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 five technical programs:
Through the Dynamic Systems Program, the SEI establishes and demonstrates methods for designing, integrating, evolving and sustaining systems using preexisting components. The Dynamic Systems Program also teaches software engineers how to specify and predict the performance, dependability, and interoperability of software-intensive systems while systems are being designed.
The goal of the Product Line Systems Program is to enable widespread product line practice through architecture-based development. Product line practice involves engineering a set of software-intensive systems that share a common, managed set of features that satisfy the specific needs of a particular market segment or mission from a common set of core assets in a prescribed way.
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.