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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30

Managing a Software Quality and Testing Group
Steve R. Rakitin, Software Quality Consulting, Inc.

Track 1:  11:30 - 12:30

Not everyone is cut out for a management role and the management of a Software Quality/Testing Group presents a unique set of challenges on its own.  Maintaining positive relationships with development teams is an on-going struggle.  Obtaining upper management support, securing resources, equipment, and enough time to do a reasonably good job are critical factors, but difficult to achieve.  Early involvement on project teams is essential but often does not happen.  It is not surprising, then, that both team and individual motivation and morale become overriding challenges for software quality/test group managers. Drawing on over 30 years of experience in the software quality field, Steve will present his own "lessons learned" on ways to effectively manage, challenge, and motivate a Software Quality/Testing group.

About the speaker...
Steve has over thirty years experience in the software and quality field.  He has written extensively on software quality and has authored a book entitled Software Verification & Validation for Practitioners and Managers.  Steve helped to write the first IEEE Software Engineering Standard for Software Quality Assurance Plans and is currently a member of the IEEE Standard 1012 (Software Verification & Validation) Working Group.  He has earned certifications as a Software Quality Engineer (CSQE) and Quality Auditor (CQA).  Steve is a member of the IEEE Computer Society, the ASQ Software Division, and is on the Editorial Review Board for the ASQ journal Software Quality Professional.  Steve is President of Software Quality Consulting, Inc.

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Creating a Test Plan You Can Actually Use
Ross A. Fraser, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu

Track 2:  11:30-12:30

A novice test team lead often starts with the assumption that creating a test plan means creating a document.  The result is too often a plan stuffed with padded verbiage and irrelevant information that few people read and no one uses.  The quality and usefulness of the test plan can be improved when we realize that the result of the test planning task should be a set of decisions that will determine the way the test team operates for the rest of the project.  Thus, the focus of the effort is on making the right decisions, not on creating a document.   In this presentation you will learn the key decisions that define the testing approach, the information needed to make them, how and with whom to make them, and how to document the decisions and the supporting information.

About the speaker...
Ross Fraser has tested software since 1983.  He is currently employed as a QA Program Lead in the Global Office of Information Management of Deloitte Touche Tomatsu.  Ross' prior experience includes over twenty years of consulting for NueVista Group and Spherion Technology Solutions.  He holds the CSTE and CSQA certifications, as well as a B.A. from Carleton College and a master's degree in Management from Northwestern University.

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Quality and Test Measurements in a Balanced Scorecard
Barbara Ainsworth, Process Plus International LLC

Track 3:  11:30-12:30

No matter the end product, metrics are a key management tool for making data driven decisions.  Quality and test measurements in a balanced scorecard or "dashboard" are paramount to this process.  Every organization should create these metrics.  However, not every organization understands how to identify the specific goals, or how to develop and publish the metrics to drive achievement of those goals.  It begins with identifying precise objectives and the metrics required around those objectives, a high level measurement process is engineered, procedures are documented, and then, the analysis and corrective action.   So, how do you identify and document quality and test measurements in a balanced scorecard?  What is the dashboard and how does it work?  How do I identify goals and metrics?  What are the processes?  This presentation answers these questions... and more.  Barbara will show you in a step-by-step approach how to develop quality and test measurements in a balanced scorecard and you will walk away with an example that can be customized for your own organization.

About the speaker...
Barbara Ainsworth, PMP, CSQA, CSTE, and ITIL Service Management, is a Managing Member and Principal Consultant for Process Plus International LLC.  Barbara serves as a consultant to global IT groups across a broad range of industries to help them meet their organization's objectives by advancing their IT capabilities.  She has held an assortment of IT roles and her experience includes over ten years of implementing models and utilizing supporting frameworks from the Software Engineering Institute (SEI), Quality Assurance Institute (QAI), Project Management Institute (PMI), Industry Standards Organization (ISO), Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award (MBNQA), and Six Sigma.  Barbara is certified to perform SEI Interim Profile Assessments and has completed many such assessments for a variety of organizations.

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Test Automation in an Agile Environment
Bob Crews, Checkpoint Technologies

Track 4:  11:30 - 12:30 

In today's rapidly changing software development landscape, more and more organizations are turning to Agile to aid in meeting their software development goals.  Agile has proven to be a worthy approach for getting quality software to market and has allowed many companies to succeed in areas where waterfall methodologies have failed.  The short development cycles and cross-functional approach of Agile, however, create special challenges for test automation.  This session addresses strategies for successfully implementing test automation in an Agile project.  Included in the session are the shortcomings of traditional automation approaches in Agile and methods for developing your own test automation metaphor.

