SEI
The SEI (Software Engineering Institute) is a U.S. federal research and development institute, funded by the U.S. Department of Defense and operated by Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania). It was established by Congress in 1984 to develop assessment and improvement models for software development, in response to the problems the U.S. military faced in programming and integrating software subsystems into complex military systems.
Main contributions
The SEI is the leading institution in predictive software engineering. Its most influential contributions are:
- CMM-SW (Capability Maturity Model for Software): the first software process maturity model, published in 1991. It defined the five maturity levels that remain a benchmark in the industry.
- CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration): the evolution of CMM-SW, which integrates multiple earlier models and extends the scope beyond software.
- PSP (Personal Software Process): a method for improving the individual software engineer's process, developed by Watts Humphrey.
- TSP (Team Software Process): an extension of PSP for teams of 2 to 20 people.
Relationship with agility
SEI methodologies are the "thesis" to which agility was the "antithesis," according to the knowledge spiral model. CMM-SW and CMMI have coexisted with agile frameworks in the industry over recent decades: many organizations maintain CMMI certifications while working with Scrum or Kanban in their development teams.
References
See also
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