Half-Day Tutorials: Tuesday, April 20th
Rowing Together through Effective Communication
Lynn McKee and Nancy Kelln, Integritas Solutions Inc.
Track 1: 8:30-12:00
Communication between project managers and testers can be challenging, even on the best projects. Project managers often comment on the “noise” created by testers, while testers respond that they are frequently frustrated by their communication with project managers. Human nature, partnered with differences in goals, expectations, and accountabilities, plays a pivotal role in the communication breakdown. This workshop will focus on bridging the communication gap by assisting project managers to recognize and decipher key information provided by testers. Testers will also be helped to understand how to effectively communicate the needs, concerns, and progress of the testing effort thus ensuring project managers and stakeholders make informed decisions. Participants will engage in role playing scenarios to provide practice in the application of the concepts presented.
- Share concerns expressed by project managers over communications with testers
- Gain insights into the frustration felt by testers in their efforts to ensure the needs, concerns and progress of the test effort are understood and acted upon
- Learn practical methods for aligning the goals, expectations, and accountabilities
About the instructors...
Lynn McKee is an independent consultant with 14 years experience in the IT industry and a passion for coaching and leading high performing software testing teams. Working with small to enterprise scale companies, Lynn focuses on ensuring test teams are high value with effective, adaptive, and scalable approaches. She has facilitated numerous workshops and presentations both locally and internationally. Lynn is an active member of the Calgary Software Quality Discussion Group, Association for Software Testing, Agile Alliance and has co-founded the Calgary Perspectives on Software Testing Workshop (POST) with Nancy Kelln.
Nancy Kelln is an independent consultant with 12 years of diverse experience within the IT industry. Nancy is motivated by working with teams who are implementing or enhancing their testing practices; providing adaptive testing approaches in both agile and traditional testing teams. She has coached test teams in various environments and facilitated numerous local and international workshops and presentations. She is an active member of the Calgary Software Quality Discussion Group, Association for Software Testing and the Scrum Alliance and has co-founded the Calgary Perspectives on Software Testing Workshop (POST) with Lynn McKee. Nancy has also been published in the Software Test and Performance Magazine.
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Risk Management for Testers
Linda Westfall, The Westfall Team
Track 2: 8:30-12:00
Attend this tutorial for in-depth information and practical skill development on using risk management based techniques to aid in determining testing strategies, design, execution, and evaluation. You will be provided with an overview of risk management basics. These include definitions of risk management terminology, the importance of software risk management, the different types of software risks, and the introduction of the risk management process. You will learn how to use various techniques for identifying and communicating testing related project and product risk. You will then learn to analyze the identified risks through exploring the risk context, estimating risk probabilities and impacts, and calculating risk exposure. A variety of risk handling techniques will be discussed as well as defining risk plans for testing processes and test design. Finally, the implementation of risk handling actions will be covered, ending with the use reviews and metrics to track software testing risks.
- Understand the basic terminology and techniques of software risk management
- Learn to Identify, analyze and prioritize testing related project risks
- Discover how to use risk management techniques to determine testing strategies, design, execution, and evaluation
About the instructor...
Linda Westfall is the President of The Westfall Team, which provides software engineering, quality, and project management training and consulting services. Prior to starting her own business, Linda was the Senior Manager of Quality Metrics and Analysis at DSC Communications. She has more than thirty years of experience in real time software engineering, quality, project management process engineering, and metrics. Linda is a past chair of the ASQ Software Division and has served as the Division’s Program Chair and Certification Chair and on the ASQ National Certification Board. Linda is an ASQ Fellow and has a PE in Software Engineering from the State of Texas. Linda is the author of The Certified Software Quality Engineer Handbook.
