General Dynamics Land Systems Achieves CMMI Level 3 Rating for Engineering Design and Development

STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. – General Dynamics Land Systems, a business unit of General Dynamics (NYSE: GD), has achieved a Maturity Level 3 rating on the Software Engineering Institute’s Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) scale for its Engineering, Design and Development (ED&D) organization. The appraisal covered four geographic locations with nearly 2,000 employees. CMMI Level 3 focuses on the existence and use of a standard engineering management process and the integration of activities across the entire engineering organization.

The Software Engineering Institute (SEI), which manages the CMMI appraisal process, is a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense and operated by Carnegie Mellon University. SEI’s CMMI standard provides a framework for improving processes that organizations use to develop and deliver high-performance, low-risk products.

General Dynamics Land Systems’ processes were evaluated by a team from KAMO Consultancy. The team rigorously assessed General Dynamics Land Systems’ ED&D processes against the engineering disciplines of CMMI. After reviewing representative projects, the team determined that the proprietary ED&D Engineering processes achieved Maturity Level 3. This review included the evaluation of over 6,100 documents and interviews with over 200 individuals.

The CMMI has become a standard for assessing and improving engineering processes and is organized into five maturity levels: initial, managed, defined, quantitatively managed and optimizing. The thoroughness, effectiveness and control of an organization’s processes are shown to improve as an organization ascends to each level.

General Dynamics, headquartered in Falls Church, Va., employs approximately 83,500 people worldwide and reported 2007 revenues of $27.2 billion. The company is a market leader in business aviation; land and expeditionary combat systems, armaments and munitions; shipbuilding and marine systems; and information systems and technologies. More information about the company is available on the Internet at http://www.generaldynamics.com