By Dave Zubrow, Manager
Software Engineering Measurement and Analysis Initiative

The SEI has been actively engaged in defining and studying high maturity software engineering practices for several years.  Levels 4 and 5 of the CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) are considered high maturity and are predominantly characterized by quantitative improvement. This blog posting briefly discusses high maturity and highlights several recent works in the area of high maturity measurement and analysis, motivated in part by a recent comment on a Jan. 30 post asking about the latest research in this area. I’ve also included links where the published research can be accessed on the SEI website.

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By Douglas C. Schmidt
Visiting Scientist

We use the SEI Blog to inform you about the latest work at the SEI, so this week I'm summarizing some video presentations recently posted to the SEI website from the SEI Technologies Forum. This virtual event held in late 2011 brought together participants from more than 50 countries to engage with SEI researchers on a sample of our latest work, including cloud computing, insider threat, Agile development, software architecture, security, measurement, process improvement, and acquisition dynamics. This post includes a description of all the video presentations from the first event, along with links where you can view the full presentations on the SEI website.

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By Mary Ann Lapham
Senior Member of the Technical Staff
Acquisition Support Program

Over the past several years, the SEI has explored the use of Agile methods in DoD environments, focusing on both if and when they are suitable and how to use them most effectively when they are suitable. Our research has approached the topic of Agile methods both from an acquisition and a technical perspective. Stephany Bellomo described some of our experiences in previous blog posts What is Agile? and Building a Foundation for Agile. This post summarizes a project the SEI has undertaken to review and study Agile approaches, with the goal of developing guidance for their effective application in DoD environments.

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By Douglas C. Schmidt
Visiting Scientist

As part of an ongoing effort to keep you informed about our latest work, I'd like to let you know about some recently published SEI technical reports and notes. These reports highlight the latest work of SEI technologists in insider threat, interoperability, service-oriented architecture, operational resilience, and automated remediation. This post includes a listing of each report, author(s), and links where the published reports can be accessed on the SEI website.

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By Ipek Ozkaya
Senior Member of the Technical Staff
Research, Technology, and System Solutions

Managing technical debt, which refers to the rework and degraded quality resulting from overly hasty delivery of software capabilities to users, is an increasingly critical aspect of producing cost-effective, timely, and high-quality software products. A delicate balance is needed between the desire to release new software capabilities rapidly to satisfy users and the desire to practice sound software engineering that reduces rework. A previous post described the practice of strategically managing technical debt related to software architecture, which involves deliberately postponing implementation of some architectural design choices to accelerate delivery of the system today and then rearchitecting at a later time. This blog post extends our prior post by discussing how an architecture-focused analysis approach helps manage technical debt by enabling software engineers to decide the best time to rearchitect—in other words, to pay down the technical debt.

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