Tucson Software Process Improvement Network (SPIN) will be holding its first General Meeting Thursday, March 16th beginning at 5:45pm with networking and snacks. The Tucson SPIN General Meetings will be held at the offices Sunquest Information Systems, 801 E. Broadway (at Swan). If you plan on attend please e-mail us at AttendMeeting@TucsonSPIN.org. All participants will be required to sign-in at the Guard station in the Lobby.

The SPIN is a forum for the free and open exchange of software process improvement experiences and ideas. The organization will serve as a source of educational and scientific information for its members, other SPIN organizations, and the general software community. Specifically, our purpose is to identify and leverage off of best practice sources (Commercial companies, government contractors and university entities) for software processes, methods and tools in order to identify globally-optimized process practices.

Additionally, the Tucson SPIN will integrate all entities involved in software engineering (software development software test, software engineering process group, software quality engineering and software configuration management) in order to disseminate our learning across the software community. Included in this involvement will be our external, but critical customers, suppliers and partners such as Systems Engineering and Test Engineering.

The guest speaker for this month's meeting will be Walter C. Pipp, Jr. of Raytheon Missile Systems Tucson. Wally will be presenting "Software Process Improvement Pays", answering the question commonly asked question, "Is the expenditure in software process improvement worth the investment?", with a resounding YES! Wally will track the progress that Raytheon Missile Systems (RMS) in Tucson followed on its software process improvement journey beginning with SEI CMM Level 2 in 1994 to 1998 when RMS was assessed at SEI CMM Level 4. During these four years, data shows that software process improvement not only pays for itself, but there has been a 6 to 1 return on investment. Additionally, there is evidence that through software process improvement, quality, reliability and customer satisfaction are enhanced.

Wally is the manager of the Software Engineering Process Group (SEPG) for Raytheon Missile Systems. Wally has 25 years experience as a Software Engineer, Software Project Manager and in software process management. His technical experience includes 15 years as a key developer of embedded missile software for the Stinger weapon system. Wally is a subject area expert on software cost estimation. He has presented various papers at User’s Conferences, Symposiums, before the Army Science Board, and at the Infrared Information Symposia on Countermeasures.

For more information visit our Website www.TucsonSPIN.org or contact us via e-mail at info@TucsonSPIN.org