HUSEI (Hungarian Software Engineering Institute) operates within MTA SZTAKI (the Computer and Automation Research Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Science). HUSEI’s mission is to

• Identify and monitor trends in industry needs for technical, methodological, and managerial knowledge and skills in software engineering and software process improvement.
• Raise awareness of the trends within the Hungarian software engineering community.
• Create and maintain an adaptive environment for the effective transfer of knowledge and skills to improve the software engineering capabilities of industry and academia in Hungary.

ISCN (International Software Consulting Network) is an Irish company with the mission of satisfying the needs of its partner firms for highly qualified expert support of their software process assessment and improvement initiatives. There are several methods for software process assessment, measurement, and improvement. ISCN encourages the combined use of such approaches and methodologies by using effective teamwork and collaboration based on win-win situations for all, the customers, the experts, and ISCN.

A key asset of ISCN is its pool of experts who represent a wide range of approaches and methodologies allowing a synergetic combination of the skills most suitable to the specific requirements of the customer. ISCN has been and will be committed to the highest professional traditions by applying quality assurance and continuous improvement to its own consulting processes, while it is also ready to re-engineer these processes if there is an opportunity for better satisfying the needs of business partners.

Dr. Richard Messnarz made his MSc at the University of Technology in Graz, Austria. In 1995 he received a PhD from the same university for the work on a QUES "A Quantitative Quality Evaluation System". He has participated in a number of European research and industry projects since 1990. He was also the project leader of the Comett expert exchange project ISCN in 1993 which led to the foundation of ISCN itself in 1994.

• Developed the Bootstrap evaluation algorithm
• Performed assessments in 5 different European countries
• Certified Bootstrap lead assessor and a certified SPICE assessor
• Executive Director of ISCN, the technical co-ordinator of the PICO (Process Improvement Combined apprOach) initiative, the coordinator of the software engineering group within the pilot project for building a prototype of a virtual university, and editor of a book published in 1999 from IEEE "Better Software Practice for Business Benefit - Principles and Experience"
• Chairman and main organiser of the EuroSPI Conference series (former ISCN Conference series).

• Haase V. Messnarz R., et. al., Bootstrap - Fine Tuning Software Process assessments, IEEE Software, July 1994
• Messnarz R., Kugler H.J., Bootstrap and ISO 9000 - From the Software Process to Software Quality, Proceedings of the APSEC'94 conference in Tokyo, Japan, IEEE Computer Society Press, December 1994
• Messnarz R., Tully C., (eds.), Better Software Practice for Business Benefit - Principles and Experience, IEEE Computer Society Press, November 1999

Dr. Miklós Biró is the head of the Quality Management Department of the Computer and Automation Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Science (MTA SZTAKI), and of HUSEI (Hungarian Software Engineering Institute) operating within MTA SZTAKI) with 24 years of software engineering and university teaching (including professorship in the USA), and 14 years of management experience. He has a Ph.D. in mathematics from the Loránd Eötvös University in Budapest and an Executive MBA (Master of Business Administration) degree from ESC Rouen, France in association with the Krannert Graduate School of Management at Purdue University, USA. He is fluent in Hungarian, English, and French.

He initiated and managed the Hungarian participation in numerous European multinational projects and organisations committed to software process impovement (European Software Institute, Bootstrap Institute). He is head of the Information Society Technologies Liaison Office for the European Union's 5^th Framework Programme in Hungary. He was expert consultant for Hungarian and international organizations (Hungarian Committee for Technological Development, Investment and Trade Development Agency of Hungary, Hungarian Airlines, UNIDO, European Commission,...). He played a major role in the involvement of Central and Eastern European companies in software process improvement initiatives and the creation of channels for their presentation.

He has numerous publications in international scientific and professional journals (Software Process Improvement and Practice /Wiley InterScience/, Software Quality Professional /ASQ, American Society for Quality/, Software Process Newsletter, European Journal of Operational Research, Zeitschrift für Angewandte Mathematik und Mechanik, Optimization, Information Processing Letters, Discrete Mathematics, Journal of Advanced Transportation, Acta Cybernetica) and conference proceedings. He is the author of Hungarian and English language book chapters on software process improvement and business motivations.

He is member of the editorial board of the journal Software Process Improvement and Practice published by Jonh Wiley & Sons, and founding president of the professional division for Software Quality Management of the John von Neumann Computer Society. He is member of several professional bodies and societies.

Some relevant references:

• Biró,M.; Tully,C. The Software Process in the Context of Business Goals and Performance. Chapter in the book entitled Better Software Practice for Business Benefit (ed. by R. Messnarz, C. Tully). (IEEE Computer Society Press, Washington, Brussels, Tokyo, 1999) (ISBN 0-7695-0049-8).
• Biró,M.; Messnarz,R. Key Success Factors for Business Based Improvement. Software Quality Professional (ASQ, American Society for Quality) Vol.2, Issue 2 (March 2000) pp.20-31.
• Biró,M.; Ivanyos,J.; Messnarz,R. Pioneering Process Improvement Experiment in Hungary. Software Process: Improvement and Practice (John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.) Volume 5, Issue 4, 2000. Pages: 213-229.

(http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/76503384/START)