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When You Arrive
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Workshops & Panel
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Driving Savings in Testing: Where to Look Track 1: 1:30 - 2:30 Driving costs out of testing without sacrificing quality can be a tough balancing act. To effectively identify potential savings opportunities, you will need to approach the search from many different angles. You must be able to identify improvement areas within all the various testing phases. A key deliverable to assist in that identification is a definition of your savings strategy with high-level goals such as: simplification, organization consolidation, sourcing strategies, and automation. This highly interactive presentation will provide you with a reusable framework for identification of cost savings and instruction on how to efficiently organize that effort. You will also learn of potential roadblocks and issues that you may encounter on this journey and you will be introduced to a "real life" example including the results that were achieved. About the speaker... Using Test Planning to Guide Your Project Delivery Track 2: 1:30 - 2:30 In the current software development environment, many companies are anxious to "go faster." They argue that traditional waterfall development methodology is too slow and inflexible to meet the needs of today's business cycles. Join Brian as he explores a case study of one project where the test planning process provided a solution to this complex software development dilemma. Brian will review a project that used iterative deployments of code in a structured waterfall environment to balance quality with overall delivery speed. He will describe the role that test planning played in determining the final approach, the steps used to derive the solution, and the organizational structure and processes of the Enterprise Test Management department. The results are proof that test teams and good test planning can influence the entire delivery process. About the speaker... Defect Management, Tracking and Metrics Methodologies Track 3: 1:30 - 2:30 Ever wonder what happened to a defect after it was logged? Who's looking at it? Whose responsibility is it? What do they do with it when they're done? Who does what and when do they do it? How is this process controlled? Do you ever ask yourself these questions? This session will not only give you answers to all these questions, but it will also discuss the challenges that Aspen Marketing Services faced prior to implementing a defect management, tracking, and metrics process. You will hear how this process has helped increase communications and decrease the turnaround time required to resolve a defect. Sharon will also show you how to use the results produced from this process for tracking test metrics, statistics, and trends across projects. About the speaker... Test Automation Bottom Line: Initiating, Maintaining, and Showing the Benefits Track 4: 1:30 - 2:30 Test Managers need to be on a constant search for improvement. Test automation is one way to improve, but how should it be managed to ensure success? First, success in functional test automation requires a constant eye for return on investment (ROI). It is imperative to understand when to automate, how to identify success factors, what the investment considerations should be, and how to select an effective architecture. Many automation projects fail due to high maintenance costs and the project's inability to show the benefits, both tangible and intangible. To effectively implement a functional automation initiative, you need to approach automation with project governance, costs, benefits, metrics, and flexible, reusable, low maintenance architecture in mind. Shalla's presentation will include a discussion of her personal experiences. She will show you how to measure the tangibles and intangibles and how to calculate ROI. You will learn techniques to gain the support of your senior management to invest in automated testing that will benefit the entire organization. About the speaker... Focused Process Improvements at Solution Testing Services Track 1: 11:30 - 12:30 In December, 2004, TransUnion's Solution Testing Services department initiated a focused process improvements initiative in partnership with Capgemini. This initiative was undertaken to ensure that testing services were aligned with business goals, were predictable, and were being delivered in the most effective and efficient manner possible. TransUnion wanted testing processes that were practical, flexible, and extremely comprehensive. In this session you will learn why TransUnion started this program, what they did, how they did it, what challenges they faced, how much effort went into the project, and how they ensured sustainability of results. Pat and Pavan will also discuss what the team would do differently if they were just beginning to implement this initiative today. You will learn about the current status of the project, some of the best practices deployed, and the qualitative and quantitative benefits TransUnion is reaping today. Come hear about this initiative from the point of view of both the corporate practitioner and the consultant partner who were responsible for its success. About the speakers... Pat O'Donnell, CST is a Director on the Solution Testing Services Team at TransUnion. Pat not only manages teams of software testers, she also leads quality assurance activities such as the initiation, standardization, and enforcement of TCoE (Testing