About the SEI
Since 1984, the Carnegie Mellon® Software Engineering Institute (SEI) has served the nation as a federally funded research and development center. The SEI staff has advanced software engineering principles and practices and has served as a national resource in software engineering, computer security, and process improvement. As part of Carnegie Mellon University, which is well known for its highly rated programs in computer science and engineering, the SEI operates at the leading edge of technical innovation.
The SEI works closely with defense and government organizations, industry, and academia to continually improve our software-intensive systems. To accomplish this, the SEI
- performs research to explore promising solutions to software engineering problems
- identifies and codifies technological and methodological solutions
- tests and refines the solutions through pilot programs that help industry and government solve their problems
- widely disseminates proven solutions through training, licensing, and publication of best practices
The SEI’s core purpose is to help organizations such as yours to improve their software engineering capabilities and to develop or acquire the right software, defect free, within budget and on time, every time.
Areas of Work
The SEI's work comprises four technical programs:
Software-reliant systems must behave acceptably, and their behavior is largely determined by their structure. The Research, Technology, and System Solutions Program focuses on the structure and behavior of software-reliant systems by applying research in the areas of architecture, construction, recomposition, evolution, and assurance, with a focus on quality attributes; maturing theories, analyses, technologies, techniques, and methods for acquiring evidence used to predict and bound system behavior; and transitioning system solutions that meet business and mission goals for systems in all domains and at all scales (that is, embedded systems, stand-alone systems, software product lines, systems of systems, and ultra-large-scale systems).
The Software Engineering Process Management Program at the SEI provides leadership to software-dependent organizations through proven, process-focused methods for improving product costs, schedule and quality. This program also manages the SEI’s work on the internationally recognized Capability Maturity Model Integration, a framework that helps organizations improve their processes enterprisewide.
Building on the experience of the nationally recognized CERT Coordination Center, the Networked Systems Survivability Program develops and widely distributes information security practices and evaluation methods that enable organizations to protect their systems against security threats such as viruses and worms. The CERT/CC has recently formed a partnership with the Department of Homeland Security to create US-CERT, a coordination point for prevention, protection, and response to cyber attacks across the Internet.
The Acquisition Support Program helps government agencies improve the way they acquire software-intensive systems, and provides opportunities for SEI programs to create and disseminate new technologies.