Partner Network Newsletter: January 2012

Universal License Agreement News

Deadline Fast Approaching!!

The deadline to have a fully signed Universal License Agreement in place is 31-March-2012. If you are a business point-of-contact and have any issues (examples below), please send email to partner-info@sei.cmu.edu before the deadline and put ULA in the subject line:

• Did not receive your copy
• Have questions regarding terms and conditions
• Signed your copy but did not send it back to the SEI
• Have a change in contact information
• Need someone to contact you
• Other

If we have not received your signed ULA by 31-March-2012, your Partnership with the SEI will terminate automatically.

CMMI News

CMMI Workshop 2012 Coming to St. Petersburg, Florida

The CMMI Workshop 2012 will take place in St. Petersburg, Florida, on October 16-17, 2012. Hotel room block and registration details will be coming soon. 

Watch the February edition of the Partner Network Newsletter for an update and also for a survey link that will ask you what three topics you would most like to hear about at the workshop.  The survey will also ask whether you would like to take advantage of a space in the hotel to demonstrate your work and any tools you offer for the SEI Partner Community during the early registration on October 15. 

We look forward to seeing SEI Partners in St. Petersburg in October 2012.

TSP News

SEI Learning Portal Notification for PSP Instructors

All 2012 class sections for PSP Fundamentals and PSP Advanced will be established using the SEI's revised course content which includes instruction on both the SEI and Process Dashboard tools.

Click My Courses, at the left for your list of SEI Courses.
Help is available by sending email to learning-help@sei.cmu.edu.

Receive Credit on Instructor Support Fees

To receive the PSP Developer incentive credits on your next invoice for instructor annual support, be sure to alert the SEI when students have completed the PSP for Engineers I and II, PSP Fundamentals, or PSP Advanced courses. Since many of the students trained have gone on to become SEI-certified PSP Developers, instructors are eligible to receive a $20 credit for each of these students whom they have trained by telling the SEI when the students complete the training and the SEI records are appropriately updated.

For more information on this incentive, talk to your business point-of-contact regarding your license agreement's fee schedule.

St. Petersburg, Florida, Selected as the Site for the TSP Symposium 2012

Mark your calendar: TSP Symposium 2012: Delivering Agility with Discipline will be held the week of September 17, 2012 in St. Petersburg, Florida.  The symposium website with additional information will be available soon. We hope that you can join us this September to learn the latest about the Team Software Process.

Conferences, Workshops, Symposiums and Webinars

SEPG Europe 2012: Call for Participation Now Open

SEPG Europe 2012 is coming to Madrid, Spain on 5-7 June 2012 and the SEPG Europe Program Committee is now seeking technical program speakers and student poster presenters to showcase their ¡Passion for Process! at this year's conference.

Technical program presenters are invited to submit an abstract for consideration by 23.59 ET, 2 January 2012 to be part of our compelling speaker line-up. You will have the chance to share your real-world solutions and case studies with a group of software practitioners who are there to learn, engage, and exchange ideas. SEPG Europe 2012 delegates include professionals at all levels, leading educators and researchers from academic institutions, all of whom gather to share a common ¡Passion for Process! More information is available at www.sei.cmu.edu/sepg/europe/2012

SEPG North America 2012: Registration Discounts for SEI Partners

Registration is now open for SEPG North America 2012, held March 12-15, 2012 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The super-early-bird discount period open until January 6, 2012 or when 100 registrations have been received, whichever comes first. There are several savings opportunities available for SEI Partners.

SEI Partner Discount Code: The discount code for SEI Partner use only was included in the original Partner Newsletter email.  You may use the code to reserve your place today and save up to $400 during the super-early-bird discount period using your SEI Partner discount code. This discount code entitles all individuals sponsored by Partner organizations to receive $100 off the prevailing regular registration rate. After receiving this email, be sure to act quickly to save the most on registration fees.

SEI Partner Colleagues & Clients Discount Code: Within the original Partner newsletter email is the discount code you may share with your clients, co-workers, or colleagues who are either new or returning SEPG North America attendees. This code may be shared with their business network so they receive $100 off of the prevailing regular registration rate.

New This Year: Registration Referral Benefits: New for 2012, we’d like to reward you with a registration rebate for referring new attendees to SEPG North America 2012. You will receive a rebate for referring colleagues and clients who did not attend SEPG North America 2011. The referral program is simple. All you need to do is follow these steps:

Complete your registration for SEPG North America 2012 at www.sei.cmu.edu/sepg/na/2012/registration.cfm

Once you complete your registration and receive a confirmation number, provide your colleagues, clients, and co-workers with that confirmation number AND the code NA12FFR. This code gives your invitee a $100 discount off of the prevailing regular registration fee. Invite as many people through this program as you’d like; there is no limit on the number of $100 discounts you can extend.

For every person who did not attend SEPG North America 2011 AND who inputs your confirmation number, you’ will receive a $24 rebate on your paid registration. SEI Partner rebates will be honored up to 35% of your paid registration fee. Rebates will be processed within 30 days after the conference. Your invitee must have registered, paid, and attended SEPG North America 2012 to be counted toward your rebate.

The referral program also applies to exhibitors. When inviting new attendees, just be sure to provide them with the confirmation number you receive when you purchase your exhibit space. The rebate will be applied to your exhibit fees.

SEPG North America 2012 Mobile Application: Special Visibility Opportunity for SEI Partners

SEPG North America 2012 will feature a brand-new way to share important conference information. A mobile application program will give attendees easy access to updates, session slides, program details, location updates, and more.

