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| QUEST Chicago 2008 |
Last updated: 05/05/2009 |
Managing Interative Software Projects Track 1: 2:30 - 4:00 Most corporations are still fairly traditionally structured even though many software development teams are heading full steam into modern, highly iterative, agile software development techniques. This leaves management coping with an organizational and technical paradigm shift that traditional project management practices are inadequate to handle. In the highly iterative, fast-paced environment characteristic of these modern software development projects, traditional approaches to budgeting, testing, quality assurance, requirements gathering, scheduling, and estimating break down. Managers trying to encourage best practices as recommended by CMMI and SPICE find themselves at odds with developers trying to adopt best practices as recommended by the agile manifesto. This workshop will explore practical ways to adapt the formal, heavy weight, process control inherent in CMMI recommendations to the lighter weight, more flexible practices of agile development, yielding a productive quasi-agile development environment. About the workshop leader... The Business Value of Measurements Track 2: 2:30 - 4:00 The impact of measures and metrics is dependent on how closely they are linked to an organization’s business goals and strategy. The closer the linkage, the higher the probability that value will be derived. This workshop provides a measurement roadmap, based on real life experiences, to start you down the right path to measurement success. You will learn what to do and what not to do when starting or improving your measurement program. You will hear about defining goals, project information, and key measures. Finally, you will learn how to map these items back to your business goals. This workshop will also provide the opportunity to practice what you have learned through a structured group activity. About the Instructor... The Agile Game: An Experiential Workshop Track 3: 2:30 - 4:00 You've read about agile, heard about agile, and your company is probably using it in some form by now. Here's your opportunity to experience the rhythm of an agile project in action. Through participation in The Agile/eXtremeProgramming Game, this experiential workshop introduces Agile/XP in a non-threatening, non-technical, and fun way. Attendees will come away with an understanding of many of the best practices used to deliver high-quality software quickly. The workshop provides explanation of and experience in agile practices and concepts including Iterations, stories, roles on an agile team, test-driven development, refactoring, velocity, pair programming, and retrospectives. Experience how the various roles work together as on effective agile team: on-site customer, tester, developer, and business analyst. Learn the basic patterns and practices of agile projects and see how adaptive planning helps to deliver the highest value to the customer. Join Glenn and Michael and play the game! About the workshop leader... Test Planning in a High Paced IT World Track 4: 2:30 - 4:00 Good planning is always the cornerstone for driving long term success in any effort and testing is no different. While at a minimum, a good test plan should cover three core topics - coverage, methods and responsibilities - there are other critical drivers to successful test planning. In today’s high paced and ever changing IT landscape, many organizations often shortchange or struggle with various aspects of the test planning lifecycle. These items include definition of test scope, establishment of a formal test planning methodology, development lifecycle involvement, resource and budget estimates, and design of high quality test plans and scripts. During this workshop you will participate in a series of interactive case studies and exercises to get a better understanding of the best practices frameworks, practical approaches, and key considerations involved with the art and science of the overall test planning process. About the workshop leader... Exploratory Testing: Recording and Reporting Track 5: 2:30 - 4:00 One of the perceived obstacles against using an exploratory testing approach is that exploration is unstructured, unrepeatable, and unaccountable. A look at history, however, demonstrates that this is clearly not the case. Explorers and investigators throughout history have made plans, kept records, written log books, drawn maps, and have used these techniques to report to their sponsors and to the world at large. Skilled exploratory testers use similar approaches to describe observations, record progress, capture new test ideas, and relate the testing and product story to the project community. By focusing on what actually happens, rather than what we hope will happen, exploratory testing records can tell us even more about the product than traditional pre-scripted approaches. Michael invites you on a tour of his exploratory testing notebook and demonstrates more formal approaches to documenting exploratory testing. These techniques can help exploratory testers to demonstrate that testing has been performed diligently, thoroughly, and accountably in a way that gets to the heart of what excellent testing is all about. About the workshop leader...
