Boeing

The Boeing Company's [NYSE: BA] Ft. Walton Beach, Fla., facility has attained Maturity Level 3 for its systems, software and support equipment engineering processes, as defined by the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute's (SEI) Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) standards.

The evaluation was conducted on the Integrated Weapons Systems Support program, which develops modifications and provides sustainment support for U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command C-130 aircraft.

"Our customer recognizes the importance of CMMI when selecting and comparing capable companies for new contracts," said Dr. Len Weber, site director for Boeing's Ft. Walton Beach operations. "This was an outstanding effort by the Ft Walton Beach team, and it confirms positive progress of the site's process maturity."

A 10-member appraisal team reviewed nearly 4,000 work products, artifacts and other evidence spanning three complex projects and conducted 18.5 staff hours of interviews with 51 team members. Participating teams included air vehicle engineering, business operations and integrated scheduling, program management, quality assurance, software and systems engineering, financial operations and supplier management, among others.

The rating system is based on the SEI's Standard CMMI Appraisal Method for Process Improvement (SCAMPI) using the CMMI for Systems Engineering and Software Engineering (CMMI-SE/SW) V1.1.

CMMI is the national standard for benchmarking the commercial and defense industries' best practices for systems engineering, software engineering, integrated product and process development, and supplier sourcing. A CMMI appraisal provides insight into an organization's ability to plan and execute programs with lower risk, reduced defects and minimal customer oversight.