Improving software engineering processes to support operational oceanography

This paper presents a plan to improve software engineering processes based on the Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute Capability Maturity Model. The perspective is from an organization that performs information processing of oceanographic data. The objective of the plan is to create software quality that is repeatable. Special emphasis is given to key process areas that must be addressed and how these areas relate to the production processes of operational oceanography products. Oceanographic organizations that pursue improvements to software engineering processes may realize significant increases in the quality of their software and, as a result, the information and products that their software produces.