About Software Engineering Measurement and Analysis (SEMA)
What is SEMA?
SEMA is a technical initiative at the SEI that provides guidance and expertise in the field of software measurement and analysis. SEMA techniques have helped numerous DoD and commercial organizations improve software processes, better predict costs and schedules, and track organizational performance.
What is Software Measurement and Analysis?
Software measurement and analysis is a technique for gathering quantitative data on products, processes, and projects.
As outlined in the Measurement and Analysis process areas of CMMI®, measurement and analysis techniques can help answer questions such as:
- How well are we meeting schedules and budgets?
- Has our performance really improved?
- What software practices and/or technologies should our organization invest in and what yields can we expect from this investment?
- How does our organization's performance compare to other organizations' performances?
Who Does it Help?
SEMA's measurement and analysis techniques are not just for high maturity organizations. We work with organizations at all levels of process maturity and can tailor our tools and techniques to find the right solutions for you.
Measurement and analysis techniques benefit project managers and process managers, software engineering process group (SEPG) members, process improvement working group members, software measurement team members, and any professionals who need reliable quantitative information to guide acquiring, developing, supporting, planning, or tracking software systems.
Why Work with SEMA?
SEMA techniques can help your organization improve software processes, lower costs, reduce defects, and leverage valuable ROI information. From introducing basic measurement principles to helping a level 4 organization satisfy the Measurement and Analysis process areas of CMMI, SEMA provides the level of guidance necessary to produce meaningful, cost-saving results.
SEMA members are leading the way in applying Statistical Process Control, Six Sigma, Goal-Driven Software Measurement, and other useful measurement techniques in software organizations. We also provide support for the measurement and analysis process areas of CMMI.
In addition, the SEI coordinates with DoD measurement initiatives in order to keep SEMA efforts current and in the forefront of measurement and analysis development efforts. These collaborations extend to the Practical Software Measurement (PSM) Project, measurement offices in the military services, as well as the SEI's own CMMI development. Through this coordination, SEMA can disseminate and integrate its work with that of other leading measurement initiatives.
Studies conducted by SEMA staff have helped to accelerate worldwide commercial adoption of the Personal Software Process (PSP) and of software process improvement methods based on the CMM for Software.
Through these studies, organizations can clearly realize the benefits of implementing SEMA methodologies. The expertise demonstrated by SEMA staff with respect to sampling, research design, measurement, and analysis has earned these studies a prominent place in the literature of empirical analysis in software engineering.
What Resources are Available?
To accomplish our mission, we produce technical reports, presentations, and online resources related to software measurement. We also collaborate with organizations that wish to establish or improve their measurement activities, investigate the use of innovative analytical techniques on their data, and want to document the effects of process and technology innovations on their software engineering performance. We invite you to look at our list of current publicationsand useful background readings.
Have more questions about SEMA and what we do?
Please contact Dave Zubrow: dz@sei.cmu.edu