CMMI Impact on Higher Education · 2017. 5. 30. · Slide 3 Higher Education Environment • Rapidly changing technology • Higher degree of specialization • More diverse student

Richard TurnerDepartment of EngineeringManagement and Systems

EngineeringThe George Washington

University

CMMI Technical ConferenceDenver, November 2002

CMMIImpact on

HigherEducationHow Academic

Introduction CanImprove Competencies

And Speed Transition

I propose, thatlike our

geographer,CMMI

(in education)can provide amap for future

exploration

Slide 2

Today’sOfferings(e.g. theoutline)

• The needs of education• The needs of industry• Educating with CMMI• The GW experience

Slide 3

HigherEducationEnvironment

• Rapidly changing technology• Higher degree of specialization• More diverse student

backgrounds– Cultural– Academic

• More adult students withsignificant life/work experience

The needs of educationThe needs of industryEducating with CMMIThe GW experience

Slide 4

SystemsEngineering • Systems Engineering is a broad

discipline– Fundamental principles– Techniques– Specialty engineering– Domains…

• Systems Engineering is abroadly applicable discipline– Product systems

• Hardware• Software

– Management systems• Project management• Organizations


Slide 5

EducationalNeeds

• Widely-applicable frameworks• Flexible courseware• Bodies of Knowledge• Integrated approaches


Slide 6

IndustryEnvironment • Rapidly changing technology

• Higher degree of specialization• Global corporations• Multiple standards• Complex systems of systems

– Software is ubiquitous– Everything is a software-intensive

system– Everything needs to talk to

everything

• Integrated teams andprocesses

• “Fluid” business environment


Slide 7

Attributes ofEngineeringManagers • Rapid decision making

• Maintain broad understandingof numerous disciplines

• Technical, organizational, andfinancial savvy

• Ability to build and manageprocess-informed organizations

• Act as leaders/coaches• Perform in an integrated project

environment


Slide 8

IndustryNeeds

• Well-educated, well-roundedstaff

• Experience in a process-basedenvironment

• Managers and engineers who– Understand process concepts– Understand systems engineering

principles– Understand software principals– Work across discipline


Slide 9

CMMI As Partof Curricula

• Systems Engineering• Software Engineering• Technical Management• Organizational Development


Slide 10

CMMI inEducationSupportsEducators

• Provides broad, tailorableengineering framework– No specific methodology– Applicable to many engineering

domains– A Knowledge Infrastructure (per

Steve Cross)

• Provides real-world insight intotechnical managementactivities in context

• Informative material providesexamples and work products

• Generic practices are atechnical manager’s checklist


Slide 11

CMMI inEducationSupportsIndustry

• Provides process-awaregraduates

• Provides real-world insight intotechnical managementactivities in context

• Supports adoption throughfamiliarity

• Encourages research inintegrated processes and PI

• Ideas introduced in class areoften influential at work (ifallowed) and so supporttransition


Slide 12

Some Barriers

• Industry needs to enableprocess-competent grads

• Academia must educate, notindoctrinate

• Academia is much slower tochange than industry– Publish or perish (refereed

journals)– Tenured (ancient?) faculty


Slide 13

GeorgeWashingtonUniversity

• Serves the Washington, DCmetro area

• Students from all level ofengineering and developmentfirms

• Cohort programs in companiesand government organizations

• Wants to meet industry andgovernment needs

• Two relevant departmentscurrently looking at CMMI– Engineering Management and

Systems Engineering– Management Sciences


Slide 14

EngineeringManagement • School of Applied Science and

Engineering• Students from all engineering

disciplines– Civil– Mechanical– Electrical

• Two-course series in SystemsEngineering– First course (required) covers SE

Principles– Second course is a project-based

course


Slide 15

EMSE-283SystemsEngineering I

• Currently using two texts byHoward Eisner

• Couples systems engineeringwith project management

• Based on MIL-STD-499 andHoward’s 30 key elements

• Briefly addresses SW-CMM andSE-CMM

• Recently taught using EIA-731as an outline


Slide 16

ManagementScience

• School of Business and PublicManagement

• Management courses– Technical management– Organizational development– Information systems– CIO certification

• Process improvement– SW-CMM mentioned– ISO standards mentioned


Slide 17

ProposedExperimentsat GWU • EMSE-283 Systems Engineering I

– Pilot based on CMMI– CMMI Distilled supplemental text– Chris Miller (SPC)– Richard Turner, Howard Eisner

(GW)– Possible textbook based on course

• MGT-280 Information SystemsDevelopment and Applications– Pilot based on CMMI– Under consideration


Slide 18

Conclusions• CMMI in education can benefit

both industry and academia• CMMI is an effective map for

knowledge transfer inacademia

• Process-informed managementis a critical success factor for PI

• Process-informed graduateworkforce eases adoption andperformance of processimprovement

CMMI Impact on Higher Education · 2017. 5. 30. · Slide 3 Higher Education Environment • Rapidly changing technology • Higher degree of specialization • More diverse student

Documents