Jack spent more than 25 years in technical, managerial and teaching capacities, primarily concerned with the DOD space program. He was a Mission Director on the Corona satellite program and the NORAD Project Officer for Skylab and the Apollo Soyuz Test Program.

He was also Program Manager of the SEI Joint Program Office, where he was instrumental in starting the Software Process Program, developed acquisition plans for the Software Technology for Adaptable, Reliable Systems (STARS) program, and led the first DOD Software Capability Evaluation.

Dr. Ferguson has a Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Texas and is a member of the IEEE, is a former member of the SEI Software Process Advisory Board. He received the Air Force Research and Development Award for his work on GPS spac ecraft attitude control and is listed in Jane's Who's Who in Aerospace. Prior to coming to the SEI he was the Visiting Professor of Astronautics at the USAF Academy.

Abstract

The software crisis, first alluded to in the DoD in '70s and '80s is still with us. It has not one away. Current acquisition reform initiatives look to best industry practice and government initiatives for solutions to most acquisition problems e.g. Single Process Initiative(SPI), Cost As An Independent Variable (CAIV), Integrated Product Development Teams (IPDT).The problem, the software crisis, is jointly owned by the acquisition community and the development contractors. It's time to look at the at the acquisition side of the equation. The Software Acquisition Capability Maturity Model (SA-CMM) has the potential for providing similar improvement results for acquiring organizations that the Software CMM provided for development contractors. Like the SW-CMM, the SA-CMM describes a staged model for characterizing and improving capabilities of, in this case, buyers (acquirers) of major software intensive systems. One of the goals of the SEI and its work with the SA-CMM is to replicate the success of the SW-CMM in the development (Supplier)community in the acquisition (Acquirer) community. Assessments based on the SA-CMM have been conducted with approximately ten organizations to date, with acquisition improvement planning following each assessment. In addition the GAO is currently using the SA-CMM to evaluate the acquisition capability of federal agencies. This talk will briefly describe the software crisis, the background and development of the SA-CMM. It will also relate experiences and lessons learned from assessments conducted to date, and describe some misconceptions that have been stated regarding the SA-CMM.

Richard E. Barbour is a Senior Member of the Technical Staff at Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute. He has over 24 years of experience in managing and acquiring software systems and is the team leader for the Software Acquisition Improvement project which was recently merged from the SEI Risk Program into the Software Engineering Process Management Program. Prior to joining the Software Engineering Process Management Program he was in the SEI Process program, CMM Based Appraisals, Internal Process Improvement (IPI) and Software Capability Evaluation (SCE). He worked with the SEI Transition Partner Integrated System Diagnostics Inc. developing the SCE V3.0 method and providing process improvement consulting services for a year before returning to the SEI.

Rick is a retired Navy Commander from the anti-submarine warfare, patrol squadrons (P-3) community. His last assignment was as deputy program manager for the Next Generation Computer Resources (NGCR) program with the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command (SPAWAR) and co-chair of the Operating Systems Standards Working Group (OSSWG). He also was the Deputy Program Manager (Navy) for the Software Technology for Adaptable, Reliable Systems (STARS) program.

He received his BS in Business Management (Marketing) from the University of South Carolina, a MS in Computer Systems Management from the Naval Post Graduate School, is graduate of the Defense Systems Management College Program Managers Course and a designated Navy Material Professional.

7:30 - 8:30 Richard Barbour