Richard G. Turner
4428 Brandywine Street NW ; Washington, DC 20016
Home: 202/362-8442 ; Mobile: 202/390-3772
Summary
Dr. Richard Turner has thirty years of experience in systems, software and acquisition engineering. He has developed and acquired software in the private and public sectors and consulted for government and commercial organizations. He is currently a Distinguished Service Professor at the Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. Most recently, he was a Fellow at the Systems and Software Consortium, where he supported technical projects and provided technical exposure for the Consortium through publications, speaking and consulting. Ongoing work with DoD includes working with a wide range of research organizations to identify and transition new software-related technology and supporting the initiative to revitalize systems engineering in acquisition programs. A member of the author team for Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), he has led process improvement initiatives in information technology, system engineering and software acquisition.
Dr. Turner’s research interests include:
; harmonizing software, systems engineering and acquisition life-cycle models.
; applying agile techniques to improve a wide variety of engineering tasks;
; establishing empirical profiles for software development and acquisition best practices;
; employing spiral, risk-driven methods in large system-of-systems acquisitions; and,
He conceived and evolved the concept of the DoD Acquisition Best Practices Clearinghouse. Currently being developed by Computer Sciences Corporation, the Fraunhofer Center at the University of Maryland, and the Defense Acquisition University, the Clearinghouse is the first repository of context-specific empirical information about software and systems practices. He is co-author of three books: Balancing Agility and Discipline: A Guide for the Perplexed (Addison-SMWesley, 2004), co-written with Barry Boehm, CMMI Distilled (Addison-Wesley 2000, 2004),
and CMMI Survival Guide: Just enough Process Improvement, co-authored with Suzanne Garcia
(Addison-Wesley 2007). Both CMMI titles are part of Addison-Wesley’s SEI Series in Software
Engineering.
Dr. Turner has a BA in Mathematics from Huntingdon College, an MS in Computer Science from the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, and a DSc in Engineering Management from the George Washington University.
Additional personal info: Born in Birmingham, Alabama, he is married and has three adult
children. Currently he holds a DoD SECRET clearance; he has previously held TS/SCI. At one time a professional tenor, Dr. Turner performed as a soloist with opera companies, orchestras and choruses in the US and Europe and recorded a CD of Victorian parlor songs that was distributed through the Smithsonian Institution.
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Curriculum Vita
Education
February 2002 The George Washington University, Washington, DC
D.Sc. in Engineering Management
Dissertation: “Implementation of Best Practice in US Department of Defense
Software-Intensive System Acquisitions”
August 1977 The University of Southwestern Louisiana, Lafayette, LA (now the University of
Louisiana at Lafayette)
M.S. in Computer Science, with honors
Thesis: “An Interactive Simulation System for the Mathilde/Rikke Systems”
May 1975 Huntingdon College, Montgomery, AL
B.A. in Mathematics, cum laude
Awards
2000 Excellence in Process Improvement Award, Federal Aviation Administration 1997 Research and Acquisition Achievement Award, Federal Aviation Administration 1996 Hammer Award, Vice President Gore and the National Performance Review 1994 Selected for US Office of Personnel Management Executive Potential Program 1993 Associate Administrator’s Award of Excellence, Federal Aviation Administration
1975 Who’s Who in American Universities and Colleges
Publications
2007 R. Turner, “Toward Agile Systems Engineering,” CrossTalk: The Journal of Defense
Software Engineering, April 2007.
2007 S. Garcia and R. Turner, CMMI Survival Guide: Just Enough Process Improvement,
Addison Wesley, (2007).
2005 B. Boehm and R. Turner, “Management Challenges to Implementing Agile Processes
in Traditional Development Organizations,” IEEE Software, Sept/Oct 2005.
2004 B. Boehm, A. W. Brown, V. Basili, and R. Turner, “Spiral Acquisition of Software-
Intensive Systems of Systems,” CrossTalk: The Journal of Defense Software
Engineering, Vol 17 No.5, May, 2004.
2004 “Why We Need Empirical Information on Best Practices,” CrossTalk: The Journal of
Defense Software Engineering, Vol 17 No.4, April, 2004. 2003 B. Boehm and R. Turner, “People Factors in Software Management: Lessons from
Comparing Agile and Plan-driven Methods,” CrossTalk: The Journal of Defense
Software Engineering, Vol 16 No 21, December, 2003. 2003 Dennis Ahern, Aaron Clouse, and Richard Turner, CMMI Distilled: A Practical
Introduction to Integrated Process Improvement (Second edition), Addison-Wesley,
Boston, MA.
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2003 Barry Boehm and Richard Turner, Balancing Agility and Discipline: A Guide For The
Perplexed, Addison-Wesley, Boston, MA.
2003 Barry Boehm and Richard Turner, “Using Risk to Balance Agile and Plan-driven
Methods,” IEEE Computer, June 2003.
