Nominations Sought for 2016 IEEE/SEI Watts S. Humphrey Award
• Article
July 1, 2015—Nominations are now open for the 2016 IEEE Computer Society/SEI Watts S. Humphrey Software Process Award (Watts S. Humphrey Award). Since 1994, the SEI and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society have cosponsored the award, which recognizes outstanding achievements in improving an organization's ability to create and evolve high-quality software-dependent systems. Nominations must be submitted by October 15, 2015.
Achievements recognized by the Watts S. Humphrey Award can be the result of any type of process-improvement activity. They need not have been based on a specific framework, model, or body of software engineering principles, practices, techniques, or methods.
Watts S. Humphrey, known as the "Father of Software Quality," followed his long career at IBM with an equally distinguished career at the SEI, where he served from 1986 until his death in 2010. For the majority of his career, Watts worked to improve the profession of software engineering by focusing on software quality. During Humphrey's tenure at the SEI, he helped lay the groundwork for what would eventually become the Software Capability Maturity Model (CMM), the Personal Software Process (PSP), the Team Software Process (TSP) and the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI). In 2005, Humphrey received the National Medal of Technology for his work in software engineering.
"Early on, Watts realized the importance of team focus, discipline, and learning on achieving quality and productivity;and these principles remain true today, as we approach Watts' 88th birthday (July 4)," said the SEI's Mike Konrad, chair of the Watts S. Humphrey Award Committee. "Watts saw the organization as having a crucial role in making teams successful and ensuring that they have the motivation, skills, processes, tools, and environment they require to succeed. This award recognizes organizations that can demonstrate they do this well, and it gives them an opportunity for others to hear their story and learn from their experience."
Award winners will receive an engraved plaque commemorating their achievement. Presentation of the award will be made at a practitioner and researcher community event at which the winner will be invited to keynote. Award recipients will also produce an SEI technical report describing their accomplishments, experiences, and lessons learned.
To learn more about the Watts S. Humphrey Software Process Award, please visit http://www.sei.cmu.edu/process/casestudies/processawards/.
To nominate an individual or group, please visit http://www.computer.org/web/awards/humphrey-spa.
Please revise the submissions guidelines carefully. Remember: nominations are due no later than October 15, 2015.