Individuals within the SEI Partner Network have an exclusive opportunity to advertise their organization on the mobile app platform. Resonate, the mobile app vendor, will create ads using SEI Partner-provided logos and URLs. If you would like to be included, please send your logo and URL in the formats provided here to ukilberg@sei.cmu.edu no later than January 27, 2012. 

Stal and Hunt to Keynote the SATURN 2012 Conference

Michael Stal and Andy Hunt, two leading thinkers in the fields of software architecture and software engineering, will deliver keynote presentations at the SEI Architecture Technology User Network (SATURN) 2012 conference. SATURN is the SEI’s annual conference devoted to software and systems architecture, presented in collaboration with IEEE Software Magazine. SATURN 2012 will be held May 7-11, 2012 at the Hilton St. Petersburg Bayfront hotel in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Michael Stal is principal engineer at Siemens Corporate Research and Technologies. His main research topics address software architecture for distributed and/or embedded systems. He coaches projects within the various business units at Siemens and is in charge of educating the Siemens senior software architects. Stal earned a PhD from the University of Groningen where he has been appointed professor for software engineering. In addition, Stal co-authored the Pattern-Oriented Software Architecture (POSA) book series.

Andy Hunt is a programmer turned consultant, author, and publisher. Hunt was one of the 17 founders of the Agile Alliance and also one of the authors of the Agile Manifesto. He co-founded the Pragmatic Bookshelf, publishing award-winning and critically-acclaimed books for software developers. He also has authored award-winning and best-selling books, including The Pragmatic Programmer, co-written by Dave Thomas, and six other books, including the his latest, Pragmatic Thinking and Learning.

In line with the SATURN 2012 conference theme “Architecture: Catalyst for Collaboration,” both keynote speakers will explore how practitioners can collaborate effectively across geographical, cultural, and technical boundaries to solve system problems.

See the SATURN 2012 website for more information about SATURN.

SEI Webinars

If you missed a webinar of interest to you or just want to see what webinars have been presented, you can view a list of them at http://www.sei.cmu.edu/library/webinars.cfm.

SMART GRID MATURITY MODEL (SGMM)

The SGMM is a management tool that helps utilities plan smart grid  implementation, prioritize options, and measure progress.  The SEI SGMM team recently introduced the Smart Grid Maturity Model (SGMM) Navigation process to help utilities adopt SGMM and modernize the electric power grid. Learn more about the SGMM.

LinkedIn Social Media

This forum is designed for users of the Smart Grid Maturity Model to share ideas, experiences and post any question they have. The group will be moderated by the Smart Grid Maturity Model staff the at the SEI. Check out many of the free publications and resources at: http://www.sei.cmu.edu/smartgrid/.

Follow SGMM Navigator on Twitter

Smart Grid Maturity Model (SGMM) Team at CMU/SEI. Guiding utilities using the SGMM, a tool that helps plan smart grid implementation and measure progress. To follow SGMM on Twitter, go to http://twitter.com/#!/SGMM_Navigator.

SEI Seeks Insight from Brand Research

SEI senior management has initiated an enterprise-wide project to gain insight for strategic planning and business development. The SEI Brand Project will provide a holistic picture of how decision makers in software development perceive SEI products and services and will help the organization communicate its brand as a leading software engineering research and development center most effectively.

The SEI will deliver Brand Project results in phases over the next six months, including a discussion of interim results in a session at a Partner-only event during SEPG NA on Monday March 12. 

The SEI Brand Project comprises a market awareness survey, market credibility studies, existing SEI metrics, SEI stakeholder survey and interviews, and brand architecture development. Forrester Research will conduct a market survey of decision makers and others in charge of software development practices in government and industry, as well as two market credibility studies. One of the market credibility studies will delve into the current and future state of software process improvement. The SEI will survey more than 10,000 current course, conference, and webinar participants and hold in-depth interviews with more than 100 stakeholders. In addition, the SEI will conduct series of visual and message studies to refine its brand architecture.

This project builds on insights introduced in a report on the market landscape for software process improvement, which was posted to the Partner Resource Center (PRC) in September 2011. With information from Forrester Research and Gartner as well as data from SEI surveys, the report provides a view of strategies and priorities in the marketplace and describes potential customers. This report is available for download via the PRC (http://partner-resources.sei.cmu.edu) for CMMI, SCAMPI, SEMA, and TSP business points of contact who can reference information as appropriate, but the full report may not be distributed.

Partner Advisory Board News

PAB Updates

•  PAB members and representatives from SEI Appraisal Systems discussed options to ensure integrity of data on the SAS, while allowing the Lead Appraisers to check status of team members’ feedback on their appraisals.
• The Marketing and Performance Workshop has been reconstituted and user stories created for 6 participating companies.
• The Advisory Board will meet in Pittsburgh in January to process community responses to the annual survey.
  

How to Contact the PAB

If you would want to have an issue or concern discussed at a PAB meeting, please be sure to complete the form available at http://www.sei.cmu.edu/partners/advisoryboard/upload/PABreporting.pdf and send it to sei-pab@sei.cmu.edu.

Contact Us

The Partner Network team and other SEI contact information has been moved to the resource page on the Partner Network website.  Please bookmark this page for future reference for all of your Partner needs.

The SEI Partner Network Newsletter is sent to all of our Partner Business Points of Contact and all of the sponsored SEI-Certified and Authorized individuals. Please take advantage of this venue for current and up-to-date important information from all of the SEI and Partner programs. Use the links below to view the current newsletter.