Center of Excellence) processes across TransUnion. Pat specializes in the areas of Test Management, Test Process Improvement, and Quality Assurance with over fifteen years of experience in the software testing industry. She holds a bachelor's degree in psychology and a master's degree in business administration. Release Management: Entrance Control and Quality Gates Track 2: 11:30 - 12:30 The Nationwide Corporate Internet team supports Nationwide Bank, Nationwide Insurance, and Nationwide Finance. With such a broad range of demands on a single group, the team has found it beneficial to develop processes that clearly show the role of release management in their environment, thereby providing both their clients and themselves with step by step instructions to limit confusion and achieve results. The defined procedures start slightly after project initiation and run through post implementation support. These processes are used to support applications that have regular release schedules as well as special releases. Examples of work products that come out of this process include project entrance form, configuration management timelines and expectations, entrance and exit criteria, and implementation plans. This process includes defect, resource, demand, and configuration management as well as release management meetings and lessons learned sessions. While this scope may be too large for many companies, selected parts of the process will be useful to any company's release and quality practices. About the speaker... Compliance Testing of Non-Functional Requirements at SAP Track 3: 11:30 - 12:30 The ISO 9126 Software Quality Model outlines six quality characteristics and has been one of the major components in defining the sixteen SAP Product Standards. These standards enable us to translate non-functional customer requirements such as usability, performance, maintainability, security, and open source into all our products. They define a common understanding of recurrent functional and non-functional characteristics and overall quality criteria requested by the market. SAP Product Standard Requirements are a mandatory part of our software requirements specifications. Typical examples for compliance criteria that are defined for each requirement are: execution of test cases (manual or automated), static and/or dynamic code checks, code reviews, and formal approvals. Based on the development workbench used, different compliance criteria can apply for the same requirement. Join Martina as she explains the rigorous quality model used by SAP AG to ensure the excellence of their software product. About the speaker... Building a Performance Test Center of Excellence Track 4: 11:30 - 12:30 The challenge of delivering dependable products and services is heavily contingent on reliable systems and hardware supporting the business processes. As companies continue to press IT to provide greater levels of service with fewer resources, the use of shared hardware and activities aimed at maximizing the throughput of current hardware will increase. What are the upper limits of concurrent users and transaction load levels for existing infrastructure? Based on growth projections, how much time do we have before adding hardware or increasing capacity? How are resources currently allocated? These questions can easily be answered using the performance test automation tools available in today's marketplace. Brian's presentation will cover a practical approach to building a performance test service offering from a "lessons learned" perspective. Brian will focus on the technical and process related considerations that must be addressed in order to build a successful performance test offering. Finally, Brian will look at the criteria that separate a performance test "service offering" from a true "Center of Excellence." About the speaker... Integrating Quality Assurance within an ERP Implementation Track 1: 3:00 - 4:00 "Quality Assurance" is a term that is often mentioned when implementing custom code or Department of Defense software. But, what does the concept really mean when you are implementing an ERP system? Is it the same as when it is applied to the implementation of customized software? How do the custom pieces of code for reports, interfaces, conversions, and extensions fit in? How do you implement quality assurance for an ERP and what does the quality control piece, testing, really look like? This presentation will tell the story of how USG implemented our ERP and how QA and testing were integrated into this implementation. Lynn will discuss the pre-requisites for testing, the tools that were used, and the issues that were encountered. About the speaker... Model-Based Testing: An Industrial View Track 2: 3:00 - 4:00 Over the past years, tools and processes have helped programmers to raise productivity creating software systems. This fact has increased the pressure on integration/system testing phases, which are often perceived as bottlenecks to the delivery of software products. Testers also need to dramatically improve productivity. Model-based testing (MBT) is one way to do it. Basically, MBT aims to automatically generate test cases, in whole or in part, from models. Typically, those models describe some (usually functional) aspects of the system under test. Siemens Corporate Research has actively researched solutions for applying MBT in a Siemens industrial context. This talk describes aspects of this research, such as types of models used, the roles of those models in test generation, and the basic generation