A Technical History of the SEI

Professional Training
The Challenge: Providing High-Quality Training to Software Practitioners
SEI research projects produced results that required training project stakeholders to successfully
transition the solutions. The training work products could, in turn, support the adoption of research
by an audience beyond the SEI project stakeholders. Professional training would enable the
SEI to disseminate knowledge on a large scale and build a solid base of competency among software
engineering practitioners.
A Solution: Quality Assurance for SEI Training Products
To meet this dissemination need, the SEI established the means to provide high-quality professional
education and training. The SEI produced a series of instructor-led training courses that
were offered both in the SEI and elsewhere. SEI courses are developed and taught by technical
staff members, and effectively disseminate mature SEI solutions to pervasive problems.
The Education and Training Review Board (ETRB) was established in 1990 to provide a mechanism
for quality assurance for all SEI education and training materials produced in-house. The
ETRB reviewed and approved each instructional product at three points during the development
process: proposal, design, and product completion.
A supplemental review was required if the product underwent significant revisions after final approval
and product release. The ETRB comprised six representatives (including the ETRB chair),
one from each of the following SEI areas:
1. education
2. instructional design
3. software technology
4. product planning
5. program development
6. technical communications
Over time, the ETRB members realized that they were no longer effectively serving the changing
needs of the SEI’s organizational structure and culture, and the board was disbanded in 1997. The
ETRB process guidelines were replaced by SEI Work Process 4.1, “Instructional Product Development,”
which was subsequently added to the list of SEI products covered by SP800-10, “Document
Development.” This standard practice has since evolved into a best practice for the SEI.
With these quality procedures in place, the catalog and popularity of SEI education and training
continued to grow. In 1995, the SEI had 12 courses, and SEI instructors delivered 33 public
course offerings and 31 customer on-site offerings. By 1997, the SEI had a catalog of 17 courses
about process improvement, measurement, change management, and risk management. By 2001,
the SEI had 34 courses, with most new courses addressing network and computer security.
In 2003, the SEI announced a new software architecture curriculum. Based on decades of experience
in architecting software-intensive systems and supported by widely acclaimed practitioner
CMU/SEI-2016-SR-027 | SOFTWARE ENGINEERING INSTITUTE | CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY 87
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