A Technical History of the SEI

Introduction to Education and Training
A major factor in the ability of the Department of Defense to acquire and maintain software-intensive
systems is the availability of properly educated software engineers, not just in the DoD but in
the supporting industry. Likewise, a major component of technology transition is the availability
of training for practicing engineers and the availability of training materials for use by third-party
training organizations.
The DoD recognized these needs and included the following in the Software Engineering Institute’s
initial contract: “The SEI shall develop and conduct courses and seminars with respect to
the evolving state of the art and practice in software engineering for mission-critical computer
systems as well as the results of its activities in technology transition. It shall also influence software
engineering curricula development throughout the education community” [DoD 1984].
Part of the motivation for this charge to influence curricula development was the recognition that
there was no widely accepted curriculum for preparing students for a career in software engineering.
There were only two university programs offering a Master of Software Engineering (MSE)
degree and a few scattered university software engineering courses, but most universities did not
even offer such courses and few faculty were prepared to teach them. Several companies, such as
IBM with its Software Engineering Institute, conducted their own training programs; but that
training was specifically for internal use.
A strong factor for the government’s selection of Carnegie Mellon University for the operation of
the SEI was its established capability and reputation for engineering and computer science education.
There was, and still is, recognition in the DoD that it is not possible to properly educate software
engineers and improve the state of the practice without a strong education and technology
transition capability.
As a federally funded research and development center and as an objective broker of information,
the SEI develops methodologies and training that are neither vendor specific nor vendor biased.
SEI training is driven by the needs of the government and supporting industry, independent of
commercial needs or profit motives.
Academic Curricula
Charged with the mission to influence software engineering curriculum development throughout
the education community, the SEI recruited a software educator to lead the effort. Recognizing
that the effort would be successful only if it involved a broad segment of the academic community,
the SEI initiated a series of workshops [Gibbs 1989], inviting educators and practicing engineers
to develop “curriculum modules.” This led to the model curriculum for a Master of Software
Engineering (MSE) degree [Gibbs 1990], which is the basis for MSE programs at many
universities. It is also the model for other curricula developed much later, such as the Graduate
Software Engineering Curriculum (GswE2009) developed by the Systems Engineering Research
Center (SERC) in 2009.
Similar to its work in other areas, the SEI engaged the academic community in creating the materials.
The SEI has leveraged and amplified technology transition with government and industry by
CMU/SEI-2016-SR-027 | SOFTWARE ENGINEERING INSTITUTE | CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY 60
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