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Overview of the Software Engineering Institute
by Richard Conn
The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) is a federally-funded
research and development center sponsored by the US Department of
Defense. This overview contains information on the mission of
the SEI, its various projects, and some of the reports available
to the public. The information presented in this overview is
extracted or reprinted from two SEI papers: "SEI Overviews" dated
September 1988 and the list of available documents for external
distribution dated 1 January to 5 October 1988. These two SEI
papers are approved for public release with unlimited
distribution and are available from the SEI at the address given
below.
This overview is divided into the following three sections:
Introduction to the SEI and its Mission
SEI Activities/Projects
Selected Reports from the SEI
Overview of the Software Engineering Institute
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Introduction to the SEI and its Mission
---------------------------------------
The following text is reprinted from "SEI Overviews," September,
1988, published by the Software Engineering Institute. This "SEI
Overviews" document is approved for public release and
distribution is unlimited.
"Located on the Carnegie Mellon campus at 4500 Fifth Avenue,
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the Software Engineering Institute
(SEI) is a federally funded research and development center
sponsored by the Department of Defense. The SEI was
competitively awarded to Carnegie Mellon University on December
28, 1984. It is staffed by more than 150 members whose
experience spans industry, academia, and government.
"Because software has become an increasingly critical component
of U.S. defense systems and because the demand for quality
software produced on schedule and within budget exceeds its
supply, the U.S. Department of Defense established the Software
Engineering Institute with a charter to advance the practice of
software engineering.
"The objectives of the SEI mission are to:
Bring the ablest professional minds and the most
effective technology to bear on rapid improvement of
the quality of operational software in mission-critical
computer systems.
Accelerate the reduction to practice of modern software
engineering techniques and methods.
Promulgate the use of modern techniques and methods
throughout the mission-critical systems community.
Establish standards of excellence for software
engineering practice.
"By accomplishing this mission, the SEI hopes to advance the
evolution of software engineering from an ad hoc, labor-intensive
activity to a discipline that is well managed and supported by
technology.
"The SEI carries out its mission through the activities of five
programs:
The Software Engineering Process Program seeks
improvement of the software engineering process,
focusing on the production of high quality software
within budget and schedule constraints.
The Software Engineering Methods Program strives to
accelerate the development, introduction, and reduction
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Overview of the Software Engineering Institute
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to practice of methods, tools, and environments that
improve software productivity and enhance quality.
The Software Systems Program seeks improvement in the
development of real-time distributed systems through
the integration of software engineering with systems
engineering and by reducing the risk of adopting
promising new technology.
The Education Program seeks to increase the number of
highly qualified software engineers by rapidly
improving software engineering education throughout the
academic, government, and industrial education
communities.
The Technology Transition Program focuses on the
problems associated with the dissemination and
implementation of evolving software engineering
practices and technology.
"To coordinate SEI projects that use or are motivated by Ada and
to support the STARS (Software Technology for Adaptable, Reliable
Systems) Program, the Ada and STARS Support effort has been
established at the SEI.
"For further information, call (412) 268-5800 or write:
Operations Center/Software Engineering Institute
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213"
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Overview of the Software Engineering Institute
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SEI Activities/Projects
-----------------------
The "SEI Overviews" document goes on to describe a large number
of activities underway at the SEI. For further information,
acquire a copy of the "SEI Overviews" document or contact the SEI
directly. 37 activities are named and summarized below:
1. Academic Affiliates Function: "The Academic Affiliates
Functions provides a means for educational institutions to join
the SEI in cooperative efforts of mutual interest."
2. Ada Adoption Handbook Project: "The Ada Adoption Handbook
Project is providing a series of handbooks to provide
information about how best to tap Ada's strengths and manage
this new software technology. [Ed Note: "Ada Adoption
Handbook: A Program Manager's Guide" is available in machine-
readable form in the Ada Software Repository]"
3. Ada and STARS Support: "The objectives of the Ada and
STARS (Software Technology for Adaptable, Reliable Systems)
Support are to remove technical and managerial impediments to
the adoption of Ada, to support the STARS Program in technology
development and transition efforts, and to explore advantages
and disadvantages of new software engineering approaches and
paradigms made possible by Ada language features."
