What Is Excellence?

February 28, 2002

Location: Electrical Engineering/Computer Science Bldg, Room EE/Csi 3-180

Abstract:

Excellence is generally agreed to be desirable, but it is rarely defined in enough detail to make its pursuit meaningful or practical.  In this talk, Watts Humphrey reviews what excellence means for organizations, teams, and professionals.  He then describes his personal search for excellence in software organizations and how that quest led him to understand what excellence means for engineers, managers, and executives.  His examples are from his work with the CMM', Team Software Process (TSP)SM, and Personal Software Process (PSP)SM.  In this talk, Mr. Humphrey describes his personal definition of excellence and suggests how  others can define and pursue excellence for themselves.

About the Speaker:

Watts Humphrey joined the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) of Carnegie Mellon University after his retirement from IBM in 1986.  While at the SEI, he established the Process Program, led the initial development of the Software Capability Maturity Model, and introduced the concepts of Software Process Assessment and Software Capability Evaluation.

Prior to joining the SEI, he spent 27 years with IBM in various technical executive positions including the management of all IBM commercial software development.  This included the first 19 releases of OS/360.  Most recently, he was IBM's Director of Programming Quality and Process.

Mr. Humphrey holds graduate degrees in Physics from the Illinois Institute of Technology and Business Administration from the University of Chicago.  He is an SEI Fellow, a member of the ACM, an IEEE Fellow, and a past member of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Board of Examiners.  He has published seven books, which include A Discipline for Software Engineering; Managing Technical People - Innovation, Teamwork, and the Software Process; Introduction to the Personal Software Process; Introduction to the Team Software Process and Winning With Software:  An Executive Strategy.

He was awarded the 1993 Aerospace Software Engineering Award presented by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and an honorary Ph.D. in Software Engineering by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 1998.  In 2000, the Watts Humphrey Software Quality Institute in Chennai, India was named in his honor and the Boeing Corporation presented him with an award for innovation and leadership in software process improvement.  He holds five US. patents.