Kathryn Ambrose Sereno
Member of Technical Staff
Acquisition Support Program

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Kate Ambrose Sereno is a member of the technical staff in the Acquisition Support Program. In this role, she has participated in a number of engagements with the SEI’s interagency customers. Currently, Ambrose Sereno has technical leadership and oversight of the SEI’s technical support for a major Army customer focused on ERP systems.

In addition, Ambrose Sereno is the Program Operations Manager and a member of the ASP Leadership Team. Ambrose also supports Program Control within ASP, developing sound processes for internal project-level and program-level management and control.

Major Accomplishments

Program/Project Management

• Assisted in defining, applying, adopting and continuously improving new processes (e.g., Customer Account Management Process, Financial Reporting Processes, Budget Process, Forecasting Projected Funding, Roles and Responsibilities Matrix)
• Developed Requirements Development and Management process for Army aviation programs
• Advised other technical staff leading projects on planning, managing and oversight of their projects using the SEI’s Standard Project Management Process
• Member of the technical team that established the vision, scope, infrastructure and agenda for the launch of the International Process Research Consortium (IPRC)

Appraisals, Evaluations and Analysis

• Standard CMMI Appraisal Method for Process Improvement (SCAMPI) B
  • Presented recommendations and target opportunities for improvement in Project Planning and Project Monitoring and Control to the program leadership
  • Participated on appraisal teams for contract monitoring for Air Force programs
• Benchmarking for Improvement (BFI) for the Army
  • Created a table of inputs, outputs and activities for each phase of the process to guide future BFI teams
  • Team member on the first BFI at Army test facility
• Independent Technical Assessment (ITA) for government agency IT modernization projects
  • Provided direction to the ITA team lead regarding the scope, schedule and targets of interview; monitored resources, schedule, budget; reported status
  • Participated in document reviews, interviews, system demos
  • Co-authored outbriefs and final reports
• COTS Usage Risk Evaluation (CURE) for a federal government modernization program
  • Tailored process; participated in interviews agency and its prime contractor, reviewed documentation and performed research to determine if any unanticipated risks could be identified in the choice of programming language

Prior to joining the SEI, Ambrose was a research analyst specializing in business intelligence and investigations for two international risk consulting companies. As a development research analyst for Carnegie Mellon University, she supported corporate and foundation relations for the institutional advancement office.

Ambrose holds a BA from Seton Hill University. She sings professionally with the Pittsburgh Opera Chorus and is a member of the American Guild of Musical Artists. She was a guest editor for Connections, a professional journal for development research. She co-authored Network Centric Acquisition and co-authored and presented The Diagnostic Roadmap: An Integrated View of Risk Identification and Analysis at the 2004 Acquisition of Software Intensive Systems conference. In early 2005, she authored two technical notes in Risk Management.

Publications

• CMU/SEI-2004-TN-002: A Roadmap of Risk Diagnostic Methods: Developing an Integrated View of Risk Identification and Analysis Techniques. Williams, Ambrose, Bentrem, September 2004
• CMU/SEI-2004-TN-013: Risk Based Diagnostics. Williams, Ambrose, Bentrem, Merendino September 2004.
• Why Not Network Centric Acquisition? Monarch, Sisti, Capell, Blanchette, Ambrose, Conference on the Acquisition of Software-Intensive Systems, January 2004.

Education

• Bachelor of Arts, Seton Hill University
• Graduate coursework, H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management, Carnegie Mellon University
• Introduction to CMMI
• Continuous Risk Management
• Consulting Skills Workshop Professional

Memberships and Activities 

American Guild of Musical Artists