Inspections and Reviews for Improved Quality Track 1: 2:30 - 4:00 The goals of inspections and reviews are straight forward, that is to deliver software and technology changes that are both safe and effective. Safe, in that they do not break or slow down existing customer or business processes. Effective, in that they deliver what is needed by the customer when it is needed. Inspections and reviews can take many forms. Most organizations emphasize only a few of the possible techniques that are available. Each review and inspection activity can help achieve a specific goal. However, you must weigh the cost of the activity against the benefit you hope to gain or the risk you wish to mitigate. This workshop will examine the various forms of reviews and inspections, the pros and cons of each, the logistics of performing the activities, ways to measure their effectiveness, and methods for “right-sizing” your own review and inspection process. About the workshop leader… The 4 T's of Test Automation: Your Planning Guide to Success Workshop Track 3: 2:30 - 4:00 Many companies jump into test automation with visions of increased test coverage, decreased execution time, and easy maintenance. However, the reality is that test automation projects often fail due to lack of strategy and planning. The key to successful test automation strategy and planning is rooted in the 4 T's of Test Automation: Technology, Test Cases, Talent, and Timeline. Essentially, organizations must consider the compatibility of the automation tools and the technology they want to test, the content and relevance of the test cases to automation, skill sets needed to implement and maintain automation, and finally, the time it takes to properly implement a solid automation foundation. In David's workshop, through discussion and interactive activities, you will learn the intricacies of the 4 T's of automation so that you can leverage this understanding to enhance your own testing automation efforts. About the workshop leader... Applying Test-Driven Development Methodologies to Regression Testing Track 4: 2:30 - 4:00 Last year you heard about and studied agile development, test-driven development, and risk-based test design approaches here at QUEST. In this success story, Kent will explain how he took the methodologies that he learned at last April’s QUEST and initiated a teaming approach between his QA department and two application support teams. The teams were tutored in test driven development and risk-based test design methodologies and then these techniques were implemented as part of their software defect and enhancement resolution, regression testing, and closure processes. The results? A 67% improvement in the rate of software defect and enhancement resolution and closure during the last seven months. Learn how Kent did it by attending this informative session where he will discuss his collaboration methods with the development staff, a group that is traditionally reluctant to team with QA. About the workshop leader... Addressing Performance Throughout the Life Cycle Track 5: 2:30 - 4:00 Performance testing is traditionally an end-of-lifecycle exercise aimed at ensuring an application’s performance once it is deployed into a production environment. Unfortunately, this exercise does not always go as smoothly as planned. It may not even provide all the necessary information to make an informed decision as to whether the application is “ready” for deployment. In this workshop, Mike will focus on best practices for those looking to implement performance testing throughout the software development life cycle. Topics will include performance related requirements and the importance of identifying those requirements early, test planning and the determination of whether the application is in a state ready to be performance tested, the importance of data management, and collecting and analyzing results both during and after the test. After attending this workshop, you will have a better understanding of how performance testing can be implemented earlier in your own organization’s software development life cycle in order to increase application quality and avoid costly performance testing issues. Out of Cope? A Stress Management Workshop Track 1: 1:00 - 3:00 Stress is a familiar and frequent component of every technology professional's work experience. Stress can be a creative force, or a negative and destructive force. This workshop presents knowledge and skills to help technology professionals at all levels maximize the energizing and creative forces of stress while reducing its destructive effects. Identify and assess your unique stress response patterns. Choose your battles - explore techniques for proactively changing those stressors that can be changed while coping more effectively with those that cannot. Learn and practice physical and cognitive stress reduction techniques. Become more energetic, enthusiastic, and effective professionally and personally by managing stress before it manages you! It is "life saving" to understand stress - its causes, physiology, psychology, and symptoms. About the workshop leader ... Designing an Excellent IT Process Improvement Program Track 2: 1:00 - 3:00 Excellent business organizations require highly effective and efficient IT organizations. Excellent IT organizations require processes based on "best practices." Implementing best practice processes can appear overwhelming for many IT organizations. As a result, the IT organization appears ineffective and inefficient. This workshop presents a process improvement framework to assist you in understanding process improvement best practice IT process frameworks and how they relate to IT performance. Larry will take you through a step-by-step organizational change management approach to design and implement process improvements. During the workshop you will do a self-assessment to determine your organization's readiness for embarking on a process improvement program. You will also participate in exercises to identify the core processes necessary to your organization. About the workshop leader... Test Automation Frameworks Workshop Track 3: 1:00 - 3:00 This workshop features valuable lessons and live demonstrations of a sample test automation framework. You will begin with five common pitfalls encountered in test automation, taken directly from a real-life case study. Issues include low stakeholder buy-in, overwhelming code maintenance, and the "100% automation" mandate. Each is presented with its consequences, balanced with mediation suggestions. Challenges will be identified as will lifelines needed to avert disaster. A simplified 3-step formula to quantify a project's estimated return on investment will be discussed and coding standards to improve readability and reduce maintenance will be covered. You will learn about some "Tools of the Trade" in test automation including recommended website resources. Finally, unique applications of an automation framework will be demonstrated. Paul will discuss the advantages of project preparation, metrics tracking, and new approaches to test automation. Beginning, experienced, and advanced testers will all benefit from attendance at this workshop. About the workshop leader...
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