What are different aspects of Software Engineering Institute (SEI)?

ABOUT SEI
- Software engineering institute is often abbreviated and called as SEI.
- The full name of the institute is “The Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute”.
- SEI was established in the year of 1984 and has served the nation since than.
- The institute is funded by the federal government.
- SEI is a part of Carnegie Mellon University.
- The institute also serves as source of information and technologies for other organization apart from inspiring them.
- Apart from US, SEI has branches in Virginia and Germany.
- This engineering institute works in collaboration with the government organizations and defense to make effective software driven systems and improve the existing ones.
- The institute helps organizations as such to improve their software engineering standards within their project budget.
- SEI is involved with the research work for exploring effective solutions for the problems that are experienced in software engineering.
- Another purpose is the identification and coding of the solutions that are discovered.
- It struggles to a build a world of effective software intense systems and technologies.

AIM OF SEI
- SEI aims to continually improve the existing software engineering disciplines and technologies.
- It aims to achieve effective softwares within budget and of course time.
- SEI achieves all this by creating a vast community of software engineers and other professionals in the field.
- It is done with their help creating practical technologies that are feasible enough to be implemented to solve the real world problems.
- SEI seeks to improve the good effects of the software on the world.
- SEI considers excellence, impact and integrity as its guiding values.
- SEI conducts various programs in the field of:

System design
System security
Software development
Acquisition
Process management


DEFINED INITIATIVES OF SEI
SEI has some defined initiatives which are meant for improving the engineering capabilities of the software engineering society:

1. Engineering practices:
- These practices or programs are to continually improve the software engineering capabilities for predicting, controlling and analyzing all the properties of a software system.
- Tools like SEI frame work SPLP (software product line practice), SEI SMART (service migration and reuse technique) and SEI ATAM (architecture tradeoff analysis method) are used.

2. Acquisition practices:
- These practices aim to improve the acquisition practices of the organizations.

3. Management practices:
- On top of all management practices are to manage all other practices effectively.
- It is needed to manage the development process of the software systems to achieve success.
- SEI has its own capability maturity model integration (CMMI) approach which is comprised of training courses, models and appraisal methods.
- The CMMI has improved the organization’s performance incredibly.
- Another management model that the institute uses is RMM or resiliency management model.

4. SQUARE or security quality requirements engineering:
- This method has been developed to generate security requirements in order of some priority.
- Using SQUARE method security is incorporated in to the software system at early stages.
- It is particularly used for systems based on information technology.

5. Security:
- SEI is also the origination of the CERT coordination center which is well known for its computer security programs.
- The main aim of the CERT is to resist the attacks on the computer networks by means of effective measures like appropriate system management practices.
- It is implemented to curb the damage and ensure that the service link is not damaged.

6. Conferences:
- The institute organizes workshops, meetings and conferences from time to time. - Such events are to cover topics like COTS based systems (commercial off the shelf), acquisition practices, research on software processes, CMMI, network security and so on.

7. Membership program:
- This program seeks to help other organizations to join the network.

What are different characteristics of Capability Maturity Model (CMM)?

Capability maturity model or CMM as it is often abbreviated. It is a development model developed after a prolonged study of the data collected from various organizations from all over the world.

Characteristics of Capability Maturity Model
1.The development of this model was funded by the USDD (United States department of defence).

2.The capability maturity model became the foundation for the development of software engineering institute or SEI as it is popularly known as.

3.The term “maturity” emphasises process optimization and level of formality.

4.Processes are optimized from ad-hoc practices to steps that have been formally defined.

5.Nowadays this model is being used effectively for management of result metrics.

6.Capability maturity model has proved to be great help in active optimization of the processes.

7.This model allows improvement in the development processes of an organization.

8.It is an effective and good approach towards improvement of any organization’s development processes.

9.This model is securely based upon the frame work of process maturity which was developed in 1989.

10.Initially it was used for objective assessment of the processes carried out by the contractors of the government to keep a track on the project.

11.CMM is not only used in the field of software engineering but, it is also applied to organizational processes of a business.

12.It is used in other fields like:
- Software development
- System engineering
- Software maintenance
- Project management
- System acquisition
- Risk management
- Information technology
- Human capital management and
- Services

Where is Capability Maturity Model used?

Capability maturity model is being extensively used in various organizations like in commerce, government offices, software development organizations and industry.

What was the need for Capability Maturity Model?
- In the 20th century the use of computers was wide spread.

- Computerized processes were thought to be less costly, effective and flexible way to carry out tasks.

- As more and more organizations started adopting computerized processing systems, the demand for software development eventually rose.

- As a result CMM was developed, of course with lots of failures.

- The computers were a new technology at that time and so there was a lot of pressure on developers to deliver quality products within a stipulated period of time.

- The US military was in havoc that because all their projects were running out of budget and time.

- So in order to know the reason behind all this, they funded the study at SEI. Active study started at SEI.

- It was watts Humphrey who actually came up with the actual idea of CMM.

- He based his approach on the evolution of software development practices.

- He concentrated on all the processes as one instead of concentrating on just one software development process.

- Since then the CMM has become popular among various organizations and is used as a powerful tool for improving overall performance of the business.

Though CMM proved to be a very effective tool for business but many times it caused problems in software development.

- CMM didn’t allow use of multiple software development practices. It was superseded by CMMI.

- These days still the capability maturity model is being used as the model with the capability of handling general processes when it comes to public domain.

Some Important Facts About CMM
1.CMM is still maintaining its position as a model of maturity of process.

2.CMM provides a place to start the development.

3.It uses a common language and the development is based upon a shared vision.

4.It effectively develops a frame work for actions according to their priority.

5.For an organization it defines the ways for improvement.

6.It is used an aid for better and effective understanding.

CMM has 5 aspects:
- Maturity level
- Key process area
- Goal
- Features
- Practices.