With an annual information technology budget of about $20 billion, and tens of billions more budgeted for technology embedded in sophisticated weaponry, the Department of Defense (DOD) relies heavily on software-intensive systems to support military operations and associated business functions, such as logistics, personnel, and financial management. One important determinant of the quality of these systems, and thus DOD s mission performance, is the quality of the processes used to develop, acquire, and engineer them. Recognizing the importance of these processes to producing systems that perform as intended and meet cost and schedule commitments, successful public and private organizations have adopted and implemented software/systems process improvement (SPI) programs. 1.