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Peer Reviews: Made More Feasible in Today's Environment
Clyneice Chaney, Quality Squared
Track 3: 8:30-12:00
Software reviews have been shown, both in studies and through empirical evidence “in the wild,” to be the single most effective technique for reducing the level of defects in delivered systems. They are considered a best industry practice for detecting software defects early and learning about software artifacts. However, many organizations fail to use them, or fail in how they are implemented. Sill others believe that they are too time intensive to be of value in today’s fast paced market. What can be done to make this best practice feasible in more organizations? This tutorial provides an interactive discussion of key considerations that make the use of software reviews more viable in today’s high speed organizations. You will discuss the variety of options possible under the term “software reviews.” examining when they are best used, practical considerations for implementation, and key automation factors.
- Examine factors that derail software review implementation
- Learn how to develop a strategy for resistance
- Explore implementation and institutionalization issues as well as the issues of automation and reviews
About the instructor...
Clyneice Chaney has 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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Service-Based Testing Essentials
Chris Kraus, iTKO, Inc.
Track 4: 8:30-12:00
Clearly the bulk of enterprise development is happening in the area of Service-Orientation. The promise of flexibly created by assembling applications from services and components at runtime offers significant business agility and cost advantages. At the same time, however, these distributed applications create an exponential increase in potential points of failure. To address this, the whole team must be ready to test continuously at a services level. In this tutorial, attendees will learn how to test service components very early in the development cycle. Testing at the service level requires tighter teamwork between QA and development, and organizational approaches to achieving “pair programming” will be tackled. Classic approaches of data-driven, white-box, and black-box testing are still applicable at certain phases of SOA development, and these methods will be discussed along with newer test methods in the context of the overall lifecycle. As the composite application is often a continuous work in process, techniques for maintaining test continuity between unit, functional, system, load, and monitoring activities will also be presented.
- Understand how to identify environments where service based testing is appropriate
- Explore customer examples of service testing projects
- Learn techniques for testing services incorporating websites and data validation
About the instructor...
Chris Kraus is an expert testing and architecture strategist with a 17 year background in software development, product management, and sales support. As Product Manager for iTKO's LISA SOA Testing software suite, Chris is responsible for refining LISA features to meet customer quality needs throughout the lifecycle. Chris was previously a retail and manufacturing industry manager at webMethods, overseeing requirements, customer presales, and training. At supply chain software provider i2 Technologies, he worked in the infrastructure group with responsibility for the release of business process, workflow, and monitoring engines. At Software AG, Chris specialized in cross platform product installation and administration.
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Making EVM Work for Testing Projects
Kiran Kumar S N, Infosys Technologies, Ltd.
Track 5: 8:30-12:00
Failures are the stepping stones to success. This may be true in day to day life, but, in managing projects, we need to get everything right the very first time. To achieve this, Earned Value Management (EVM), a proven project management technique, is frequently used on many projects. EVM has the unique ability to combine measurements of scope, schedule, and cost in a single integrated system. Hence, when properly applied, EVM provides an early warning of performance problems allowing sufficient time for corrective actions. The availability of off-the-shelf tools has made it easy to implement EVM. Unfortunately, applying a technique and applying it "successfully" are not the same things. Often, the incorrect use of EVM results in unreliable metrics and information required for taking corrective actions is not available. In this tutorial, you will receive an overview of EVM technique and associated fundamental terms. The why and where of normal errors that occur in implementing EVM for testing tasks will be demystified. Finally, you will learn how to apply EVM correctly in each phase of software testing life cycle.
- Understand EVM and how to apply it successfully in testing projects
- Delve into the common mistakes made while implementing EVM
- Know when EVM should not be applied
About the instructor...
Kiran Kumar S N is a Test Manager with the Independent Validation Solutions group at Infosys Technologies Ltd. He has seven years of experience in quality assurance and has been involved in managing large QA engagements with major institutions in North America. In the last three years, two of Kiran’s projects have been awarded the "Best Managed Project" award within Infosys. He completed his Bachelor of Electronics Engineering at Visvesvaraya Technology University. Kiran is a QAI Certified Test Engineer.
