Chicago Software Process Improvement Network

(C-SPIN) Meeting

http://www.c-spin.net/

*** Revised location for the January 2007 meeting only ***

The location of the January meeting has been changed to

Schaumburg Township District Library
130 S. Roselle Road
Schaumburg, IL 60193

(due to a building heating problem at the AT&T Institute)

See directions near the end of announcement

See the list of future meeting dates at the end of this announcement and mark your calendars now.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Informal Networking 6:00 – 7:00 PM

Program 7:00 – 8:30 PM

Program: Practical Uses of Software Measurement for Process Improvement

Presenter: Lawrence Dribin, Ph.D.

Abstract

“What gets measured gets done!”

Most IT organizations gather and report on numerous measures. These measures are often designed to provide IT management with the information they need to explain what IT has been doing for the business. However, many of these measurement programs are not designed to support process improvement, resulting in ineffective software process improvement programs. A well designed practical software measurement program can dramatically increase the effectiveness of software process improvement initiatives and increase the effectiveness of the measurement programs itself.

This presentation will discuss how metrics tie to software process improvement. It will describe how software measurement programs can be designed to better support process improvement. The presentation will show how properly designed score cards (dashboards) link metrics to process improvement and provide IT Project Managers, QA Managers and senior IT managers with better metrics to run their businesses. The Goal-Question-Metric and the Balanced Score Card are two metrics design technique that will be covered that can be used to develop high level score cards (dashboards) for key stakeholders.

Successful IT Metrics and Score Cards provide IT management with the information they need to run and improve the business of IT.

About the Presenter

Dr. Larry Dribin is president of Pearl Street Group, Inc., an IT consulting company focused on IT Process Improvement. In his private consulting work, Dr. Dribin assists clients with IT process improvement, service level agreement construction, and IT/business measurement. Dr. Dribin also makes extensive use of the SEI's CMMI for software and has developed extensions to the CMMI for commercial IT organizations. Dr. Dribin holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology from the Illinois Institute of Technology, an MBA in Marketing from Loyola University of Chicago and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology. In addition to his consulting practice, he is an adjunct Professor in Software Engineering at DePaul University of Chicago. He has been a Director with Chicago's Software Process Improvement Network (C-SPIN), and is also a member of ACM, CQAA and IEEE.

Agenda

6:00 – 7:00 p.m. Networking and Registration (free)

7:00 – 7:10 p.m. Overview of C-SPIN and Introductions

7:10 – 8:10 p.m. Presentation

8:10 – 8:30 p.m. Question and Answer Session

Driving Directions

The library is at 130 S. Roselle Road 3.8 miles south of Algonquin Rd (Route 62). The meeting is in the Adult Classroom located on the second floor. For more specific directions go to http://www.stdl.org/location.asp.

Planned Future 2007 Program Schedule

All these programs are planned to be held at the AT&T Institute Auditorium.

Be sure to check the C-SPIN website http://www.c-spin.net/ to confirm details.

Program Topics are to be determined.

Wednesday, February 7, 2007, 6:00 – 8:30 PM

Wednesday, March 7, 2007, 6:00 – 8:30 PM

Wednesday, April 4, 2007, 6:00 – 8:30 PM

Wednesday, May 2, 2007, 6:00 – 8:30 PM

Wednesday, June 6, 2007, 6:00 – 8:30 PM

Wednesday, September 5, 2007, 6:00 – 8:30 PM

Wednesday, October 3, 2007, 6:00 – 8:30 PM

Wednesday, November 7, 2007, 6:00 – 8:30 PM

About C-SPIN

C-SPIN is made possible through the efforts of its Steering Committee. The Steering Committee is composed of, Alan Berow, Kathy Brown, Steve Coffman, Susan Davidowski, Karen Mermel, Donna Miller, and Robert Stalzer.

C-SPIN is a leadership forum for the free and open exchange of software process improvement experiences and practical ideas. We promote achieving higher levels of process maturity, software quality, and mutual respect. Companies, academic institutions, government organizations and individuals are invited.

For more information regarding this meeting, C-SPIN, or the steering committee, contact Karen Mermel at kmermel@yahoo.com.

To receive future announcements electronically, send your e-mail address (include name, address, company, phone) to Karen Mermel at kmermel@yahoo.com.