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QUEST Workshops

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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6 - AFTERNOON

Selling Quality: Using Marketing Models
Clyneice Chaney, MITRE

Track 1: 2:30 - 4:00

Quality is often an idea that is difficult to sell. Many business leaders have interesting, false, or incomplete perceptions regarding quality and the associated costs. Quality managers have been told that to get the “ear” of senior management they need to present information using terminology that senior management relates to such as “bottom line” or “strategic impact.” Since marketing has a significant presence in business today, a question should be posed. Are there marketing models and approaches that could help quality managers sell quality more effectively? This presentation provides an overview of marketing and selling techniques including actual presentation examples geared toward selling quality. Use of these methods can help management see the alignment and criticality of quality to their business.

  • Hear an overview of marketing techniques
  • Learn to use marketing models from a quality perspective
  • Discover simple approaches for selling quality

About the workshop leader...
Clyneice Chaney brings over 20 years of testing, quality assurance, and process improvement experience. Clyneice holds certifications from the American Society for Quality as a Certified Quality Manager, QAI Global Institute's Certified Quality Analyst, and Project Management Institute's Professional Project Manager. She has participated as an examiner for state quality awards for Georgia and Virginia. She is currently an instructor for the International Institute for Software Testing and has presented technical papers at the Software Engineering Institute: SEPG Conference, American Society for Quality: Quality Manager's conference, Quality Assurance Institute International Testing Conference, International Conference on Software Process Improvement and Software Test and Performance Testing Conferences.

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Dealing With Defects on an Agile Team
Janet Gregory, DragonFire, Inc.

Track 2: 2:30 - 4:00

Software defects are annoyances for everyone. If your organization is like most and you have a large queue of defects waiting to be fixed, this session is for you. It's probably not realistic to think we'll get around to fixing all of these bugs, so we need to consider other approaches. Janet will facilitate this workshop to help you develop a strategy for how your team can address defects in an agile manner. The group will discuss alternatives to traditional bug reporting and how a shift in your team's mindset toward preventing bugs in the first place is critical.

  • Gain ideas for a defect prevention strategy
  • Learn alternative ways of capturing defects
  • Understand trade-offs between technical debt and new features

About the workshop leader...
Janet Gregory is a consultant whose specialty is promoting agile quality processes and working with teams to build quality systems. She has helped to introduce agile practices into companies as both tester and coach and has successfully transitioned many traditional test teams into the agile world. Her focus in these transitions is working with the business users and testers to help them understand their role in agile projects. Janet is co-author with Lisa Crispin of Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams and a contributor to 97 Things Every Programmer Should Know.

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Achieving Developer and Tester Collaboration
Todd Mancini, Microsoft

Track 3: 2:30 - 4:00

Despite outfitting both your development and test teams with the best tools available, are they still unable to work together in a reasonable manner?  Are reported defects dismissed by the development team due to a lack of detailed, technical information?  Has one of your developers ever told one of your testers, “Well, it works on my machine?”  Are you unable to trace from a requirement down to both development and test? Have you struggled to build out and maintain a test environment, perhaps using virtualization, which serves the needs of both development and test?  Attend this workshop and learn how the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010  family of tools can save you from this level of dysfunction and enable highly leveraged, collaborative developer and test teams across a wide range of platforms and technologies.

  • Be introduced to Visual Studio Test Professional 2010
  • See how to automatically file actionable bug reports to development
  • Learn Microsoft’s holistic approach to application lifecycle management

About the workshop leader...
Over the past 30 years, Todd Mancini has held nearly every position related to software development, testing, and management.  He has worked for companies of all sizes, from his own start-up to the largest software company in the world.  These unique experiences have provided him excellent insights into what makes effective software development teams at all levels of scale.  Todd is currently a Senior Developer Tools Technical Specialist for Microsoft where he spends his days educating some of Microsoft's most important customers on how to best management their software development practices.

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Deception Dangers of the Numbers Game
Lynn McKee, Quality Perspectives

Track 4: 2:30 - 4:00

Many of us have crafted numbers and proudly reported them as valuable insight on product quality. The drive to quantify and justify our projects through metrics is pervasive. Many stakeholders crave metrics in the hopes of simplifying their decision making process. Many testers are quick to respond with extensive graphs and charts. However, there is a serious problem in attempting to articulate the state of the testing solely through metrics. How do you identify the “right” metrics? How do you ensure those metrics are sufficient, accurate and conclusive? This session will review the importance of moving beyond the numbers game, placing less emphasis on providing the “right” metrics and more emphasis on the contextual conversation metrics should be generating. You will leave this session understanding the importance of educating stakeholders to question the numbers and instead engage in a discussion to better understand what is known and unknown about the product.