About the speaker...
Bob Crews, President of Checkpoint Technologies, is a consultant and trainer with over eighteen years of IT experience including full life-cycle development involving development, requirements management, and testing.  He has consulted and trained for over 160 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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THURSDAY, MAY 1 - MORNING

Building a Center of Excellence for SOA Lifecycle Quality
John Michelsen, iTKO

Track 1:  10:15 - 11:15

Enterprises are rapidly reaching the "tipping point" of increased change and complexity.  While the industry has developed agile tools for integrating and leveraging technologies, our ability to ensure quality must keep up with the pace of change.  Quality must be baked into the entire lifecycle of the application, not relegated to a pre-production "acceptance" phase.  One key way to ensure this level of excellence is through a shared Center of Excellence (CoE) around SOA Quality.  Both service providers and consumers of these services must play a role in ensuring that services, and the underlying implementation and data layers behind them, reliably meet business goals, even as they change over time. When quality is a shared, continuous process that considers all layers of the SOA architecture, adoption has a much greater chance of success.  John's presentation will provide practical examples of how developers and QA teams can work together to test SOA workflows that span multiple application tiers. 

About the speaker...
John Michelsen, the Chief Scientist & co-founder of iTKO, has over fifteen years of experience as a technical leader at all organization levels, designing, developing, and managing large-scale, object-oriented solutions in traditional and network architectures. John is the chief architect of iTKO's LISA automated testing product and a leading industry advocate for software quality.  Before forming iTKO, John was Director of Development at Trilogy Inc., and VP of Development at AGENCY.COM. He has been titled Chief Technical Architect at companies like Raima, Sabre, and Xerox while performing as a consultant. Through work with clients across a range of industries, John has deployed solutions using technologies from the mainframe to the handheld device.

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Software Reviews: Spend Less than 5% of Your Project in Testing... Guaranteed!!!
Lois Zells, Lois Zells & Associates, Inc.

Track 2:  10:15 - 11:15

Well-managed and documented software reviews eliminate significant percentages of total project defects and requirement deficiencies as well.  A rigorous software review process, then, is the key to shortening project durations and avoiding missed target dates - both of which dramatically contribute to a project's success.  Anyone who has ever seen a presentation of Lois' knows "the number 1 of all of the number 1's that you want to implement in your company is the 'inspection process.'"  Come hear the specifics of why this is true. This presentation will not only cover the basics of the inspection process; but it will also introduce leading edge methods to include in your examination and review, techniques that to-date have only been addressed in Lois' presentations.  You will learn how to ensure that the testing phase will take less than 5% of your total project time line and that every test case will work correctly the first time out.

About the speaker...
Lois Zells is an international author, lecturer, and business consultant specializing in strategic planning, development methodologies and techniques, quality management, and project management.   She has been speaking at QAI conferences since their very beginning.  Lois is the author of the book Managing Software Projects and of the integrated, three-tier learning program on project management called Successful Projects: The Common Sense Approach.  Lois is a founder of the PMI Information Systems Specific Interest Group, a 1993 PMI Woman of the Year, and the co-honoree of the PMI Wilson/Zells Scholarship.  She frequently serves as an expert witness in software project failure litigations.  Lois graduated Summa Cum Laude in Data Processing Management from the University of Baltimore and completed her master's studies in Computer Sciences at Johns Hopkins University.

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Scenario-based Requirements Management
Marcia Stinson, Quality Lifecycle Solutions

Track 3: 10:15 - 11:15

It is vital that users have input to all aspects of the end product while providing developers the information they need to create the best technical solution and testers with the basis for accurate and complete testing.  The use of scenario based requirements addresses many issues that are known to be problematic in this regard.  Among them are lack of user involvement, inconsistent requirements mix, and lack of traceability.  The goal of scenario-based requirements management has been to create a process that is not so overwhelming and complex that it is impossible to follow, yet provides all of the information necessary to solve these issues.  This process is practical and repeatable, and provides a logical method for decomposing requirements so that the end result is a complete set of requirements at all levels.  The use of scenarios also provides a way to go directly to test plans, thus ensuring testing accurately reflects the required processing flow.  The use of scenarios decreases time spent and keeps the focus on the right information. 

About the speaker...
Marcia Stinson is an experienced system and software development engineer, well versed in managing and leading teams involved in large complex projects.  She has a proven track record of developing and delivering process and software tool related training.  Marcia served as Director/Vice President of Professional Services at Telelogic prior to joining the other partners at QLS.  She was instrumental in organizing and streamlining the organization into a vital revenue producer.  Since joining QLS, Marcia has been the driving force behind the creation of a requirements management methodology process and training.