process. Furthermore, Marlon will present data from case studies within Siemens and experiences on applying MBT in practice. About the speaker... Regression Testing: The Essentials Track 3: 3:00 - 4:00 You are responsible for testing the application and the demand for quality is high. You need to ensure not only that the new functionality is adequately tested, but that existing functionality is not negatively impacted. You are now confronted with the question: Do I regression test or not? If the answer is yes, you are then faced with a multitude of questions. What exactly is regression testing? What resources do I need in order to be successful at regression testing? How can I justify the cost of regression testing? Join Deakon in his examination of the who, what, when, where, why, and how of regression testing. You will learn how to organize a regression test team, how to get funding for that team and their work, and what methods you can use to save the organization money during the regression testing phase. About the speaker... Usability: What You Need to Know to Begin Testing NOW Track 4: 3:00 - 4:00 Often testers believe they need an elaborate set up to begin usability testing. Not so! Usability testing is a powerful testing technique that is completely within the reach of every project. It can start with a minimum of resources and prove to be a useful and cost-effective tool. In this session, you will learn the value of usability testing and when to conduct it. You will also learn how to get started in usability testing with the least amount of set up, prepare and conduct tests using proven techniques, draw meaningful conclusions from the data, and report the results to a variety of different audiences. In addition to measuring standard usability items such as completion time and success rate, you will also learn how to reduce the risk of repetitive strain injury by measuring computing ergonomics data such as mouse clicks and movement. Join Susan as she introduces you to the practice of usability testing. About the speaker... Maximize Integrated Team Effectiveness: An Offshore Model That Works Track 2: 11:30 - 12:30 It is often difficult to fully integrate teams that work in the same building with each other, how much more so when they work in entirely different countries. USG effectively managed to integrate their offshore and local test teams in order to provide testing support of a major ERP implementation and subsequent regular software releases. In her presentation, Brook will describe how the team has evolved over the course of three years. She will provide real examples that demonstrate how USG established a strategy for selecting work to be completed locally versus offshore, how they build management capabilities both locally and offshore, and how the offshore team is integrated with the local test team, local developers, and local functional users. Brook will discuss how USG builds the technical capabilities of the offshore team and leverages the strengths of each team and finally how a culture of continuous improvement is established that encourages team member growth and reduces the risk of turn-over. About the speaker... Team Dynamics in IT: How a Team Mindset Can Make You More Effective Track 3: 11:30 - 12:30 As IT quality and software testing professionals, you are experts at WHAT you do - ensuring applications are thoroughly tested and effectively implemented to provide the end user with a quality product. The focus of this session on teaming skills and tools is HOW you approach your work. How do you get a team started? How do you know what to expect of other team members and what should they expect of you? How do you work with the applications development team to ensure you are involved early in the project? How do you communicate with the end users to ensure their needs are met? How do you do know when a team isn't working well and how do you fix it? Essential team tools will be shared that can be used by your project team, work team, IT department, and end users to help you define team goals, roles, and processes that will minimize conflicts and promote success. Examples will be given of how these team tools have been applied in different companies and with different IT groups. About the speaker... Test Data Privatization: A Real-World Case Study Track 4: 11:30 - 12:30 To create useful, effective test data, many companies copy unaltered production data into test. However, this creates a security hole. Solid procedures and strong access controls protect live data, but test areas tend to have less robust protection. Although existing privacy laws do not directly address test data, moving non-public, personal information into test creates legal concerns. How long until a high-profile breach involving use of production-copy test data occurs? In today's privacy-conscious climate, this will almost certainly bring such practices under scrutiny for compliance to HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, or another privacy-related law. Starting an initiative to safeguard test data can be a daunting task. Can currently owned tools and processes meet the need? If not, should you buy versus building in-house? Can ROI be demonstrated? This session will provide an in-depth look at these issues as an actual privatization project is evaluated conception through implementation. Topics covered include: demonstrating need, the importance of management buy-in, screening vendors, implementation, and long-term commitment. About the speakers...
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