A Technical History of the SEI

Ultimately, the SEI’s work in establishing process appraisal methods has allowed the armed services
to improve their ability to serve the national interest by awarding contracts to the software
contractors with the best capability.
The SEI Contribution
The appraisal methods published by the SEI were all developed in partnership with government
and industry. The formality of the appraisal methods—and the models on which they are based—
led to repeatable, understandable results that have helped industry and government recognize the
value of process improvement. As a result, organizations have been able to increase the consistency
of their software development performance and, presumably, the quality of their software.
The SEI program in which “SPA Vendors” were trained to perform Software Process Assessments
was first limited to a small community of vendors. This program later grew into a worldwide
program as the SEI assessment methods evolved, along with the SEI licensing paradigm.
This SEI activity thus spawned a new industry that still flourishes today.
The commercialization of process improvement using primarily CMM and CMMI-based appraisal
methods has helped to highlight one of the many contributions of the SEI and Carnegie
Mellon to the software engineering community. CMM/CMMI maturity levels have become a de
facto international standard. The SEI’s contribution includes creating the profession of SCAMPI
Lead Appraisers/process improvement professionals. This was done through certification (500 as
of 2013) and based on the SCAMPI Lead Appraiser Body of Knowledge (SLA BOK) [Masters
2007].
References
[AMIT 2001] Members of the Assessment Method Integrated Team. Standard CMMI Appraisal
Method for Process Improvement (SCAMPI), Version 1.1: Method Definition Document
(CMU/SEI-2001-HB-001). Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 2001.
http://resources.sei.cmu.edu/library/asset-view.cfm?AssetID=5325
[Byrnes 1996] Byrnes, Paul & Phillips, Michael. Software Capability Evaluation Version 3.0
Method Description (CMU/SEI-96-TR-002). Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon
University, 1996. http://resources.sei.cmu.edu/library/asset-view.cfm?AssetID=12503
[CMMI 2001] CMMI Product Team. Appraisal Requirements for CMMI, Version 1.1 (ARC, V1.1)
(CMU/SEI-2001-TR-034). Software Engineering Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 2001.
http://resources.sei.cmu.edu/library/asset-view.cfm?AssetID=5781
[Dunaway 1996] Dunaway, Donna & Masters, Steve. CMM-Based Appraisal for Internal Process
Improvement (CBA IPI): Method Description (CMU/SEI-96-TR-007). Software Engineering Institute,
Carnegie Mellon University, 1996. http://resources.sei.cmu.edu/library/assetview.cfm?AssetID=12533
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