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Leadership Power Tools for Quality Managers
Rebecca Staton-Reinstein, PhD, Advantage Leadership, Inc.
Track 1: 1:00-4:30
Get the results your management demands while creating “joy in work,” Dr. W. Edwards Deming’s hallmark measure of leadership. Apply the five essential ‘power tools’ of successful leadership and management to build a high-performance team of engaged employees. This hands-on workshop will provide you the opportunity to lock in your learning and leave with an action plan to implement on the job and measure your own success. This tutorial has been developed specifically for IT technical professionals and managers who are leaders and members of software project teams.
- Learn how strategic planning gets better results than fire fighting
- Understand that delegation is a science not an art
- Find that successful motivation requires observation and communication
About the instructor...
As President of Advantage Leadership, Inc., Rebecca Staton-Reinstein, Ph.D., CSQA, works with companies to improve the quality and productivity of software-related efforts. She helps IT organizations assess the current situation and create strategic plans to engineer successful processes, establish business-oriented measurement, and improve bottom-line results. She works with both technical and managerial staff to discover hidden costs and demonstrate ROI. Rebecca has successfully established three QA organizations; she has an international client base, and is the author of books on improving software quality and strategic planning including Get Great Requirements, The Hard Job of Making Software Work: Building the QA Function Step-by-Step, Success Planning: A 'How-To' Guide for Strategic Planning, and Conventional Wisdom: How Today's Leaders Plan, Perform, and Progress Like the Founding Fathers.
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Effective Implementation Techniques for Performance Testing
Michael Lawler, NueVista Group
Track 2: 1:00-4:30
What is required to successfully integrate performance testing into your organization? Rigorous performance testing of your critical applications will help to identify and correct system bottlenecks before going to production. This results in a more stable system with less production downtime. The goal of performance testing is to identify and resolve infrastructure issues. As an additional benefit, performance testing can also provide the opportunity to identify defects otherwise impossible to detect with functional testing alone. Performance testing can be very expensive, though, without an effective approach. Case studies from several successful performance testing efforts will be explored in this session. You will learn to recognize the potential pitfalls of performance testing in your organization and you will examine possible options to ensure effective performance tests. Areas discussed will include the performance testing environment, test planning, automated tool application, test execution, and results analysis.
- Explore the benefits of a properly performed performance test
- Understand the basic elements of the performance test
- Learn how to design, execute, and measure an effective performance test
About the instructor...
Michael Lawler is a senior consultant at NueVista Group. He has been involved in information technology management within the service industry for over 25 years with responsibilities at national, regional, and local levels. Over the last ten years, he has focused on the area of software quality. Throughout his career, Michael has developed and mentored responsive teams who work creatively to solve internal and client related challenges. He is an effective communicator who works toward solutions in a creative manner delivering multiple benefits to a variety of industries and organizations. Mr. Lawler has also managed relationships and partnerships with several international vendors on behalf of clients and corporate entities.
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Continuous Integration Framework: Moving Product Quickly to Market
Matthew D. Edwards, Ajilus
Track 3: 1:00-4:30
Using an interactive conversational format, Matthew will lead you through the notion of “continuous” as it relates to software development and provide real-life examples of how machine time is time saved. Current thinking on continuous integration will be surveyed. Information will be presented on its importance to the successful project and how the concepts may be quickly implemented within an organization. In particular, the idea of continuous integration/test/inspect/deploy will be defined and illustration given of how it can be used in the timeline of moving product to market quickly. Matthew will provide examples of the types of activities that make sense to attach to a continuous framework such as inspection, function testing, regression testing, performance testing, database testing, and unit testing -- and how they only provide value when tests exist and tests work. Join Matthew and learn about focusing on the fundamentals, discovering and serving the customer's needs, and working diligently to add discernible, tangible value.
- Learn what continuous integration/frameworks are and why they matter
- Discover what types of activities are usefully attached to a continuous framework
- Explore real-life examples of what has worked and hasn’t in XP practitioner environments
About the instructor...