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Performance Test Monitoring - For Free!
Jack R. Frank, Mosaic, Inc.

Track 4:  10:15 - 11:15

Performance testers know that testing is usually 25% execution and 75% analysis.  Extremely complex systems may have a ratio as high as 1% to 99%.  To be successful, a performance tester must have the monitors and machinery in place to capture relevant data during the test execution.  Tools must then be available to extract and analyze that data once it has been captured.  Performance monitoring and analysis tools are part of many vendors' performance utility offerings and are also included with application platforms such as Websphere and .Net, but there are often limits to their flexibility and granularity.  Readily available open source and built-in system tools can be used to overcome these limitations, reducing analysis time and providing effective results at a minimal cost.  Join Jack to learn how built-in operating system and open source utilities can be used to gather, process, and present meaningful performance metrics.  Examples will include gathering CPU, Network, Memory, and Database timings to meet your project demands.

About the speaker...
Jack Frank is a Managing Consultant with Mosaic, Inc.; a Chicago based consulting company specializing in software risk management services.  As head of Mosaic's Test Automation Practice, Jack specializes in development, implementation, and long-term maintenance of automated test tool strategies for both functional and performance testing.  Jack also conducts software risk assessments and test strategy planning, manages the construction of test environments, and has managed the complete manual and automated testing process for dozens of projects.  Prior to joining Mosaic, Jack spent 13 years at a leading manufacturer of personal computers in the role of Director, Application Software.  There he led the development and testing of hundreds of applications as well as operating systems and firmware.

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THURSDAY, MAY 1 - AFTERNOON

Increase ICT Project Success with Concrete Scope Management
Carol Dekkers, Quality Plus Technologies, Inc. &
Pekka Forselius, 4SUM Partners

Track 1:  1:30 - 2:30

With the Standish Group's CHAOS report proclaiming Information and Communications Technology (ICT) project success on a mere one-third of projects, project managers have an obligation worldwide to gain control of the situation.  Through concrete scope management processes, ICT project managers can learn and embrace proven approaches that measure the size of software projects, streamline the requirements articulation and management, and impose solid change management controls to keep projects on time and on budget.  Scope management is not rocket science, however, with two-thirds of the world's ICT projects deemed as failures, it is apparent that managing scope is not a natural byproduct of project management.  Learn approaches and tips used in Europe, Australia, and North America that have dramatically increased the success on ICT projects by trained scope managers.

About the speakers...
Carol Dekkers is President of Quality Plus Technologies, Inc., and a partner in 4SUM Partners. Carol is a past president of the International Function Point Users Group, a technical advisor to the International Software Benchmarking Standards Group, and a delegate to ISO's SC7 (Software and Systems Engineering) committee.  Carol's professional designations include Project Management Professional, Certified Management Consultant, Certified Function Point Specialist, and Professional Engineer (Canada).  Carol's international speaking experience spans more than 25 countries and topics including software measurement, global software development, and the value of SCOPE Management.  She is co-author of three books, Practical Software Measurement: Advice from the Expert; Practical Project Estimation, 2nd Edition; and Fundamental Concepts for the Software Quality Engineer, Volume 2.

Pekka Forselius is CEO of 4SUM Partners and President (2008) of the International Software Benchmarking Standards Group.  Pekka developed the Experience Pro data-collection concept and is the product manager of Experience Pro software.  He is also a developer of FiSMA Scope Management and KISS Functional Sizing.  A research associate at INSEAD and University of Brunel, he specializes in organizational learning.  A MSc in informatics and an executive MBA from the University of Jyvskyl, Pekka is the primary representative of the national body of Finland to the ISO/IEC JTC1/SC7 standardization working group WG12, Functional Size Measurement; Vice President of the international benchmarking organization; and a member of the executive committee of the COSMIC consortium.  Pekka has co-authored three books: Tivi-projektien Johtaminen (ICT Project Management, TTL), Practical Project Estimation, 2nd Edition, and Applied Statistics for Software Managers.

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Monitoring Software Quality with Continuous Integration
Andrew Glover, Stelligent Incorporated

Track 2:  1:30 - 2:30

The practice of continuous integration facilitates early visibility into the development process by regularly conducting software builds.  This exercise integrates disparate software pieces earlier rather than later, which often minimizes the time interval between the coding and discovery of a software defect.  Given the automated nature of continuous integration spawned builds, software teams can now start to look at their build procedure as something more useful than a simple compile and test process. Builds can be augmented with a series of software inspectors.  These automated inspectors report on various aspects of software quality, such as code complexity, code duplication, and code dependences to name a few.  In this presentation, you will learn about the practice of continuous integration and the available CI tools for Java and the .NET platform.  Software inspectors will be examined and you will learn how to interpret the data they provide and how to take action based upon that data.

