Mark C. Paulk, Ph.D.

Dr. Paulk is a Senior Systems Scientist at the Institute for Software Research in the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University. Dr. Paulk’s research interests revolve around Total Quality Management, best practices (e.g., Software CMM, ISO/IEC 15504, eSCM-SP), empirical research, high maturity practices, statistical thinking, and agile methods. He teaches in the Master of Software Engineering program; does empirical research on high maturity, agile methods (the Scrum Alliance has funded research on the adoption of Scrum), and service management; and works on best practices for sourcing of IT-enabled services for the IT Services Qualification Center. From 1987 to 2002, Dr. Paulk worked at the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon, where he led the work on the Capability Maturity Model for Software.

Dr. Paulk teaches professional education courses for ITSqc such as “The eSourcing Capability Model for Service Providers Course” and graduate courses for ISR on “Seminar in Software Process” and “Capability Improvement for Service Organizations”.

Dr. Paulk does part-time consulting and professional education via Paulk Consulting. Standard professional education offerings are listed on that site.

Dr. Paulk drafted a piece on enduring principles of software process and quality that summarizes my general philosophy. It may be of some interest to those struggling to achieve performance excellence.

Dr. Paulk received his PhD in industrial engineering from the University of Pittsburgh, his MS in computer science from Vanderbilt University, and his BS in mathematics and computer science from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. He is a Senior Member of the IEEE, a Senior Member of the ASQ, and an ASQ Certified Software Quality Engineer. He is also a member of Carnegie Mellon's Faculty Senate.