Global software process improvement initiatives

Summary form only given. Dozens of software process improvement network (SPIN) chapters are currently active around the globe. SPIN is an effort sponsored by the US Department of Defense (DoD) to promote worldwide software process improvement. The DoD is one of the world´s largest customers of computer software, with trillion dollar plans for purchases in 1997. Moreover, software is an integral part of the defense systems developed by the DoD, so software quality is a major concern. In order to gauge the impact that such efforts may have on worldwide software process improvement, a survey was sent to national and international SPIN chapters. The survey contained questions on SPIN objectives, membership, communication, influence and future challenges. The results suggested that the main challenge of SPIN groups worldwide is to obtain top management support for software process improvement programs. The results also showed that the SPIN chapters are performing a valuable service in furthering the worldwide software process improvement effort