4. Advanced Learning Technologies Project: "The Advanced
Learning Technologies Project is using advanced hardware and
software technologies to teach code inspection, a formal review
process that identifies defects in software code."
5. Affiliate Relations Function: "The Affiliate Relations
Function establishes and maintains the corporate and government
relationships of the SEI."
6. Application of Reusable Software Components Project: "The
Application of Reusable Software Components Project is
demonstrating the advantages of software reuse in a real-time
system to promote reuse of software in government and industry.
... This project primarily addresses the technical issues. The
project is accomplishing its goals by constructing a testbed of
reusable components, using it to redevelop a software
subsystem, and assessing the impact of reuse on system
development activities (such as design) and products (such as
product performance)."
7. Consulting Function: "The SEI provides expert advice on
software systems engineering and acquisition to government
program offices and industry developers through the Consulting
Function."
8. Distributed Ada Real-Time Kernel Project: "The Distributed
Ada Real-Time Kernel (DARK) Project is developing a prototype
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Overview of the Software Engineering Institute
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kernel, a set of packages callable from Ada that implements the
necessary functionality required by real-time applications, but
in a manner that avoids or mitigates the efficiency and
maturity problems found in current Ada runtime
implementations."
9. Domain-Specific Software Architectures Project: "The
motivation for this project is based on an interest in object-
orientation. ... This project is fostering the development of
domain-specific software architectures, and then using these
architectures to stimulate tools and methods that support the
development, maintenance, and reuse of architectural
components, such as code, test cases, and documentation."
10. Education Program: "The Education Program helps effect
change in software engineering practice by building an
educational basis upon which further training for practitioners
can be based."
11. Graduate Curriculum Project: "The Graduate Curriculum
Project is designing, developing, and supporting a curriculum
for an MSE [Master of Software Engineering] degree."
12. Information Management Function: "Information Management
develops, edits, publishes, and maintains information relevant
to the mission and accomplishments of the SEI and contributes
to the infrastructure for disseminating software engineering
knowledge."
13. Integration in Environments Project: "This project has two
primary tasks. One task addresses the problem of assembly,
integration, and evolution of environments that include third-
party tools and systems. ... A second task of the project is to
track the evolution of environment architectures in a
workstation network."
14. PDSS Information Management Project: "This project is
improving the PDSS [Post-Deployment Software Support] process
by identifying and demonstrating technology that will assist
the production of technical orders [support documentation]."
15. Real-Time Embedded Systems Testbed Project: "The Real-
Time Embedded Systems Testbed (REST) Project is collecting,
classifying, generating, and disseminating information about
software development for real-time embedded systems."
16. Real-Time Scheduling in Ada Project: "The Real-Time
Scheduling in Ada Project is demonstrating how to solve
[large-scale real-time systems] ... problems, in Ada, by using
a recently developed scheduling algorithm and its underlying
theory."
17. Software Capability Evaluation Project: "Software
acquisition organizations such as the DoD need a standard
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Overview of the Software Engineering Institute
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method to determine the software engineering capability of
potential contractors. By providing such a method, the
Software Capability Evaluation Project is improving the
software acquisition process by enabling the DoD to identify
the most capable contractors."
18. Software Engineering Methods Program: "The Methods
Program strives to accelerate the development, introduction,
and reduction to practice of methods, tools, and environments
that improve software productivity and enhances its quality."
19. Software Engineering Process Program: "The Software
Engineering Process Program seeks to accelerate the maturity of
software engineering as a practice, facilitate the effective
introduction of available technology, and improve the quality
and productivity of software development and maintenance."
20. Software for Heterogeneous Machines Project: "The
Software for Heterogeneous Machines Project is developing a
methodology for building distributed applications running on
networks of heterogeneous processors."
21. Software Process Assessment Project: "The Software
Process Assessment Project characterizes and reports on the
status of DoD and defense contractor software processes, and
defines priority needs for improvement."
