Our PI-21 Team

Barbara Hilden, CEO, has over 30 years of experience in the computer industry. She is a certified SCAMPI High Maturity Lead Appraiser, a certified SCAMPI Lead Appraiser, and a certified CMMI and SEMA Instructor (teaching Intro to CMMI, IPPSS, and DPPSS courses), and internal auditor for ISO 9000. She has implemented process improvement initiatives including: CMMI, SW CMM, SA CMM, and ISO 9000 at various corporations. Ms. Hilden has led or participated in over 100 formal appraisals as well as led or participated in numerous other audits and mini-appraisals for the SW-CMM, the FAA-iCMM, ISO 9000, EIA/IS 731 SE CM, and the CMMI in a wide variety of organizations from very small companies to large, global organizations.

Acting as a consultant, Ms. Hilden has assisted organizations in determining and subsequently implementing effective strategies for process improvement efforts at a wide variety of organizations. She developed and taught a wide variety of computer science, software engineering, systems engineering Six Sigma, and process improvement courses. Ms. Hilden has been responsible for managing government systems development programs as a government contractor and has led numerous research and development programs while working as an instructor in the university environment. Her work in signal processing has led to various innovations, such as allowing for credit card payments right at the gas pump, and more accuracy in predicting wind sheer during airline flights. Ms. Hilden has published and presented numerous papers and books on management, software engineering methodologies and organizational performance improvement through process improvement.

Ms. Hilden is a true pioneer in process improvement, at the early age of just 17, she built prediction models to improve the wait in lift lines and predict avalanche danger at a ski resort in Utah. Ms. Hilden has used her experience and natural understanding of math and statistical analysis to help raise the level of her client’s awareness of the importance of monitoring and measuring the effectiveness of the processes they use to run their business. Her knowledge of both the CMMI model and the best practices used in Six Sigma projects has proven highly valuable to her clients, especially in this tough economy, in knowing why, when and how to measure the effectiveness of their processes and sub-processes in increasing their overall level of organizational performance and success. Her understanding of the CMMI High Maturity process areas has proven to be key to the success of many of PI-21’s high maturity clients.

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PI-21 Partners

Sam Yao, GM, has over twenty years experience in software development industry including education, system / software development, embedded system development, mission-critical application development, system integration, software development management, and process improvement. He has extensive experience in consulting, project management and process improvement. As head of SEPG and SQA in an offshore software development center in Shanghai, he led process improvement program in setting up the strategies, establishing the process improvement infrastructure, building and enhancing software development & management process, developing and improving the metrics program, and conducting the appraisals, etc. Under his leadership, the company has achieved CMM Level 3 compliant operation in 2001. He also managed various large-scaled and complex projects / programs in leading international system integration companies in banking and transportation sectors. He led the effort in establishing and implementing rigorous project management methodology and system engineering practices, thus enabled the software development and implementation in cost-effective, efficient way with high quality. He is a certified project management professional by Brainbench.

Contact information: Voice: (86) 21 6249-3276 Fax: (86) 21 6249-3893 Email: info@piera.com.cn

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Antonio Celso Hunnicutt Cortada has over 12 years of experience with process improvement programs. He has also been working with ERP implementation and development since 1997. He developed and taught many process improvement courses, as well as software engineering. Antonio has a bachelor degree in mechanical engineering and has a Master’s degree in quality engineering and worked developing and implementing quality management systems during the last few years. He also has extensive experience with problem solving methods, project management and process improvement.

As a consultant, he has worked with the leading companies in Brazil and managed various large-scaled and complex projects/programs in the many different industries. As a quality manager in São Paulo, he planned and led the implementation of process improvement programs in different companies by setting up the strategies, establishing the necessary infrastructure, enhancing the project management process, developing and improving the metrics program, conducting audits and also improving the strategic planning process of the company.

Contact information: Voice: (55) 11 9981-0962 Fax: (55) 11 5641-2219 Email: info@ahc.com.br