About IEI

History and overview of Independent Engineering, Inc. (IEI)

IEI was incorporated in 1988 as a small S-corporation business.  At the time of incorporation, IEI had provided engineering support to the US Army Operational Test and Evaluation Command (OPTEC) for two years, since 1986.  Since 1988, IEI has remained a small business while providing engineering services to an increasing customer base. 

IEI provides engineering support services in three specific areas: (a) computer software engineering support for IT systems, (b) training course development and presentation, and (c) software and hardware product assurance engineering.  A description of IEI’s history in each of these areas is provided in the following paragraphs.

(a)  Computer software engineering support for IT systems

IEI has been the primary software engineering support to the US Army Software Test and Evaluation Panel (STEP) from November 1989 to the present.  In recognition of this support, IEI received a Letter of Accomplishment and Appreciation from the Commanding General, OPTEC in 1991 and 1992.  In addition to continued STEP support, IEI currently provides staffing support to the US Army Test and Evaluation Command (ATEC) for various services that support evaluation of Army IT systems, including:

1. managing the Army Software Metrics Help Desk,

2. designing and building various software management tools (SMMIS-Windows, the Metrics Guided Maturity (MGM) tool, and the DoD-standard tool for software measurement: the Practical Software and Systems Measurement (PSM) Insight tool), and

3. preparing a quarterly software newsletter (Insight).

IEI also provides software engineering support to ATEC for evaluation, test, and engineering analysis of several Army software-intensive IT systems.  Engineering support has included review of software design, assessment of critical software technical issues, evaluation of developmental test data, and software evaluation planning during system operational tests. 

IEI currently provides IT systems consulting services to the Office of the Deputy Chief Information Officer (CIO)/Assistant Secretary of Defense for Command, Control, Communications, and Intelligence, ASD (C3I).  IEI is responsible to provide investment and acquisition oversight for DoD IT systems.  IEI provides engineering support consulting services in five functional areas:

1. IT acquisition oversight,

2. IT portfolio management and oversight,

3. IT registration and certification management,

4. IT operational effectiveness and analysis, and

5. IT workforce and training initiatives.

IEI has also supported the CIO Office with various IT systems analyses to ensure compliance with the Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996.  This support includes development of procedures for Portfolio Management and Oversight (PM&O) using the DoD Y2K Database to monitor the status of IT systems. 

IEI provides engineering support to implement a Configuration Management (CM) system for the IT systems assigned to the CIO Office.  Support tasks include development and recommendation of CM strategies, policies, and procedures.  This CM support has provided the CIO Office with a framework that will enable all relevant DoD stakeholders in an IT system to view the latest version of the system configuration.  CM is an integral supporting element for accurate and consistent enterprise-wide IT system review and end-to-end (E2E) testing.  IEI also supports the CIO Office in defining and maintaining IT management baselines, thin-line and Contingency Plan reuse, and portfolio interoperability and Information Assurance (IA) assessments.

IEI has also provided the engineering support to develop and analyze E2E tests from the perspective of mission and information flow over the long term.  IEI has upgraded and refined a preliminary E2E test guidebook that was produced and exercised on an experimental basis during Y2K.

(b) Training Course Development and Instruction

IEI developed and delivered several short courses in software engineering and test and evaluation (T&E) for the US Army OPTEC.  IEI has developed and presented the US Army's Software Metrics Training Courses since 1991.  IEI has also developed and delivered several short courses in reliability and maintainability engineering, software quality management, and Integrated Logistic Support (ILS).  This training support is provided to various government and commercial clients; including the US Army, US Navy, Ford Motors, and China Shipbuilding.

(c) Product Assurance Engineering

IEI has performed independent reliability engineering evaluations of hardware and software for various DoD and commercial clients.