  • Review the deception dangers inherit with metrics and “best practices”
  • Examine the subjectivity of “quality” and “value”
  • Learn to provide metrics that illustrate a story and generate conversation

About the workshop leader...
Lynn McKee is an independent consultant with 15 years of experience in the IT industry and a passion for helping organizations, teams and individuals deliver valuable software. Lynn provides consulting on software quality, testing, and building high performing teams. An advocate of the context-driven perspective, her focus is on ensuring testing teams are enabled with effective, adaptive, and scalable approaches aligned with the organization's quality needs. Lynn is an active member of numerous software testing associations, speaks at conferences, writes articles, and contributes to blogs and forums. Lynn is the co-founder and host for the Calgary Perspectives on Software Testing Workshop.

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Risk-Based Testing on Steroids
Todd Kuczaj, Accenture

Track 5: 2:30 - 4:00

As organizations strive to hurry up software development in order to reduce time-to-market, there is significant probability that the software development processes will be compromised to “make the date.” These compromises always seem to have a negative effect on the test team who has the difficult, if not impossible, task of helping ensure a quality release before shipping. Todd will discuss ways test managers can implement risk-based testing and describe fundamental quality and risk management techniques that can be leveraged throughout the development life cycle. Join Todd and learn the essentials of managing risk: identification, analysis, prioritization, response planning, resolution, and monitoring. Additionally, you’ll learn the basics of risk-based testing, what it is, why it’s relevant to testing, how to implement it in your organization, and how to apply it throughout the software development lifecycle.

  • Explore the problems created by high-speed development
  • Learn the essentials of managing risk
  • Understand the basics of risk-based testing

About the workshop leader...
Todd Kuczaj is a Senior Manager within Accenture's Global Testing Practice. He has been with the company for over 9 years, almost exclusively in testing and quality roles. Currently, Todd is the overall program lead for a new 250-person centralized testing capability at a large US financial services firm. In addition to this role, Todd also conducts test assessments and provides strategic insights for various other Accenture clients. He holds a Master of Science in Information Management from Arizona State University and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Notre Dame. Todd has spoken one the subject of testing at several international conferences.

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THURSDAY, APRIL 7 - AFTERNOON

Finding a Fit for Agile in Your Corporate Culture
JimYork, FoxHedge, Ltd.

Track 1: 2:30 - 4:00

Agile has a quick, brilliant, but far too often, brief impact on organizations, a shooting star effect. Why? It boils down to how well agile fits within your organizational culture. Long-term success applying agile principles and practices requires compatibility with corporate culture. Finding a fit can be challenging, but the payoff can be significant. This workshop looks at the impact of organizational culture on the sustainability of agile principles and practices and offers insights on how to improve your organization's chances of long term success with agile.

  • Learn why culture is so important
  • Understand the 4 key culture types and how to identify them
  • Discover how patterns can be used to resolve conflict with culture

About the workshop leader...
Jim York is a Certified Scrum Trainer, Certified Scrum Coach, and cofounder of FoxHedge Ltd. For more than 20 years as a management and IT consultant, Jim has led, trained, and coached hundreds of individuals, teams, and organizations in the implementation of Lean and Agile concepts. His workshops blend his practical experience in Scrum, Lean Software Development, Extreme Programming, Agile Project Management, Product Management, and traditional project management. Jim shares his passion for Lean and Agile as a frequent presenter at conferences, users groups, public and on-site workshops, and as a business process coach.

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Requirements Exploration with Tester Collaboration
Ellen Gottesdiener, EBG Consulting

Track 2: 2:30 - 4:00

Collaboratively exploring requirements using analysis techniques enables product stakeholders, including testers, to build a shared understanding of needs.  Defining acceptance criteria in tandem with requirements analysis verifies and specifies requirements early.  Identifying acceptance criteria during requirements exploration acts as a form of low-fidelity requirements testing, exposes requirements misunderstandings, and increases the quality of team interactions.  In this interactive workshop, you’ll learn the essentials of requirements concepts, practices, and elicitation techniques and you’ll explore a subset of analysis models useful for analyzing and testing requirements.  You’ll participate in a simulation using analysis models to explore requirements while defining acceptance tests.  Join us to learn how tester participation in requirements exploration adds value early, seeds development of tests, and delivers high-quality requirements specifications.

