STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. -- General Dynamics Land Systems has achieved Level V certification from the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) at Carnegie Mellon University, placing it in the top two percent of all U.S. companies assessed. Level V is the highest software rating available. In 1997, Land Systems became the first ground combat systems integrator in the U.S. to achieve SEI Level III certification.

The Software Engineering Institute developed its SEI software improvement process to address concerns that industry as a whole was generally not producing software as well as it could. The SEI promotes a disciplined approach to software engineering. SEI developed a capability maturity model (CMM) based on the "best practices in industry." The CMM is used to evaluate the maturity of the software processes of an organization and for identifying improvements that are required to increase maturity. The CMM has become a standard for assessing and improving software processes and is organized into five maturity levels: initial, repeatable, defined, managed, and optimizing. The thoroughness, effectiveness, and control of an organization's software processes are shown to improve as an organization moves up through each level.

General Dynamics Land Systems' software organization includes a staff of approximately 125 software engineers developing real-time embedded software applications for various ground combat vehicle platforms. Land Systems vetronic software organization has been using the SEI CMM over a decade in the development of software processes.

"Land Systems has made a significant investment in software process improvement to insure continuous improvement in the development of quality software," said Michael D. Bolon, Land Systems vice president, Engineering, Design and Development. " The Rational Software tool suite has been incorporated to aid in the configuration management, process change management, and process traceability to the CMM. The combination of a streamlined software process with software productivity tools to improve efficiency allows Land Systems to be cost and schedule competitive and achieve high quality software products. With this certification and our previous engineering achievement of ISO 9001-2000, our employees have demonstrated exceptional teamwork and professionalism and have helped position us for future success."

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