A Technical History of the SEI

Each year, the SEI proposes a work plan based on its rolling five-year technical strategy. Ideas for
work projects may come from within the SEI, from practicing engineers in the defense industry,
from colleagues in the research community, or from government employees. Ideas often arise
while SEI staff are engaged in direct support to specific programs. When the SEI perceives that
the problems experienced by a program are representative of a class of problems, or predictive of
a class of future problems, the SEI experts seek not only to help the specific program but also to
develop solutions that can be broadened and replicated.
Regardless of the source, the SEI measures all new ideas against its vision and evolving strategy
and proposes work only when it has the appropriate expertise to carry out the work. The SEI consistently
and constantly recruits leaders in new and focused technical areas to ensure that its results
will be the best the technology will support. The SEI also recognizes that software engineering
requires both expertise in software-related technologies and familiarity with the relevant
applications domain. While the SEI staff naturally reflects experience with a broad range of applications,
the SEI has consciously chosen not to focus on specific application domains, such as avionics,
fire control, or command and control, which would increase the size of SEI staff unnecessarily.
Rather, the SEI partners with relevant defense industry and government organizations who
have a deep understanding of specific applications.
The SEI’s focus on strategy-driven work selection continues. One reason for the consistent impact
on the community is that the SEI has articulated a consistent vision that brings credibility over
time. The section titled “The Future of Software Engineering” lays out the SEI strategy based on
technology trends and defense needs in the foreseeable future. This strategy will guide future
work selection.
Mechanisms for Engaging the Community
The goal of preparing technology before the DoD experiences the need requires the SEI to develop
a deep understanding of DoD systems, culture, acquisition processes, and capabilities. The
SEI recognized that such understanding could only be acquired by working on real problems and
real systems, but the challenge was to do so without competing with the defense industry. The
SEI, therefore, embarked on a partnership approach with industry and DoD program offices. DoD
programs sponsored SEI staff to assist prime contractors in applying evolving technology to systems
under development.
A second mechanism the SEI has employed to ensure that its work is relevant to the DoD is the
resident affiliate program. Software professionals from industry and the DoD are invited to spend
up to 18 months at the SEI to work on specific projects. The benefit to the resident affiliate is that
he or she participates in the development of the technology and takes that knowledge to his or her
home organization. The resident affiliate also helps the SEI project remain grounded on real problems,
often even bringing such problems to the project. As of August 2014, 292 government and
industry resident affiliates have lent their expertise to the SEI.
The SEI adopted a similar mechanism to access specialized research talent for its efforts by employing
visiting scientists on either a full-time or part-time basis. These visiting scientists brought
an understanding of evolving technology to complement the SEI internal research activities.
About 306 visiting scientists have engaged in SEI work as of August 2014.
CMU/SEI-2016-SR-027 | SOFTWARE ENGINEERING INSTITUTE | CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY 12
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