  • Describe how requirements exploration promotes early test specification and increases requirements quality
  • Name requirements analysis techniques to help define and specify clear test requirements
  • Identify the questions testers should ask during requirements analysis

About the workshop leader...
EBG Consulting, Inc., Principal Consultant and Founder Ellen Gottesdiener is an internationally recognized facilitator, coach, trainer, speaker, and expert on classic and agile requirements development and management, product chartering, retrospectives, and collaborative workshops.  Ellen is the author of two books, Requirements by Collaboration and The Software Requirements Memory Jogger.  Ellen works with global clients, speaks and writes articles, blogs and tweets.  She is an expert reviewer of the IIBA Business Analysis Body of Knowledge (BABOK®), contributor to the BABOK Agile Extension, and to the learning objectives for ICAgile (International Consortium for Agile).  Ellen is a Certified Professional Facilitator (CPF) and a Certified ScrumMaster.

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Ten Tips for Tackling Test Automation
Bob Crews, Checkpoint Technologies

Track 3: 2:30 - 4:00

Organizations take on the challenge of test automation for a variety of reasons, but the overriding factor is always to realize a return on investment and, it is a significant investment. If the organization cannot save or earn more money using automation tools, then they should not be using the tools. After all, why make the investment? Objectives toward the goal of realizing an R.O.I. often include a faster testing process, better software though more validation, fewer resources required, and reduction in human error. Why then do so many organizations fall victim to the same common pitfalls? Why is it that so many automation solutions become "shelf-ware?" Is it the automation software or the resources? Or is it, perhaps, the lack of a planned automation methodology and approach? Bob will address all of these challenges and explain how organizations can tackle them head-on!

  • See common challenges and mistakes organizations make when implementing test automation.
  • Learn strategies and methodologies to improve your success with test automation.
  • Explore criteria to consider when performing an "Automation Assessment."

About the workshop leader...
Bob Crews, President of Checkpoint Technologies, is a consultant and trainer with over 20 years of IT experience including full life-cycle development involving development, requirements management, and testing. He has consulted and trained for over 200 different organizations in areas such as effectively using automated testing solutions, implementing automated frameworks, and developing practices which ensure the maximum return-on-investment with automated solutions. Bob has presented at numerous conferences and user groups throughout the world including QAI, EuroStar (Copenhagen), and LatinStar (Mexico City). Bob was selected as one of the top five speakers at the QAI Annual Software Testing Conference in 2004.

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Exploratory on Purpose
Jon Bach, eBay

Track 5: 2:30 - 4:00

Ever use the term "playing around" to describe your testing? Ever cringe after saying it, wishing there was a better way of describing what you did than to give the impression it was all accidental and random? If so, this workshop may help you understand and explain exploratory testing as a thoughtful, strategic approach that can stand up under scrutiny. Jon will talk about general and specific skills and tactics that comprise exploration, such as modeling, branching, threading, and conjecturing, to name a few. Join Jon and learn how to focus on bug isolation and investigation, and to expose risks and vulnerabilities. Discover frameworks and heuristics of exploration to use when you feel stuck, or feel that the product has not been tested as well as it should be and you need to dig deeper.

  • Discover ways to report your exploration so it stands up to scrutiny.
  • Participate in exercises that focus on bug isolation and investigation, risks and vulnerabilities.
  • Learn frameworks and heuristics of exploration to use in tight situations

About the workshop leader...
Jon Bach is a recent addition to eBay (San Jose) as a QA Director for the Buyer Experience team. Jon has 15 years of experience in testing, serving as a contract test engineer, full-time tester, manager and consultant at a variety of companies including Microsoft, HP, and LexisNexis. Jon is the co-creator of Session-Based Test Management and the creator of Open-Book Testing. He is a seasoned conference speaker, writer and blogger in testing, and the current president of the 2011 Conference for the Association for Software Testing (CAST).

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FRIDAY, APRIL 8 - AFTERNOON

Converting QUEST Ideas into Real Testing Improvements
Susan Herrick, Hewlett Packard

Track 3: 1:00 - 3:00

So, where do you go from here? QUEST 2011 is drawing to a close. You've spent the week attending tutorials, workshops, and presentations where you've been inundated with exciting and motivating ideas. You can hardly wait to start applying these ideas back in the real world. Yet, far too often, conference attendees return to work with great intentions that fade away under the pressure of their day-to-day commitments. What you need now is a game plan that will help you put what you've learned to work for you. By combining a thought-provoking presentation with collaborative hands-on activities, this workshop will give you the opportunity to assess the current level of testing maturity within your organization in terms of people, process and technology, determine your target level, and set up a plan that will put you on the road to getting from where you are today to where you need to be.