22. Software Process Development Project: "The Software
Process Development Project is identifying, developing, and
supporting process management methods and practices, and
assisting organizations in implementing these methods and
practices."
23. Software Process Modeling Project: "The Software Process
Modeling Project is investigating methods for software process
modeling, and to apply such a method to model the post-
deployment software support (PDSS) process used on an actual
DoD weapon system."
24. Software Systems Program: "The Software Systems Program
is pursuing significant improvement in the development of
real-time distributed systems."
25. SQL Ada Module Extensions Project: "[This project] ... is
building a prototype interface to bind applications programs
written in Ada with commercial off-the-shelf database
management systems (COTS DBMS) that use SQL as the query
language."
26. STARS Shadow Projects: "The goal for [STARS] Shadow
Projects is to demonstrate the use of high-payoff technology
and approaches that may depart radically from accepted DoD
practice but that might offer dramatic improvement in some
aspect of software development."
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27. Survey and Analysis of Proposed Changes to Ada Project:
"The purpose of this project is to identify and evaluate
potential areas for revising the Ada standard based on the
experiences of software developers and compiler implementers."
28. Technology Transition Program: "The Technology Transition
Program is the focal point for SEI transition efforts. The
program works with other SEI programs to identify needs,
trends, and emerging technology in the DoD software community."
29. Tools and Methodologies for Real-Time Systems Project:
"The Tools and Methodologies for Real-Time Systems Project is
identifying, exploring, and evaluating tools and methods that
support the specification, design, and implementation of
embedded systems."
30. Transition Management Function: "The Transition
Management Function is staffed by transition managers who are
responsible for the overall coordination of efforts to
transition the products of technology projects. Products may
be in many forms, such as information, training, and consulting
services."
31. Transition Methods Function: "Transition Methods supports
transition managers and their respective technology projects by
providing market research methods and materials, and by
conducting surveys."
32. Transition Operations Function: "Transition Operations
serves as the communications center of the SEI and the
coordination center for the Technology Transition Program."
33. Transition Process Research Project: "As a project within
the Transition Methods Function, the Transition Process
Research Project is studying the organizational, economic, and
communications factors that facilitate or impede the
acquisition, adoption, and use of technology."
34. Transition Training Function: "The Transition Training
Function supports implementation of new technology be
developing and delivering software training and training
information."
35. Undergraduate Software Engineering Education Project:
"The Undergraduate Software Engineering Education Project is
improving the software engineering capability of students
receiving bachelor's degrees ... [by] ... promoting an
increased awareness and understanding, among educations and
their students, of the differences between computer science and
software engineering, and promoting improved undergraduate
computer science curricula and courses, encouraging the
inclusion of significant software engineering components."
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36. User Interface Prototyping Project: "The User Interface
Prototyping Project is developing a prototyping system that
allows integration of new input/output technologies into a
completed system, and that improves the practice of developing
and maintaining user interface software."
37. Video Dissemination Project: "The Video Dissemination
Project produces and delivers graduate courses on modern
software engineering to practitioners."
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Overview of the Software Engineering Institute
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Selected Reports from the SEI
-----------------------------
Several technical reports from the SEI have been made available
for external distribution. A second handout available from the
SEI lists all reports created from 1 January 1988 to 5 October
1988 which are available to the public at large. These reports
may be acquired from the Defense Technical Information Center
(DTIC) and the National Technical Information Service (NTIS) or
from the SEI directly. It is recommended that the DTIC or NTIS
be used as the first choice for acquiring these reports; if there
is some problem with using the DTIC or NTIS, contact the SEI
directly as your second option. The SEI will make an attempt to
fill all orders, but it maintains only a limited supply of all
the technical reports and if supplies become exhausted, the SEI
may return requests with details on how to contact the DTIC.
The DTIC and NTIS may be contacted in writing at the addresses
below. Be sure to give the ADA identification numbers of the
desired reports with the request.