About the speaker...
Andrew Glover is an established expert in automated testing frameworks and tools.  He is the co-author of Java Testing Patterns, Groovy in Action, and Continuous Integration: Improving Software Quality and Reducing Risk.  Articles by Andrew can also be found in multiple online publications including IBM's DeveloperWorks, Dev2Dev, and O'Reilly's ONJava and ONLamp portals.  As President of Stelligent Incorporated, Andrew leads the business and technology strategies for the organization.  He is a frequent presenter at software conferences around the country, as well as, a speaker for the No Fluff Just Stuff Software Symposium group.

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Proactive UAT Makes Users Competent, Confident, and Committed
Robin F. Goldsmith, JD, Go Pro Management, Inc.

Track 3:  1:30-2:30

User Acceptance Testing (UAT) is often a source of consternation.  Despite investing considerable time, too many defects continue to slip though and users increasingly beg off from participating claiming they don't have the time.  Both effects may be a symptom of professional testing's mistaken ideas about the nature and structure of UAT.  Unfortunately, professional testers often misunderstand UAT and impose inappropriate approaches on the users. Together, these factors virtually assure that users will not test the system competently and will not have confidence in their ability to test.  When users are then blamed for defects found later in production, despite having expended considerable effort, it's easy to understand why they may not be enthusiastic about participating in UAT.  This interactive session shows a different, proactive way to structure UAT that creates user commitment because users, in fact, drive the testing in a competent, confidence-building manner.  In this eye-opening presentation, Robin describes truly empowering Proactive Testing techniques that gain user competence, confidence, and cooperation. 

About the speaker...
Robin F. Goldsmith, JD has been President of Go Pro Management, Inc., consultancy since 1982.  He works directly with and trains business and systems professionals in requirements, quality and testing, metrics, ROI, software acquisition, and project and process management.  Previously, he has held development, quality, and lead roles with the City of Cleveland, leading financial institutions, and a "Big 4" consulting firm.  Member of the IEEE Software Test Documentation Std. 829 Revision Committee and formerly International Vice President of the Association for Systems Management and Executive Editor of the Journal of Systems Management, Robin is the author of the Proactive Testing™ methodology and the recent book, Discovering REAL Business Requirements for Software Project Success.  

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Ensuring a Superior User Experience from the First Line of Code
Patrick Lightbody, Gomez, Inc.

Track 4: 1:30 - 2:30

Web 2.0 offers powerful tools for developing rich and complex web applications on an increasingly broad set of vehicles for the end-user experience, including myriad browser versions, mobile devices, OS X, and more.  Unfortunately, developers do not always have the chance to test these applications on every platform their target audience uses, resulting in an end-user experience that is often alarmingly different from expectations.  In this session, Patrick will discuss the importance of planning for the continuous integration of the user experience as part of the application development process.  You will learn simple-to-implement strategies for ensuring a high-quality web experience, regardless of the endpoint, from the first line of code rather than from the first customer complaint.  You will walk away with a plan that outlines how to implement browser profiling and cross-platform functional QA in a way that ensures a consistent and predictable quality end-user experience.

About the speaker...
Patrick Lightbody leads product management for quality assurance solutions and directs open source strategies at Gomez Inc.  Prior to Gomez, Patrick launched Autoriginate, the creator of a hosted QA solution, and managed the professional services team at Jive Software serving customers including Oracle, Sun Microsystems, EMC, and PriceWaterhouse Coopers.  Patrick also serves as the CEO and Chairman of OpenSymphony Group, Inc. and is the founder of OpenQA.  Patrick is a published author.  He has presented at industry conferences, including Software Test & Performance, Emerging Technologies for the Enterprise, JavaOne, OSCON, and The Ajax Experience. Patrick received his bachelor's degree in computer science from the University of California at San Diego.

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FRIDAY, MAY 2

QA Lessons I Learned from Agile
Bill Rinko-Gay, Technisource

Track 1 - 10:150-11:15

In this session, you will learn about the four key elements of the Agile Manifesto and how they apply to process improvement.  Bill will give specific examples of project breakdowns and how those breakdowns are addressed in the Agile Manifesto.  We will discuss how traditional development methods can benefit from this understanding and how the Software Quality Analyst can use the lessons from Agile to improve any project he or she supports.

