Herndon VA and Salt Lake City UT, May 1, 2006—The Systems and Software Consortium, Inc. (SSCI) and Integrated Systems Diagnostics Inc. (ISD) today announce a partnership that will extend the Consortium’s work with its member companies to efficiently use and demonstrate compliance with multiple process and quality frameworks. The agreement is being announced today by ISD at the 18th annual Systems and Software Technology Conference (SSTC) in Salt Lake City, Utah, and by SSCI via wire services.

Under the agreement, SSCI and ISD are working on several tool enhancements to be included in future market releases of ISD’s Appraisal Wizard technology; other upgrades will be available only to SSCI members. Beginning in August 2006, SSCI will also populate Appraisal Wizard with additional process models and mappings and offer services to help members incorporate additional models and map them to frameworks beyond the CMMI®.

“This partnership is an important extension to SSCI’s comprehensive process improvement practice, which focuses on enabling members to improve their business and engineering methods,” says Roberta Chagnot, SSCI Vice President of Member Programs. “Working with ISD, we are embracing a unique, proven, and robust COTS package to provide members an integrated approach to relate their own processes to multiple frameworks and facilitate the assessment of their processes against these frameworks.” SSCI’s practice already includes expertise in diverse frameworks such as CMMI, ISO 9001:2000, IEE/EIA 12207, RTCA DO0178B, and ISO/IEC 15939.

“We are delighted that SSCI is extending our Appraisal Wizard tool suite to its membership,” says Albert Soule, ISD’s Director of Business Development. “We believe our technologies integrate perfectly with SSCI’s approach in helping its members advance the effectiveness of their systems and software processes. We are proud to be a part of this program.”

About SSCI

SSCI is a nonprofit partnership of industry market leaders, government agencies, and universities. The Consortium’s program allows industry and government to co-invest in the development of systems and software engineering processes that improve organizational and business performance. Membership is open to all U.S. and Canadian companies, government agencies, and universities.

For more information, contact Greg Friedmann, APR, Director, Public Relations & Communications, at 703-742-7158. Also see www.systemsandsoftware.org.

About ISD

Integrated System Diagnostics Incorporated (ISD) is a US-headquartered, multinational corporation dedicated to the dissemination and successful application of model-based process improvement technology. ISD was founded in 1994 as an original, fully endorsed spin-off of Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute (CMU/SEI), a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC) sponsored by the US Department of Defense.

For more information, contact Albert Soule, Director, Business Development, at 508-743-0802 or als@isd-inc.com. Visit ISD at www.isd-inc.com and stop by their exhibit booth (818) at the 18th annual Systems and Software Technology Conference (SSTC), Salt Lake City, UT, May 1-3, 2006.

The JET Program, within the Surveillance and Reconnaissance Division (SRD) portion of Northrop Grumman’s Mission Systems sector, attained an organization-wide CMMI-SE/SW/IPPD Level 3 maturity rating against the Software Engineering Institute Capability Maturity Model Integrated (CMMI) standard.

Northrop Grumman has 17 CMMI Level 5 ratings, the most earned by any defense or commercial company to-date. The ratings assure Northrop Grumman customers that the company is providing improved quality, greater productivity and predictable program performance.

Northrop Grumman’s latest rating was awarded after a comprehensive assessment of its Colorado Springs, Colorado facility. Integrated Systems Diagnostics, Inc., an independent external organization, conducted the appraisal in accordance with the formal Standard CMMI Appraisal Method for Process Improvement (SCAMPI) methodology.

“Management’s commitment to CMMI helped to ensure this success,” said Albert Soule, external lead appraiser from Integrated Systems Diagnostics, Inc. “Mission Systems’ integration of ISO, AS-9100, Six Sigma, and CMMIhas proven to be an excellent strategy for maximizing project performance. All levels of the organization are involved and focused on continuous improvements for greater business value.”

“This assessment demonstrates that Mission Systems can provide the robust processes and integrated teaming structure needed to support the JET activities,” said Anthony Deley, Vice President of SRD Systems Development Operations (SDO). “Our infrastructure has continued to mature and keep pace with our growth in business over the past few years. Complying with the CMMI ensures that our customers benefit from our increased process capabilities.”

Michael Mariani, JET Program Manager, stated “This is an important, independent measure of the robustness and maturity of our engineering and management processes. The JET program will continue on our path to CMMILevel 5, to provide our customer with greater project performance and quality.”

The Software Engineering Institute is a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense through the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. Its core purpose is to help others make measured improvements in their software engineering capabilities.

The CMMI standard was developed by a coalition of industry, government and the Software Engineering Institute to objectively assess the full range of an organization’s software and systems engineering, program management and organizational management capabilities. There are five levels of CMMI maturity, each a layer in the foundation for ongoing process improvement, designated by the numbers one through five with five being the highest. Higher maturity levels signify lower risks to successful program execution.

Northrop Grumman Mission Systems, based in Reston, Va., is a global integrator of complex, mission-enabling systems and services for defense, intelligence and civil government markets. The sector’s technology leadership and expertise spans areas such as strategic systems, including ICBMs; missile defense; intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; command and control; technical services; and training.

CONTACT: 
Janis Lamar
Northrop Grumman Mission Systems
(703) 345-7046
janis.lamar@ngc.com

ISD continues to grow its Process Improvement Offerings by adding Six Sigma and eSCM-SP to the menu.

ISD is excited to announce the opening of a new state of the art training center at our Melbourne Operations Office in Florida.

ISD has evolved and upgraded the SCE v3.0 product suite to the Comprehensive Appraisal Method (CAM) v1.0. CAM v1.0 now fully supports CMMI Class A, B & C appraisals and SCE.

The name has changed to more accurately reflect the flexibility of the method in supporting all capability maturity models, disciplines, and method application areas. Key method attributes of rigor, robustness, repeatability, and reliability that sponsors and users have come to strongly value in SCE are continued in the CAM.

This training enables you to implement the CAM in your organization without requiring a Lead Appraiser (although for benchmarking applications you will still require one). The CAM also allows for and provides examples of a valid Class A implementation of incremental/delta appraisal which answers the question, “What happens if I miss a [maturity] level by one goal?”

What about CMMI? CAM V1.0 fully supports Assessment ARC Class A, B, and C appraisal method requirements. CAM V1.0 continues to be CMM Appraisal Framework (CAF) compliant and supports CMM-based appraisals.

Although this training does not meet the requirements for participating on a SCAMPI V1.1 appraisal team, refresher training to upgrade from CAM V1.0 to SCAMPI V1.1, if desired, is available and can be delivered by our authorized Lead Appraisers. A draft version of the CAM was provided by ISD as an input method to the SCAMPIV1.1 development team.

ISD’s Education Center of Excellence moves to a new location in Melbourne, FL. Jack Lawrence is announced as the Director of the Education Center.