2003 “Seven Pitfalls to Avoid in the Best Practices Treasure Hunt, “IEEE Software,
January/February 2003
th 2002 “Agile Development: Good Practice or Bad Attitude?,” Proceedings from the 4
International Conference on Product Focused Software Process Improvement
(PROFES 2002), Rovaniemi, Finland, LNCS 2559, Springer-Verlag, December 2002. 2002 “Agile meets CMMI: Culture clash or common cause?,” Proceedings from the First
XP/Agile Universe Conference, Chicago, IL, LNCS 2418, Springer-Verlag, August
2002.
2002 Barry Boehm, Peter Kind, Richard Turner, “Risky Business: 7 Myths about software
that impact defense acquisitions,” Program Manager, May-June, 2002.
2002 “Acquisition Best Practices – A Study of Best Practice Adoption By Defense
Acquisition Programs,” CrossTalk: The Journal of Defense Software Engineering, Vol
15 No.5, May, 2002.
2001 Defining a Software Engineering Body of Knowledge,”DoD Software Technical News,
Vol. 4 No. 3, August, 2001.
2001 Dennis Ahern, Aaron Clouse, and Richard Turner, CMMI Distilled: A Practical
Introduction to Integrated Process Improvement, Addison-Wesley, Boston, MA.
SM2000 CMMI Product Development Team. “CMMI for Systems Engineering/Software
Engineering/Integrated Product and Process Development,” CMU/SEI-2000-TR-
030/031, Software Engineering Institute, Pittsburgh, PA
1999 Thomas B. Hilburn, Iraj Hirmanpour, Soheil Kahjenoori, Abir Quasem and Richard
Turner, “A Software Engineering Body of Knowledge”, CMU/SEI-99-TR-004,
Software Engineering Institute, Pittsburgh, PA.
1997 “Evaluation of FAA Acquisition Reform: The First Year”, Federal Aviation
Administration, Washington, DC.
1996 Kenneth Byram and Richard Turner, “Responses To Institutional Problems
Contributing To AAS Program Failures,” Program Evaluation Report PE-96-2,
Federal Aviation Administration, Washington, DC.
Professional Activities
; Keynote Speaker, American Society for Quality, October, 2007.
; Keynote Speaker, Latin American Software Engineering Process Group Conference, Guadalajara,
Mexico, November, 2005
; Invited Speaker to National Security Administration’s Systems and Software Engineering Focus Day,
2005
; Keynote speaker, PROFES 2004, Nara, Japan.
; US member, US-UK-AUS Software Intensive Systems Acquisition Improvement Group, a working
group of experts addressing common problems in acquiring complex software-enabled defense
systems.
; Focus Team Lead, IEEE Std P1648 Draft Recommended Practice for Establishing and Managing
Software Development Efforts Using Agile Methods
; Independent reviewer and editorial consultant for Pearson (Addison-Wesley Longman) in Computer
Science, Software Engineering, and Systems Engineering
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; Affiliate, Center for Software Engineering, University of Southern California ; Member, Software Steering Committee, Army Unit of Action (formerly Future Combat Systems)
Program
; Member, Program Committee, NDIA-sponsored CMMI Technology and Users Conference ; Member, Program Committee, Systems and Software Technology Conference ; Member, Executive Board, System and Software Technology Conference
; Member, DDR&E Software Producibility Research Task Force
; Sponsored, supported and participated in the DoD Software Engineering Science and Technology
Summit
; Testified before the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board on DoD software quality assurance
practices in May, 2001
Professional Experience
Present Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ
; Distinguished Service Professor
; Developing integrated software and systems engineering graduate
curriculum
; Teaches MS-level software and systems engineering courses
; Advises graduate students
; Performs various research and consulting activities
2000 – 2007 Systems and Software Consortium, Herndon, VA
; Fellow
; Director
; Managed the IV&V program for DoD Business Transformation Agency’s
Defense Enterprise Architecture development.
; Led the Measurement and Enabling Technologies line of business;
responsible for research and service delivery
; Coordinates collaboration with academic and industry researchers on
systems and software engineering topics
; Works closely with the Defense Acquisition University identifying systems
and software engineering practices
; Continues support for US/UK/AUS Software Intensive Systems Acquisition
Working Group and the DoD Acquisition Best Practices Clearinghouse
2000 – 2005 The George Washington University, Washington, DC
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
; Research Professor.
; Contract with the Department of Defense, Office of the Under Secretary of
Defense (Acquisition, Technology, Logistics).
Supporting the Systems Engineering Directorate of Defense Systems in
software and systems engineering and acquisition. Duties included:
; Leading the DoD SW Acquisition Best Practices initiative, including the
development of a DoD Acquisition Best Practices Clearinghouse in
association with the Fraunhofer Center at the University of Maryland, and
the Defense Acquisition University. This work has been supported by the
Government Accountability Office and is a direct result of concepts
developed by Dr. Turner
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; Charter member and technical task leader for the US/UK/AUS Software
Intensive Systems Acquisition Improvement Group. Responsible for
software product maturity and milestone decision criteria tasks.
; Member of the Software Steering Group for the US Army Future Combat
Systems Unit of Action program – a multi-billion dollar complex system-
of-systems including an estimated 40M SLOC and a networked family of
13 manned and unmanned platforms. Work closely with Boeing, SAIC
and other FCS suppliers.
