(Software Engineering Institute, Pittsburgh, PA, www.sei.cmu.edu) A federally funded research and development center that is under contract to Carnegie Mellon University and is devoted to the advancement of software engineering and the quality of software support systems. The SEI carries out its mission through two principal areas of work: Software Engineering Management Practices, and Software Engineering Technical Practices.

The former practice, which employs the use of the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) focuses on improving the management of software acquisition, development and implementation processes. The latter focuses on improving software engineering processes and tools. Together, these two practices are intended to promote the evolution of software engineering from an ad hoc, labor-intensive activity to a well managed discipline that is supported by technology. See CMM.