ASDWire distribution date: Mon, 8 Feb 2010 12:05:00 GMT +0100

Critical Software Achieves Level 5 in CMMI Certification

Company obtains the most prestigious and demanding certification in software engineering quality

Portugal, 8th February, 2009 --[ASDWire]-- Critical Software announces that it has achieved CMMI Level 5 Certification (Capability Maturity Model Integrator), being now a member of a prestigious elite of organizations that, at a global scale, have obtained the most demanding, recognized and hard to obtain, quality certification in Software Engineering. Critical Software S.A. as become the first Portuguese company to be able to achieve Level 5 in CMMI, after also being the first Portuguese company to achieve level 3 in March, 2006. With CMMI 5’s application, Critical Software aims to strongly augment its productivity, greatly optimizing the processes associated with software engineering, and attain a much higher ability to plan, predict and mitigate risks related with software development.

Recent studies show that companies spend, on average, 65% of their software teams’ time solving problems, correcting bugs, or redesigning badly designed functionalities; which, in practice, means that only one third of their Information Systems teams’ work is actually directed towards conceiving and constructing the solutions their businesses need.

“With the CMMI5 model, and by applying six-sigma techniques, Critical Software is working towards delivering software that is 99.9997% bug free and to shorten its development lifecycle. The same model and techniques are used to improve the precision and consistence of our predictions in the development of solutions. This is all our clients want to hear: effectiveness, efficiency and planning!” underlines Gonçalo Quadros, CEO of the Portuguese company, adding that “achieving CMMI Level 5 is a historical landmark in the road that Critical
has been taking”.

The CMMI model defines 5 levels of maturity. Some companies, at a worldwide level, have been able to achieve level 3, thus ensuring the homogeneity in practices and “genuine” project management. Nevertheless, to achieve Level 5 “high levels of maturity, grounded in the monitoring of the processes in terms of performance and quality, must be shown. At this level of maturity, all crucial decisions are made based on objective metrics – such metrics reinforce the decisions and permit us to measure, with precision, the degree of risk involved”, points out José Gonçalo Silva, responsible for the Quality Department at Critical Software, adding that “we are ever more dependent on technology, in practically every little step we take in our day-today lives; small flaws in a computer system may have disastrous consequences – today, the reliability and robustness of computer solutions are much more than an important criterion for excellence, they are a necessity!”

The CMMI model was developed by the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) of the University of Pittsburgh – an authority and a reference point around the world on the definition and certification of the best practices in software engineering.

About Critical Software www.criticalsoftware.com
Critical Software is an international company providing dependable solutions, services, and technologies for mission critical information systems. Our customized engineering solutions and ‘tailor-made’ software development, focused on software reliability and dependability, allow us to provide High-integrity Software and Independent Software Verification and Validation (ISVV) services for Safety and Mission Critical Systems, across the Aeronautics, Space and Defense & Homeland Security markets.
For Aeronautics, we specialize in avionics software architecture, system testing and related regulations for the civil and military industry. We have reengineered systems that support new business models such as Availability Based Contracting, Supply Chain Management and Maintenance Repair & Operations activities, having delivered turnkey solutions for high profile customers around the globe.
For Space and Earth Observation, we are renowned for providing software certifiable services and products for subsystems and interfaces. We have been providing Mission Control Systems, Payload Data Processing & Dissemination, On-board Software Development and Validation, Data Handling Systems, Independent Software Verification & Validation, Software Certification, Software Product Assurance and Software RAMS.
For Defense & Homeland Security, our background in mission and business systems development helps with defining engineering processes, solution design and support or undertaking the development and ntegration of safety or mission critical systems. We provide services ranging from system planning and analysis, to system design, development, integration and maintenance. From Portugal, UK, USA, Brazil, Romania and Mozambique, where Critical Software is present, it follows rigorous processes in quality certification, acting in accordance with CMMI® Level Rated 5, ISO 9001:2008 Tick-IT, EN9100:2003 and 9006:2003 as well as with the best practices recommended by ISO 15504, ISO 12207, PMBoK®, ECSS and NASA-SEL.

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