; Supporting the development and piloting of the CMMI Acquisition Module
; Coordinating Defense Authorization Act Section 804 requirements in
best practices and software product maturity measurement
; Identifying emerging software and systems-of-systems engineering
technologies
; Sponsoring engineering research and development
; Participating in engineering conferences and symposia
; Taught masters-level courses in software engineering and management
; Object-Oriented Design and Analysis (EMSE-219)
; Software Development with CASE (EMSE-296)
; Organizational Behavior for the Engineering Manager (EMSE-211)
; Introduction to Information Systems (EMSE-256)
1992-2000 Federal Aviation Administration, Washington, DC
; Staff, Associate Administrator for Information Services, Process Engineering Division.
; Responsible for education and training for software engineering and process
improvement with a secondary role in business process improvement ; Co-authored the first Software Engineering Body of Knowledge as a
Software Engineering Institute Technical Paper (CMU/SEI-99-TR-004) ; Developed software engineering curriculum based on the Body of Knowledge ; Developed the concept for and shepherded the establishment of a Software
Engineering Resource Center as a combination research, development, and
educational organization
; Chaired the Learning Resources Group to provide training opportunities in
support of process improvement
; Author, lecturer, and team lead for the DoD/Industry CMM Integration Project
; Program Evaluation Staff
; Resident Associate at the Software Engineering Institute and an author of the
Integrated Product Development Capability Maturity Model
; Team leader for the evaluation of Acquisition Reform as mandated by
Congress - the evaluation report was delivered to Congress, FAA has
undertaken a number of initiatives based on the findings, and the evaluation
has been referenced in GAO and other independent reports
; Team leader for evaluation of FAA systems engineering process maturity
using the Systems Engineering Capability Maturity Model
; Core team member in the Software Engineering Process Group appraisal of
FAA software acquisition processes
; Evaluated Advanced Automation System problems that represent policy,
management or culture issues throughout FAA acquisition. Report was
delivered to Congress
; Office of Personnel Management Executive Potential Program
; A year of leadership and management training totaling over 160 hours and
coupled with temporary assignments to executive positions throughout FAA
; Navigation and Landing
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; Associate Program Manager for Engineering for the Global Positioning
Service (GPS) Wide Area Augmentation System
; Project manager for the development and delivery of an FAA-specific
Software Acquisition Management course
; Team member for Cat II/III Microwave Landing System software
development oversight
; Represented FAA on Ada 9X Government Advisory Group
1985-1992 CTA, Incorporated, Rockville, MD
; Senior Engineer
; Responsible for software IV&V for Wilcox Mark 20 Instrument Landing
System for the FAA
; Project manager for the Operational Concept for the Advanced Traffic
Management System
; Led the evaluation of the PC-based Maintenance Processor Subsystem
simulator
; Developed an innovative way of describing operational scenarios, graphically
portraying separated but dependent activities in a time-sequenced order
1982-1985 Pacific Sierra Research, Arlington, VA
; Senior Computer Scientist
; Designed and implemented software for intelligence analysts in highly
classified environment
; Implemented a system to simulate targeting, scheduling, and data collection
capabilities of space-born intelligence acquisition platforms
; Performed requirements analysis, cost-benefit analysis, software design,
selection of hardware and software, coding and testing
; Software used inter-process communications on a UNIX-based platform,
several large databases, complex scheduling algorithms, and extensive
computer graphics
1980-1982 Systems and Applied Sciences Corporation, Riverdale, MD
; Principal Systems Analyst
; Helped to produce the initial requirements specification for the FAA
Advanced Automation System
; Led requirements analysis and functional specification development for the
NOAA Joint Automated Weather Observing System
1979-1980 CTEC, Incorporated, Falls Church, VA
; Represented the company in England, Spain and Japan
; Directed product validation for a US Navy intelligence system
1977-1979 Computer Sciences Corporation, Falls Church, VA
; Secure software analyses projects for the Departments of Defense and Energy
1977-1979 US Computer Corporation, Lafayette, Louisiana
; Senior programmer on order/inventory/accounts receivable system for an
international food distribution company
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Memberships in Professional Associations
Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) IEEE Computer Society
International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE)
Software Engineering Institute
References
Dr. Barry Boehm, University of Southern California Center for Software Engineering Dr. Victor Basili, University of Maryland Computer Science Department Dr. Laurie Williams, North Carolina State University, Computer Science Department Dr. Howard Eisner, The George Washington University
Dr. Arthur Pyster, Stevens Institute of Technology
Mr. David Castellano, OUSD(AT&L) Systems and Software Engineering Ms. Kristen Baldwin, OUSD(AT&L) Systems and Software Engineering Mr. Mike Phillips, Software Engineering Institute
Dr. Roger Bate, Software Engineering Institute
Mr. Tony Jordano, SAIC
Dr. Alistair Cockburn, Humans and Technology
Mr. Peter Gordon, Addison-Wesley Pearson Professional
Mr. Gary Hafen, Lockheed Martin
Contact information for any of the above will be provided on request.