Regional Meeting on Software Process Improvement (SPI), April 2005

Companies and organizations from 7 countries have met in Sofia to discuss the possibilities of Software Process Improvement in South-Eastern Europe. Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia & Montenegro, Macedonia, Spain, Mexico and Brazil have attended the regional workshop.
There were presented 25 high-level decision makers from: associations - Bulgaria, Romania, Macedonia, Serbia; Donor programs- EBRD, USAID; companies “on the road” to CMMI; European Software Institute and ESI Centers (Mexico, Brazil, Bulgaria).

Four presentations were delivered during the meeting:
- “Training and certification on Software Process Improvement, Capability Maturity Model Integration, BITS and others” by ESI (Spain);
- “Opportunities for co-financing of SPI. Programs in the region” by ESI Center Bulgaria;
- “Implementation of continuous SPI models, corresponding to the needs of the SMEs from the region” by ESI (Spain); 
- “Regional projects and initiatives for Software Process Improvement” by BASSCOM.

The discussions provoked by the presentations have been in four main directions. Concerning the opportunities for regional projects focused on CMMI, all the participants have agreed such projects are of a mutual benefits and of high importance. All of them have shared their national experience in organization of such initiatives. Participants have discussed the possible ways to receive financial assistance from international donors and national governments. Regarding the opportunities for SPI by cooperation between companies and join resources use, a very good example has been given by Juliana Herbert - Director of ESI Center Brazil.

The last group of questions has been dedicated to the SPI chances for Small and Medium Enterprises. Mikel Emaldi (ESI Spain) has presented a new product-service - IT Mark that can sustain SPI implementation in SMEs. The participants have highly appreciated this initiative. It has been decided a regional framework for SPI to be created and companies to be offered possibilities to implement SPI programs.

All the participants have come to a conclusion – on the basis of the initial awareness the companies have to establish partnership to define the concrete steps towards the SPI implementation.