  • Measure the value of potential improvements by probability of success and business benefit
  • Determine where you are today and where you need to be
  • Focus on three factors that are critical to testing success

About the workshop leader...
With 25 years of involvement in the development of IT solutions and 15 years of testing experience, Susan Herrick is the Lead Technologist for the HP Global Testing Practice, an HP Distinguished Systems Engineer, and an Enterprise Testing Consultant with the HP Americas Testing Practice. Susan has played a key role in developing testing processes, tools, and techniques for the HP Global Testing Practice. As the Testing Management and Consulting Sub-Capability Leader, she provided oversight and direction to the evolution and delivery of test management and consulting services at the global level. She has also led or contributed to assessments, strategy development, and ongoing consulting for several major clients.

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Peak Performance: The Connection between Productivity and Stress
Elizabeth Glazer and Joyce Sattovia, The Boeing Company

Track 2: 1:00 - 3:00

Are you expected to do more with less? It’s hard to hear and hard to do. It doesn’t just happen because someone says that’s what is needed. This highly interactive session looks at how to boost productivity in uncomplicated ways by using stress to one’s advantage. Not all stress is bad stress. While our initial reaction is often that stress is the cause for us to underperform, stress is often necessary to help us reach our peak performance and the highest level of productivity. Dealing effectively with stress, both the good and the bad, can lead to increased productivity. This session uses experiential activities to ground the concepts that are discussed, allowing participants to understand and explore how to increase the positive effects of stress while decreasing the negative ones. Participants will gain practical information and techniques that can immediately be used to increase productivity in stressful work environments.

  • Learn why simply mandating employees to “do more with less” fails and what to do about it
  • Understand the difference between good stress and bad stress and how both affect productivity
  • Discover how taking laughter in the workplace more seriously leads to positive consequences

About the workshop leaders...
Elizabeth Glaser is a Process Specialist with The Boeing Company, focusing on improving organizational and individual effectiveness. She has served in various capacities including software and systems engineer, and program manager. She has over 12 years of experience providing direction to increase effectiveness in people practices and processes and incorporating effective change management techniques to successfully and economically increase organizational capability. Elizabeth is an experienced trainer who incorporates experiential activities to make the concepts come alive for participants. Elizabeth has MS degrees in computer science from the University of Missouri-Rolla, and organization development from The American University in Washington, DC. She is currently completing her Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology.

Joyce Sattovia is a Process Specialist within Information Technology at The Boeing Company where she is involved in continuous improvement activities for both the people practices and software engineering activities. With a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Joyce has over 30 years of experience that include software engineering, project management, software quality assurance, organizational development, process improvement, and change management. Joyce is an experienced trainer both inside and outside of Boeing. Her effectiveness in training lies in her usage of experiential learning to demonstrate the concepts and involve the participants. She has been a presenter at numerous professional meetings, seminars, and conferences including SEPG, PSQT/PSTT, and QUEST.

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Improving Productivity Through Automation Best Practices
Arthur Hicken, Parasoft

Track 3: 1:00 - 3:00

In this workshop, Arthur will explain how software development teams, including QA testers, can improve their productivity by introducing automated best practices into their process and monitoring them closely. Arthur will begin by discussing how these best practices can reduce development costs and help teams deliver better code in less time. He will introduce various techniques such as automated builds, automated static analysis, code reviews and inspections, and automated testing that have been shown to help teams achieve substantial benefits. Then, Arthur will demonstrate how to leverage automation to ensure that it is applied consistently, objectively, and non-intrusively. Finally, the workshop will conclude by exploring ways to use these practices to measure, control, and improve the team’s overall process.

  • Learn how automated best practices can reduce time and cost
  • Discover how to apply automated practices in a consistent and non-intrusive manner
  • Use automated practices to measure and control for process improvement

About the workshop leader...
Arthur Hicken has been involved in automating various practices at Parasoft for almost 20 years. He has worked on projects including database development, the software development life-cycle, web publishing and monitoring, and integration with legacy systems.  Arthur has worked with IT departments in companies such as Cisco, Vanguard, and Motorola to help improve their software development practices.  He has taught at the College of DuPage in Illinois as well as developing and conducting numerous technical training courses at Parasoft.  As an expert in his field, Arthur has been quoted in Business 2.0, Internet Week, and CNET news.com regarding Web site quality issues.

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