Matthew Edwards is co-founder of Ajilus where he works as a software consultant. Previously, Matthew was CIO of GeoLearning, an e-learning software engineering firm. There, his responsibilities included oversight of the successful end to end delivery of GeoLearning’s technology solutions. Prior to joining GeoLearning, Matthew was the managing partner and co-founder of a consulting firm focused on moving product to market using agile frameworks. Matthew holds certifications from the Quality Assurance Institute Worldwide in Software Testing (CSTE) and Software Quality Analysis (CSQA), Certified Configuration Manager (CMIIC) from the Institute of Configuration Management, is a Certified Scrum Practitioner (CSP). He completed his master's degree in diplomacy from Norwich University with a focus on war, legislation, and economics. Additionally, Matthew is a published author and speaker.
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Effective Test Planning: Preparing for Success
Shaun Bradshaw, Zengility
Track 4: 1:00-4:30
While many organizations are moving toward more agile based development practices, most test managers and test leads are still asked by upper level management to deliver a test plan explaining what will be tested, how long it will take, and how many people and resources will be required. Unfortunately, the answer, “We'll test as much as we can.” just doesn't work most of the time. In this tutorial, you will walk through the test planning process step by step. You will investigate useful and proven methods for identifying the testing scope, assessing risks that may impact testing, prioritizing test activities, and estimating resources. A review of the common format of the test plan and the important sections of this pre-test execution document will also be included.
- Identify the most important areas of the application to test
- Understand ways to quickly assess the risk of failure associated with various components of the application
- Learn to use a metrics-based method of estimating and scheduling test resources
About the instructor...
Shaun Bradshaw has spent the last 12 years working with a variety of clients to improve their QA and test processes by advising, teaching, and mentoring them on the use of effective testing and test management techniques. He is the co-author, editor, and trainer of a suite of methodologies covering testing, test management, and test metrics. Shaun speaks at many of the major industry conferences and is well-known for his presentations on test metrics, the S-Curve, and the Zero Bug Bounce. Shaun is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro with a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems.
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Scope Management: 12 Steps to Project Recovery
Carol Dekkers, Quality Plus Technologies, Inc.
Track 5: 1:00-4:30
With the Standish group’s 2009 CHAOS report proclaiming success on less than one-third of software projects, QA professionals are in a unique position to provide assistance. The reasons for project failure are not surprising, lack of requirements completeness, lack of change management, and user noninvolvement. Quality Assurance specialists can contribute positively to these issues and many can be addressed through project scope management. Work underway on scope management in both Europe and Australia has met with remarkable success, creating a new project role, that of scope manager. As a part time project participant, independent of the project team, a scope manager facilitates projects from the onset to increase customer advocacy, maintain schedule and budget, and manage and measure project scope. Come and learn how proven scope management approaches used in Europe, Australia, and North America can enhance your effectiveness as a quality assurance manager and increase the success of your company’s projects.
- Understand the unique challenges of software and systems development projects
- Identify how scope management can provide process improvement and business opportunities in your organization
- Apply scope management tips and techniques to increase the quality of your projects
About the instructor...
Carol Dekkers is founder and President of Quality Plus Technologies, Inc., and a Certified Scope Manager (CSM). She is an international technology consultant who provides expertise to global corporations in the areas of globalization, communication and culture, software and systems measurement, quality and process improvement. Carol was named one of 21 new voices of quality for the 21st century by ASQ’s Quality Progress. Since 1994, she has been a delegate to ISO's Software and Systems Engineering committee. Her professional designations include Project Management Professional, Certified Management Consultant, Certified Function Point Specialist, and Professional Engineer (Canada). Her international speaking experience spans more than 25 countries and she is co-author of The IT Measurement Compendium: Benchmarking and Estimating Success with Functional Size Measurement and Program Management TOOLKIT for Software and Systems Development.
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