Dr. Paulk is a Senior Systems Scientist at the IT Services Qualification Center of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. Mark researches and publishes on best practices for the sourcing of IT-enabled services. This includes empirical research and case studies of best practice, with an emphasis on measurement and statistical thinking for sourcing and services.

From 1987 to 2002, Mark was with the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon, where he led the work on the Capability Maturity Model for Software and was the lead author of The Capability Maturity Model: Guidelines for Improving the Software Process. Work related to the Software CMM included high maturity practices, statistical thinking as applied to software processes, and contributions to IEEE and ISO standards. Mark was co-project editor with Al Graydon on ISO/IEC 15504 (Process assessment) from 1992-1995.

Courses that Mark has developed and teaches at Carnegie Mellon including: 17-690, Seminar in Software Process and 95-839, Capability Improvement for Service Providers.

Before coming to Carnegie Mellon, Mark worked for System Development Corporation at the Ballistic Missile Defense Advanced Research Center in Huntsville, Alabama. His work for SDC centered on distributed, hard real-time systems.

Mark’s personal research interests revolve around empirical methods, high maturity practices, statistical thinking, and agile methods.

Mark received his PhD in industrial engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and his MS in computer science from Vanderbilt University. He received his BS in mathematics and computer science from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Mark is a Senior Member of the IEEE, a Senior Member of the ASQ, and an ASQ Certified Software Quality Engineer.