Armament Software Engineering Center gets Level 5 CMMI rating

The Army's Armament Software Engineering Center is the only U.S. federal government organization to achieve level 5 rating using the Capability Maturity Model Integration index. The Armament SEC researches and develops software used in numerous U.S. military weapon systems in which “there is no room for error,” said Nathan Becker, chief of a branch at the U.S. Army Armament Research Development and Engineering Center.A level 5 CMMI rating indicates the highest maturity level and a development stage focused on optimization and best practice models. The CMMI scale is used by more than 5,000 private industry and government organizations. For the Armament SEC, evaluation areas included risk management, quality assurance and software engineering.

This is not the first time the Armament SEC has been awarded with such a prestigious rating. In 2006 it was the first organization to be awarded level 5 in the disciplines of systems engineering, software engineering and supplier sourcing and then again in 2010. And in 2002, it was the first organization in the world to obtain a level 3 rating in systems engineering, software engineering and acquisition.

The newest appraisal included recent Army systems, including the Mortar Fire Control Systems, Lightweight Handheld Mortar Ballistic Computer and M109 Paladin Integrated Management and Business Transformation Systems Hub Services, an Army Shared Services Enterprise Resource Planning project.

“External appraisals provide objective evaluations of our implementations and point out areas of strengths and where improvements are needed,” Becker said.