs based on the SEI curriculum
bring to a hiring organization the skills to deal with the
security and quality of software systems in a comprehensive
way. They can take responsibility for software
assurance at an organizational level, in both its business
The View from Others
In our recent comprehensive curriculum
review, we knew that we
needed to enhance the focus on
software quality assurance across
our computer science courses.
Most fortunately, we turned to the
experts. The leadership, expertise,
and resources provided by SEI
with their software assurance curriculum
hit right on target, immensely
improving our ability to
produce future Air Force officers
prepared to defend and securely
operate in cyberspace. We owe a
great thanks to SEI, DHS, and the
software assurance community
that they have formed and fostered.
– Steven Hadfield, Associate
Professor and Curriculum
Chair, Department of
Computer Science, U.S. Air
Force Academy
These are terrific. They are a great
contribution to curricula guidance
generally and I am sure will be
widely welcomed. Moreover they
are particularly topical and relevant
and I hope computing educators
will take note.
– Andrew McGettrick, Chair
of the ACM Education
Board and Council, and
Associate Editor of the
Computer Journal
[SEI 2013]
and technical aspects. The graduates can apply assurance concepts to management, assurance assessment,
people, and processes; understand how system requirements and specifications meet
business needs; and assess software quality and security at a technical-design level and determine
CMU/SEI-2016-SR-027 | SOFTWARE ENGINEERING INSTITUTE | CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY 74
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