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| You are welcome to SPIN Sri Lanka, the forum of software engineering
professionals in Sri Lanka.
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What is SPIN?
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A Software Process Improvement Network (SPIN) is an organization of software
professionals involved in software process improvement within a geographic
region. SPINs are all over the world; each started by its community, and then
linked together through mutual contact and the SEI (Carnegie-Mellon
University's Software Engineering Institute) which helps the formation and
existence of SPINs in many ways.
A SPIN provides a practical forum for the interchange of ideas, information,
and mutual support for membership. Each SPIN is slightly different, based on
the vision of the founders and the needs of the community. Most operate on
volunteered time and resources, and don't charge membership fees.
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How did SPINs get started?
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In 1988, several software professionals were working on process improvement in
the Washington DC area. These professionals decided that they needed a
practical forum for the exchange of ideas, information, and mutual support.
Realizing that the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) could not actively
support all ongoing process improvement efforts, these professionals created a
mechanism by which members of Software Engineering Process Groups (SEPGs) could
band together to provide mutual support and interaction not available through
the SEI.
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SPIN Benefits to membership
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| The SPIN in general provides two major benefits to its membership. These two
benefits that result from participating in a SPIN are networking and leverage.
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Networking
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The SPIN brings together groups of people for mutual benefit: organizations
improving their processes, consultants and organizations that provide
process-related services and products, academic researchers, and relevant
government agencies.
This gives an opportunity to network with peers in other organizations to share
ideas and experiences. Because the field of software process improvement is
growing rapidly, an opportunity to network with other professionals who have
the same interests can be very useful.
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Leverage
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| The leverage provided by SPINs is also important. For example, SPINs may
approach some universities in designing course curriculum. Also companies may
benchmark the engineering practices with the same of more professional and
matured institutions by sharing their experiences through SPIN activities.
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Shared training and costs
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Apart from the above another benefit would be to share the training cost and
develop the leadership particularly among the young professionals entering in
to the field of software engineering.
The SPIN organizes events on topics of mutual interest, including seminars on
new tools or techniques. Costs for external expertise are kept low by sharing
them amongst SPIN members
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SPIN is for whom?
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| SPINs are made up of professionals from all sectors: industry, government,
academia (including students), and include defense contractors, professional
organizations, and independent consultants.
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How are SPIN groups affiliated with the SEI?
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Each SPIN is completely independent. The SEI exerts no control over any of the
organizations. The SEI does, however, provide support in many ways. The most
significant manner in which the SEI provides support is by enabling
communication among the existing regional SPINs. Through regular maintenance of
the online SPIN Directory, the SEI has been able to connect many software
professionals with emerging or active SPINs.
The SEI distributes this SPIN start-up information to anyone who is interested
in starting or joining a SPIN in his or her area.
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