DTIC Defense Technical Information Center
Attn: FDRA
Cameron Station
Alexandria, VA 22304-6145
NTIS National Technical Information Service
US Department of Commerce
Springfield, VA 22161
If you chose to acquire the reports through the SEI directly,
your written request with the CMU/SEI technical report numbers
and a return mailing label should be sent to:
Information Management Division
Software Engineering Institute
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
The following is a listing selected reports and memos published
by the SEI from 1 January to 5 October 1988. Contact the SEI for
a complete copy of this list, which includes brief descriptions
of these reports. The following partial listing names the
principal author, title, CMU/SEI report number, and other report
number (ADA for DTIC, for example).
1. Altman, Factors Causing Unexpected Variations in Ada
Benchmarks, CMU/SEI-87-TR-22, ADA187231
2. Bamberger, Distributed Ada Real-Time Kernel, CMU/SEI-88-
TR-17
3. Barbacci, Specifying Functional and Timing Behavior for
Real-Time Applications, CMU/SEI-86-TR-4, ADA178769
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Overview of the Software Engineering Institute
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4. Cooper, Distributed Systems Technology Survey,
CMU/SEI-87-TR-5, ADA181853
5. Dart, Software Development Environments, CMU/SEI-87-TR-24
6. Donohoe, Ada Performance Benchmarks on the Motorola
MC68020: Summary and Results, CMU/SEI-87-TR-40
7. Donohoe, A Survey of Real-Time Performance Benchmarks for
the Ada Programming Language, CMU/SEI-87-TR-28
8. Druffel, Software and System Warranty Issues, CMU/SEI-87-
TR-4, ADA182982
9. Ellison, Software Development Environments, SEI-86-TM-10,
ADA181742
10. Feller, User Interface Technology Survey, CMU/SEI-87-TR-6,
ADA181852
11. Firth, A Classification Scheme for Software Development
Methods, CMU/SEI-87-TR-41
12. Firth, A Guide to the Classification and Assessment of
Software Engineering Tools, CMU/SEI-87-TR-10, ADA182895
13. Ford, Software Engineering Education: An Interim Report
from the Software Engineering Institute, CMU/SEI-87-TR-8,
ADA182003
14. Foreman, Ada Adoption Handbook, CMU/SEI-87-TR-9, ADA182023
[Ed Note: Machine-readable copy available in the Ada Software
Repository]
15. Hefley, Conference Report: Overcoming the Disincentives to
Modernization in the Defense Industry, CMU/SEI-88-SR-2
16. Humphrey, A Method for Assessing the Software Engineering
Capability of Contractors, CMU/SEI-87-TR-23, ADA187230
17. Johnson, SEI Software Engineering Education Directory,
CMU/SEI-87-TR-3, ADA178178 and CMU/SEI-88-TR-2
18. Lee, An OOD Paradigm for Flight Simulators, CMU/SEI-87-
TR-43, ADA191097
19. Martin, The Effect of Software Support Needs on DoD
Software Acquisition Policy: Part 1: A Framework for Analyzing
Legal Issues, CMU/SEI-87-TR-2, ADA178971
20. Nestor, Views for Evolution in Programming Environments,
CMU/SEI-87-TR-45, ADA188923
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21. Newcomer, Tool Interface Technology, CMU/SEI-87-TR-7,
ADA181156
22. Samuelson, Proposal for a new "Rights in Software" Clause
for Software Acquisitions by the Department of Defense,
CMU/SEI-86-TR-2, ADA182093
23. Samuelson, Toward a Reform of the Defense Department
Software Acquisition Policy, CMU/SEI-86-TR-1, ADA169705
24. Tomayko, Teaching a Project Intensive Introduction to
Software Engineering, CMU/SEI-87-TR-20
25. Weiderman, Ada for Embedded Systems: Issues and Questions,
CMU/SEI-87-TR-26, ADA191096
26. Weiderman, Criteria for Constructing and Using an Ada
Embedded System Testbed, CMU/SEI-87-TR-30, ADA188932
27. Weiderman, Evaluation of Ada Environments, CMU/SEI-87-
TR-1, ADA180905
28. Wood, A Guide to the Assessment of Software Development
Methods, CMU/SEI-88-TR-8, ADA197416
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