Courtesy Photo | Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia Division (NSWCPD) was once again appraised...... read more read more
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Famous philosopher Aristotle once said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit.”
Naval Surface Warfare Center, Philadelphia Division (NSWCPD) aims to achieve excellence in every facet of its work spectrum. Striving for excellence has resulted in NSWCPD once again being appraised at Level 3 of the CMMI Institute’s Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI)℠, which was announced earlier this year on Aug. 21, 2021. This award marks the second decade of such achievement for NSWCPD.
CMMI℠ is a capability improvement framework that provides organizations with the essential elements of effective processes that ultimately improve their performance. The model helps organizations streamline process improvement and encourages productive, efficient behaviors that decrease risks in software, product, and service development.
Attaining this achievement once again confirms the professional level of NSWCPD project systems and processes.
“Having NSWCPD’s System Engineering Process (SEP) rated by an external party is important as it reliably informs our customers and stakeholders what to expect from our delivered products,” said NSWCPD Chief Engineer (CHENG) Adam “Scott” Freedner. “It is important to have an outside entity evaluate our processes and come to the conclusion that we use standard practices and assets as an organization and that our practices are aligned with our strategic goals.”
NSWCPD Deputy CHENG Dorothy Kraynik added, “I am quite proud of our organization for continuing this level of System Engineering Excellence for over 20 years. It is very important for us to ensure that we have processes in place, that, when followed, allow this organization to deliver a technically excellent product on time and within budget. All those who participated in the appraisal and the organization as a whole should be very proud of this achievement.”
Freedner was not surprised at this achievement as he knows NSWCPD continues to maintain a high standard.
“Honestly I expected it,” he said. “The Division works hard at utilizing the SEP to develop our products and on improving our processes whenever potential weaknesses are identified. That said, I did feel relieved when I first heard the results of the assessment. Further, I felt proud of the dedicated effort put forth by the System Engineering Process Group, the assessment preparation team, and the assessment to pull this off.”
Freedner continued, “Most importantly, I thought about all of the work our Systems Engineering Project Team and quality assurance personnel put in everyday while following NSWCPD’s processes. The assessment is only successful if everyone ‘walks the walk’ so to speak.”
Kraynik explained the evaluation process, “There are 20 Practice Areas (PAs) that must be met to achieve a designation as a Level 3 Organization. There are multiple practices for each PA. Each of these practices are looked at for multiple projects. Each practice must be considered implemented via Objective Quality Evidence (OQE) and a verbal affirmation. If all practices in each PA are implemented, then the PA is considered implemented. If all PAs are implemented, then the organization is considered a Level 3 organization.”
NSWCPD performs this appraisal every three years in order to maintain its CMMI Level 3 rating and has been doing so since 1998. Twelve projects out of close to 100 SEP projects were sampled for the appraisal. The sampled projects represented the breadth of work being done at the organization.
Planning for the initial appraisal started in summer 2020 and included contracting a CMMI approved lead appraiser, identifying and training an appraisal team, identifying the projects to be appraised, and collecting OQE in preparation for the event.
The accredited lead appraiser role was contracted out and was awarded to Steel Toad Consulting, LLC with Dean Rock as the appraisal lead. The event was conducted by an eight-person appraisal team with two alternates, all hailing from within NSWCPD:
Theresa Mazzei
Irina Schvarzman
John Crockett
Craig Needhammer
Aaron Avalos
John Buonamici
Walt McDonald
Charles Nelatury
Alternates:
Keith Socoloski
Nick LaPosta
Kraynik added, “Also important to the effort were our organizational appraisal planning team: Theresa Mazzei; Frank Vanhoof; our appraisal sponsor, Scott Freedner; and our librarians Lori Oxenford and Gary Evans.”
NSWCPD employs approximately 2,800 civilian engineers, scientists, technicians, and support personnel. The NSWCPD team does the research and development, test and evaluation, acquisition support, and in-service and logistics engineering for the non-nuclear machinery, ship machinery systems, and related equipment and material for Navy surface ships and submarines. NSWCPD is also the lead organization providing cybersecurity for all ship systems.
| Date Taken: | 10.29.2021 |
| Date Posted: | 10.29.2021 09:54 |
| Story ID: | 408301 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 178 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, NSWCPD Achieves Heralded CMMI Level 3 Designation, by Brentan Debysingh, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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