Software Engineering Institute

October 14, 2010—The Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute (SEI) recently named Anita Carleton director of its Software Engineering Process Management (SEPM) Program. As director of the SEPM Program, Carleton will oversee the SEI’s software process and measurement initiatives, which include the internationally recognized Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) framework, which helps organizations increase the maturity of their processes to improve long-term business performance, and the Team Software Process (TSP), a software engineering method designed to yield high-quality software and high-performance teams.

“For the past 22 years, I have been committed to the SEPM Program mission of providing leadership in software engineering process, metrics, engineering, and quality management as well as capability evaluation and assessments,” said Carleton.

“While the SEPM Program’s models of best practices and organizational capability have become the worldwide standard used throughout the software industry, the challenge for the future will be to establish engineering management practices that demonstrate several characteristics. Practices should integrate discipline and agility, consider quality and schedule, be data-driven and performance-based, and engage all members of the development team, engineering and management alike. I look forward to continuing to work with our global software engineering community to achieve this goal.”

Carleton has been with the SEI for the most of the organization’s 25-year history and has led various projects in the areas of software process improvement, process measurement, and the Team Software Process. In 1990, she launched the software measurement initiative at the SEI, which provided quantitative methods that could be used to improve the management and control of software systems development and maintenance. Carleton also is co-author of the book Measuring the Software Process: Statistical Process Control for Software Process Improvement.

She is the recipient of an award from Dr. Barry Boehm, the Director, Defense Research & Engineering (DDR&E) Software and Computer Technology office, for her leadership in defining a core set of measures and measurement definition frameworks that served as a basis for collecting well-understood and consistent software data throughout the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD).

“Anita’s impressive vision, energy, and leadership are an asset to the SEPM Program as well as the entire SEI. I am delighted to have her leading this program that is so important to the SEI and the software engineering community,” said Paul Nielsen, SEI director and CEO.

Before joining the SEI, Carleton held various technical and management positions at GTE Government Systems, where she designed, developed, and tested software for the Minuteman and Peacekeeper missile systems. Her professional background also includes serving as the lead systems modeling and simulation engineer responsible for conducting tire tread wear studies utilizing experimental design techniques, statistical analysis techniques, and finite element analysis at the Goodyear Technical and Research Center.

Carleton holds a bachelor of science degree in applied mathematics with emphasis in statistics and industrial management from Carnegie Mellon University and is a senior member of the IEEE Computer Society.

About the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute
The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) is a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense and operated by Carnegie Mellon University. The SEI helps organizations make measurable improvements in their software engineering capabilities by providing technical leadership to advance the practice of software engineering. For more information, visit the SEI website at http://www.sei.cmu.edu.