ASM
collaboration helps Terradigm win 2003 Nunn-Perry Award
By Steve
Carr
 |
| Fritz
Eberle, UNM adjunct professor, Stephen Hogan, manager, AT&T
Operations, Michael Romero, president, Terradigm, Inc.,
and John Young, UNM special advisor for Economic Development,
display the Department of Defense's prestigious Nunn-Perry
Award for 2003. Photo by Steve Carr. |
Terradigm,
Inc. has received the Department of Defenses (DoD) prestigious
Nunn-Perry Award for 2003. The award recognizes outstanding
performance by Mentor-Protégé teams formed under
the DoD Mentor-Protégé Program. The UNM Anderson
Schools of Management (ASM) was a part of Terradigms Mentor-Protégé
team, which involves minority serving institutions.
The program
provides for the development of small businesses to become valued
suppliers of services. This years award recognizes 12
Mentor-Protégé teams that excelled in business
development, infrastructure and services to the marketplace.
Terradigm,
based in Albuquerque, is a professional services company providing
distinctive program and project management services to government
and private customers. Their Mentor-Protégé partnership
is with AT&T Government Solutions, the mentor contractor.
Its
a great honor to be a part of the project and to win the award,
said John Young, UNM professor and principal investigator of
the project. We are competing with all other institutions
classified as a minority institution. Its
a very prestigious award and represents a big window of opportunity
for UNM. Hopefully, we can receive more of these mentor protégé
contracts. It might be the first within a stream of income from
the DoD.
The award
is named in honor of former Senator Sam Nunn for his vision
and insight in sponsoring legislation to create and fund the
DoD Mentor-Protégé Program, and in honor of former
Defense Secretary William Perry for his commitment to the implementation
of the program.
Terradigm,
AT&T Government Solutions (AGS) and UNM began working together
in 2001 when Terradigm was awarded a contract with the Air Force
Operational Test and Evaluation Center (AFOTEC) to provide management
support services across the organization with AGS as a teaming
partner.
Under the
Mentor-Protégé program AGS is mentoring Terradigm
toward achieving Software Engineering Institute Capability Maturity
Model Integration (CMMI) certification for software development,
making it the only small business in the country to be both
ISO 9000 compliant and CMMI certified. Terradigm achieved ISO
9001 quality compliance in 2001.
CMMI
is a process improvement and quality standard for software development
which the DoD usually requires of its software suppliers,
said Fritz Eberle, adjunct professor at ASM who has been overseeing
UNMs participation in the project.
Its
similar to the ISO 9000 methodology for quality assurance, but
more rigorous. CMMI requires a variety of planning and documentation
activities that help increase process consistency, prevent defects
and ensure product quality.
Terradigm
also wanted to integrate the activities required in the CMMI
model with their previous work toward ISO 9000 certification
by building a web-based quality management system that would
be easily accessible and usable by all their employees. Terradigm
is now fine-tuning its processes to simultaneously comply with
both standards, which is one of the more interesting parts of
the project.
Earlier
in the mentor-protégé project, UNM students also
performed surveys, interviews and business analyses in an effort
to explore the software needs of various DoD government units.
In 1994,
Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories each awarded Terradigm
contracts to provide management and cost engineering services.
Since then, customers have awarded Terradigm contracts for program
and project management services including the Department of
Energy, Army Space Command, Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation
Center, White Sands Missile Range, Space and Missile Systems
Center, and the Indian Health Service.
Terradigm
president and founder Michael Romero says his vision for Terradigm
is to remain a premier provider of project and financial
management products and services.
The companys
goals are to sustain growth, be recognized for integrity and
high corporate standards, provide a challenging work environment
and career advancement opportunities for employees, and to share
success with the community.