"[1] Watts Humphrey (whose grandfather and father also had the same name) was born in Battle Creek, Michigan on July 4, 1927.
The program was funded by the Department of Defense (DOD) because it was in need of a solution for software being developed that was defective, consistently late, and over budget.
This program was aimed at understanding and managing the software engineering process because this is where big and small organizations or individuals encounter the most serious difficulties and where, thereafter, lies the best opportunity for significant improvement.
In 1989 he described how to use the five levels for managing and improving software development processes in a book titled "Managing the Software Process"[6] When SEI released the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) in 1991, it was based on the principles in his book.
Humphrey received an honorary doctor of software engineering from the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 1998.