Views from Medina Road

The news was good this morning at work. The company site received the highest possible rating against all four disciplines of the 'Capability Maturity Model Integration' (CMMI), which is a government sponsored method for assessing how well companies plan, manage, and optimize technical projects. The model is new enough (though there was an earlier software-specific model) that only a couple hundred companies worldwide have been assessed to it, and of those, only about 10 have gotten the highest, Level 5, rating in all areas of the model. (10 sites, to be more accurate, since the rating applies to only a specific site at best, and sometimes only to a specific program at a particular site. Our rating today was the second full-model Level 5 rating at a Boeing site, the first being the Boeing facility in Anaheim CA, the second, the site in Canoga Park CA where I work. A couple other Boeing sites have been rated Level 5, but only on a specific program, or to a limited version of the model. Even counting separate sites, there are still only 10, or so, full-model Level 5 ratings to date. Too much information, I know.)

That news being good, I'm taking Friday afternoon off (and probably Monday too) and will drive to Tempe for the World Fantasy Con. Since I'm driving I've packed a big box of books to get signed...