2011 was a record year for the SEI—a year of significant growth in our impact, in our influence, and in our initiative. Working with the Department of Defense (DoD), we sharpened the research focus of the Institute, added to our world-class staff, and received funding for the largest amount of new work the SEI has ever undertaken in one year. It was a year of leadership, excellence, and growth in software engineering.

The SEI’s success is really the success of its men and women. Across the Institute, the SEI is fortunate to have a skilled, smart, and inquisitive staff—some 600 people dedicated to excellence and innovation.

That dedication was recognized in 2011 at the individual level with the naming of Linda Northrop as an SEI fellow, a designation awarded to people who have made especially significant career contributions to the SEI and the software engineering community—and who continue to chart the future on key issues. Northrop, director of the Research, Technology, and System Solutions Program, is the Institute’s fifth SEI fellow. We congratulate her (see page 26).

2011 was also, unfortunately, a year of departures. We marked the retirement in September of Clyde Chittister, a 26-year SEI employee who served the organization as deputy director for operations and chief operating officer. And, shortly after the end of the fiscal year, Doug Schmidt—our deputy director for research and chief technology officer—announced his decision to return to Vanderbilt University to teach and mentor the next generation of researchers.

This report in many ways reflects the hard work and innovative thought of people such as Linda Northrop, Clyde Chittister, and Doug Schmidt, shared and amplified by our entire staff.

Among the many stories in these pages, here are glimpses of just a few:

• As the challenge to provide warfighters   competitive advantage quickly has grown more acute, interest inAgile   methods within the DoD acquisition community has also grown. In 2011, the SEI   focused its investigation of Agile methods to develop guidance for DoD program   managers, and plans to develop a companion contingency model in 2012.
• Two senior members of the technical staff at the   SEI collaborated on a “should-cost” analysis of the software used in the F-22   modernization program. The Air Force program was one of the first to use the   new should-cost estimation process.
• Government and industry both want to know:   “How can we improve, evaluate, and standardize the quality of data we   use?” To begin to tackle this problem, SEI researchers collaborated with   the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (USD) for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (AT&L), Acquisition Visibility (AV). The team set out to   evaluate statistical methods for improving on existing, manual methods of   anomaly detection.
• The Accelerated Improvement Method (AIM),   streamlines CMMI adoption through a tailored version of the Team Software   Process and Six Sigma measurement strategies. Helping organizations implement   AIM is one way the SEI is increasing our focus on performance results.
• The past year saw continued research by the SEI   into addressing the challenges of monitoring large networks for malicious   activity. The SEI’s approaches rely on techniques to summarize communications   between hosts on the network. Even using summary techniques, monitoring large   networks operated by the U.S. government and commercial enterprises generates   huge volumes of data that security analysts cannot possibly analyze unassisted.   Network Situational Awareness team members in the SEI’s CERT^® Program have developed approaches to automate   that analysis.

Through these efforts and many more—and through the dedicated work of the entire SEI team—we are well positioned for the future. We’ll continue to enhance our research efforts while maintaining our excellent record of transition and acquisition support. I look forward to answering the challenges as we have done over the past quarter-century, and fully expect that the SEI will have a significant impact in 2012 and the years beyond.

Sincerely,

Paul D. Nielsen
Director and CEO