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Mission
The U.S. Department of Defense established the Software Engineering Institute to advance the practice of software engineering because quality software that is produced on schedule and within budget is a critical component of U.S. defense systems.
The SEI mission is to provide leadership in advancing the state of the practice of software engineering to improve the quality of systems that depend on software.
The SEI accomplishes this mission by promoting the evolution of software engineering from an ad hoc, labor-intensive activity to a discipline that is well managed and supported by technology.
Principal Areas of Work
The SEI carries out its mission through two principal areas of work:
Software Engineering Management Practices
This work focuses on the ability of organizations to predict and control quality, schedule, cost, cycle time, and productivity when acquiring, building, or enhancing software systems.
Software Engineering Technical Practices
This work focuses on the ability of software engineers to analyze, predict, and control selected properties of software systems. Work in this area involves the key choices and tradeoffs that must be made when acquiring, building, or enhancing software systems.
Within these broad areas of work, the SEI has defined specific initiatives that address pervasive and significant issues impeding the ability of organizations to acquire, build, and evolve software-intensive systems predictably on time, within expected cost, and with expected functionality.
Software Maturity Levels:
I - Initial - Basic Management Control
II - Repeatable - Disciplined Process and Process Definition
III - Defined - Standard, Consistent Process and Process Measurement
IV - Managed - Predictable Process and Process Control
V - Optimized - Continuously Improving Process
