15 Apr 2002
BAE Systems Communication, Navigation and Identification (CNI), headquartered in Wayne, New Jersey, has
achieved a level of software engineering maturity matched by less than two percent of all measured companies
nationwide.
The "Level 5" Capability Maturity Model (CMM) rating was awarded to BAE Systems CNI by the Carnegie Mellon
Software Engineering Institute (SEI) on March 12 2002. Level 5 is the highest SEI rating, and indicates that
the CNI unit is operating at the "Optimising/Continuous Improvement Level" in its software development process.
The 2-1/2 week assessment was conducted by a team of seven SEI software development professionals.
The independent review team, led by Ms. Marilyn Bush - co-author of the Software Capability Maturity Model
- conducted more than 90 interviews of key managers and company software experts, and assessed hundreds of
pieces of evidence supporting the top rating.
CNI President Jeff Markel said the rating represents "attainment of a significant milestone in maturing of the
processes we use to manage our business. Level 5 is a very important benchmark that we can use in evaluating
our performance against the best in our industry. But it's not an end point," Markel added, "Our employees
demonstrate every day that they embrace the optimising/continuous improvement that Level 5 represents by providing
our customers the excellent products and services they deserve and expect from us."
Bob Stow, BAE Systems North America vice president for engineering and technology, said, "CNI's outstanding achievement
is part of our enterprise-wide initiative to achieve world class software CMM levels by leveraging best practices across
all of our businesses. Significant productivity improvements have also been realised throughout our software development
organisations as a result of this initiative."
Peter Howard, Director of Software Engineering, said that CNI's Level 5 achievement showed "the continuous process
improvement efforts" by all employees that "resulted in improved project performance clearly visible to our internal
and external customers."
A company's level of software maturity is important, as the Department of Defence is requiring increasing software
maturity from its contractors. A higher maturity level means less risk on bids, more predictable performance, and
an infrastructure and culture that can continually improve software development processes and performance.
Based on a March 2002 SEI report of 714 assessed software businesses in the U.S, only 1.8 percent had achieved a Level
5 CMM rating.
Notes to Editors:
The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) is a federally-funded research and development center, sponsored by the U.S.
Department of Defense through the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics
[OUSD (AT&L)]. The SEI staff, based at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, draws extensive technical
and managerial experience from government, industry, and academia. The SEI's core purpose is to help others make measured
improvements in their software engineering capabilities. More information is available on its web site at
www.sei.cmu.edu
The Software Capability Maturity Model was developed by the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute to assist
organisations in maturing their people, processes, and technology assets to improve long-term business performance.
Levels of maturity are (from lowest to highest):
- Level 2 - Repeatable
- Level 3 - Defined
- Level 4 - Quantitatively Managed
- Level 5 - Continuous Improvement/Optimizing