About the speaker...
Bill Rinko-Gay has over 25 years experience in systems test and software quality assurance.  He has managed security testing for ICSA Labs, test development for PC World Magazine, Competitive Analysis and benchmarking for Compaq, and provided quality assurance and test consulting for Spherion.  Bill holds PMP and CSQA certifications.  Bill began studying Agile methodologies in response to the project management process problems of on of his largest clients.

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The 'Humanics' of Testing in a Flat World
Samson David, Infosys Technologies, Ltd.

Track 2: 10:15 - 11:15

So why exactly are we testing?  What are we testing for?  What is the definition of acceptable quality?  There is no one correct answer to any of these questions.  It actually depends a great deal on context and culture.  There are four mega forces that are "flattening" our world, changing the way we conduct business, and, thereby, how we go about approaching testing.  Although we have "standard" tools, processes, metrics, and training programs, the cross-cultural nuances of testing in a flat world essentially drive the difference between client delight and client disgust.  Understanding these nuances and accounting for them in our test plans is critical.  Yet, this is often ignored in most practices and methodologies.  Samson's discussion will delve into the cross cultural nuances that impact testing in an increasingly "flattening" world.

About the speaker...
Samson is Vice President and Head of Delivery Operations for Communications, Media, and Entertainment at Infosys. He is responsible for a team of over 3,500 people, globally distributed and growing annually at a rate of more than 35%.  In order to meet his responsibilities for revenue, growth, and customer satisfaction, one of Samson's key tasks includes building a high-performing and highly motivated, culturally diverse organization. Today, Samson's team is spread across Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, India, Prague, Germany, the United States, and Canada consisting of people from 15 nationalities!  Samson speaks regularly at international forums.  He has a degree in mechanical engineering and seventeen years of experience in Information Technology.

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Resistance to Change: Understanding and Overcoming This Critical Barrier
Burton Greenberg, Process Management Group, Ltd.

Track 3:  10:15-11:15

The merits of sound IT process and testing disciplines are widely documented and are accompanied by an abundance of metrics.  Although this evidence is widely understood and accepted, the metrics alone are not enough to overcome continued resistance to embracing and implementing the new disciplines.  Individuals and organizations regularly reject discipline and process changes required for effective software development.  In his presentation, Burt will help you recognize the human and cultural characteristics that contribute to common barriers within IT and User organizations.  Barriers discussed focus on human characteristics, not technical issues that prevent the integration of sound processes.  This program is targeted to raise awareness of the barriers and behavioral issues that inhibit implementation of required changes.  The techniques to be presented closely match proven techniques to those used when "marketing" a new service.  

About the speaker...
Burton Greenberg is founder and President of Process Management Group, Ltd. (PMG), an organization dedicated to the implementation and support of IT quality assurance, business analysis and testing.  Burt has worked in the IT field for nearly 35 years holding positions that include Programmer, Business Analyst, Manager and Director of Development.  Burt complemented his technical experience with an MBA from Loyola University.  For over 20 years, he has been devoted to IT quality and testing, founding PMG in 1992.  PMG works effectively with clients to ensure that business goals are satisfied, while establishing practical quality assurance and testing disciplines. 

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Testing for Security Risks in a Web 2.0/SOA World
Billy Hoffman, HP Software

Track 4:  10:15-11:15

Web 2.0, and technologies such as AJAX, SOAP, RSS, and mashups promise to make web applications even more usable.  Web services and service-oriented architectures (SOAs) are becoming more and more the standard for businesses. The increased functionality that these technologies bring also opens a multitude of new attack vectors which promise to change the security landscape.  This presentation will look at the various technologies that define Web 2.0, and discuss the major security issues that need to be addressed when implementing a SOA architecture. You will learn techniques for testing a web service application and how poor coding practices can expose security defects in Web 2.0 applications and SOAs.  You will see real world examples of the exploitation of these technologies for financial gain.  We'll discuss testing for security defects in a Web 2.0 world to help avoid turning these next generation web technologies into a hacker's dream.

About the speaker...
Billy Hoffman is a Lead Security Researcher for HP Software where he focuses on automated discovery of Web application vulnerabilities and crawling technologies.   Billy has been a guest speaker at many technology conferences.  His work has been featured in Wired, Make magazine, Slashdot, G4TechTV, and in various other journals and Web sites.  Topics have included reverse engineering law and techniques, ATMs, XM Radio, and magstripe projects.   In addition, Billy reviews white papers for the Web Application Security Consortium (WASC), and is a creator of Stripe Snoop, a suite of magstripe research tools. Billy recently co-authored a book on AJAX Security.


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