Wednesday Morning Sessions (7:00 - 11:00 AM)

Keynote Presentation (8:30 - 9:45 AM)

Development and Testing Lifecycles for eCommerce Projects
Thomas McCabe

Concepts:

The new, growing, and changing forms of electronic business have demanded a radical change to our notion of the software lifecycle. In addition to dealing with the usual software development issues managers of Web businesses are now faced with numerous requests and changes from many diverse domains (i.e., software development, content development, advertisements, news, announcements, message boards, database, related links, FAQ's, prices, products).  These Web domains are different in nature, overlap in time, and each requires a distinct lifecycle. This talk will describe groupware coordination of projects, policies, and people within many concurrent e-business domains.

In addition the rate of change has accelerated beyond our classical lifecycles capability and the demands of high quality and low cost are beyond our past capabilities --- how to leverage specific outside tools to meet these demands will be presented. This presentation will focus on a spirit of collaboration and cooperation in Electronic Commerce and compare that with the traditional lifecycles that were characterized by command and control. The synergy of workflow management, knowledge management, and collaboration tools will be applied to the highly volatile e-business environment.

Presentation Outline:

·         Software infrastructure tools for building, testing, and improving an e-business
·         Web request arbitration --- the domains, policies, and automated workflow
·         Project, People, and Policy Collaboration as the backbone
·         Using groupware for the e-business testing challenge

Biography:

Thomas J. McCabe, founder of McCabe & Associates in Columbia, Maryland, is internationally known for his development of software metrics and his leadership in developing methodology and automation that foster the continued improvement of quality in software development, testing and maintenance.   In 1998 he sold his business to venture capitalists and made the transition from scientist to entrepreneur.  He continued to remain closely tied to the company, however not in the day-to-day operations.  In 1999 he was appointed to lead the Washington DC chapter of the Chief Executive Officers (CEO) Club, a group consisting of founders and entrepreneurs.   Additionally he chairs a group of Mentors, this group consists of CEOs who have built, run and sold companies and are in pursuit of their next challenge.  Tom also actively speaks across the country on software development as well as on entrepreneurship.  His newly formed company is McCabe Technologies.

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PSQT Track Presentations (10:00 - 11:00 AM)

Requirements Management:  The Foundation for Successful Software Development
David Locke

Concepts:

This presentation will discuss Requirements Management as an essential tool in the development of applications, even before any code is written. We will take a closer look at the necessity of monitoring the requirements throughout the cycle and the various techniques employed to track these requirements.

Presentation Outline:

• Definition of the e-software paradox- the demand for higher quality products to be brought to market in increasingly shorter development cycles.
• Investigation into the role of requirements management in meeting the demands of today’s software market. Insight will be provided into the most effective ways to manage requirements.
• Perspective into the cost effectiveness of implementing a requirements management process not only at the beginning of the cycle but throughout the cycle.
• Insight into the importance of managing change as a continuation of an effective requirements management program.

Learning Objectives:

• Importance of requirements management in ensuring that the whole team knows the goal and status of the project.
• Value of improving communication between developers, testers and analysts.
• The role of the UML and visual modeling in managing requirements and documenting them in such a way as to be easily understood by all members of the team.
• Description of the usefulness and cost effectiveness of managing requirements before work begins on application development, including Web application development.
• Guidelines for an architectural process to enable requirements management from the beginning of the software development lifecycle and then throughout the application’s lifecycle.

David Locke serves as the Director of Marketing for Requirements Management products, RUP, ClearQuest, and Professional Services at Rational Software where he is responsible for business strategy within these market segments. Mr. Locke is an industry expert on increasing team productivity and the discipline of requirements management. He works with software e-development teams on how to implement requirements-based testing and analysis and how to achieve project success through effective requirements management. Mr. Locke speaks extensively at industry events including Army Testing and Evaluation Conference, Project Management Institute, Quality Week, Star West, and Sybase TechWave. Prior to joining Rational Software, Mr. Locke held various development and marketing positions at XVT Software, a development tools company, and NBI Inc. Before that, Mr. Locke founded a vertical market software company, specializing in back-office legal office automation. Mr. Locke holds a B.S.E.E. in ment, and process improvement. His responsibilities have included creating and implementing software quality assurance programs and quality assurance plans, conducting quality assurance reviews, and providing recommendations to project management and senior management. Nelson is a Certified Software Quality Engineer (CSQE) from the American Society for Quality (ASQ). Nelson holds an MA in Economics from Old Dominion University and a BA in Computer Science from Boston University.

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A Goal-Problem Approach for Scoping a Software Process Improvement Program
Neil Potter

The most common approach for process improvement we have seen over the past ten years, is for an organization to document all processes. This approach is amplified when an organization rushes to adopt a sweeping solution such as ISO9001 or the SEI CMM. In light of a goal stating, "Be SEI CMM Level 3 by December," the approach of documenting all processes is reinforced and might even appear natural. This process-centric approach can work, but it has a high risk of failure. In this presentation, we will explain an approach to scoping an improvement program based on the problems and goals of an organization. By adopting this approach, organizations are able to make significant progress on real issues, and make progress on the process improvement model or standard they are trying to achieve.

• Introduction
• The Problem
• Solution
• Using this approach at a project level
• Three questions that help you scope your improvement effort
• Addressing all of the items in the improvement model or standard being used
• Summary and conclusions

• All process improvement can be meaningful.
• The problems and goals of an organization can help identify which pieces of a process improvement model or standard to work on first. A model or standard can be treated as a large toolbox of little actions, ideas and solutions, each of which is useful at different times.
• Any process document developed to solve a problem will be meaningful and useful. A process improvement team is less tempted to gold-plate the process since its scope is defined by a problem.
• The motivation of the group to work on improvement is increased when its problems and goals are systematically addressed.

Neil Potter and Mary Sakry are software engineering consultants. They have degrees in Computer Science and 37 years of combined experience in software development, management and process improvement. In 1988, while employed full time by Texas Instruments (TI), Mary was a member of a corporate Software Engineering Process Group (SEPG) and responsible for all SEI self-assessments across TI worldwide. Neil was a full-time SEPG manager in a software development group, spanning USA, India and England. Mary and Neil were both trained by the SEI in CMM assessments in 1988/1989, and used the CMM and SEI assessment method extensively.

In 1990, Neil and Mary founded The Process Group. They were trained by the SEI under the Licensed Vendor Assessment program to provide assessments commercially. Since 1990, they have helped organizations implement the CMM, and achieve SEI Levels 2, 3 and 4. They have also helped organizations implement effective project management, inspections, and software process improvement programs. Their client list consists of 3000 individuals representing 93 companies in the U.S., U.K., Canada, India and Japan.

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Using Earned Value to Plan and Track Software Projects
Alan Koch

Concepts:

Earned Value is a project planning and tracking method that removes much of the subjectivity from the process.  In this presentation, we will learn how to create an Earned Value plan, how to track status against the plan, and how to handle problems like accounting for unplanned tasks.

Presentation Outline:

·         Introduction
·         Principles behind Earned Value planning and tracking
·         Creating an Earned Value plan
·         The work breakdown structure
·         Effort available
·         Computing the Earned Value plan
·         Tracking against an Earned Value plan
·         Actual tasks completed
·         Actual time on task
·         Computing value earned to date
·         Projecting project schedule
·         Accounting for unplanned tasks
·         When to re-plan
·         Conclusion

Learning Objectives:

·         The principles behind Earned Value planning and tracking
·         The mechanics of creating an Earned Value plan
·         How to compute status against an Earned Value plan
·         The mechanics of completion date projection
·         The options for accounting for unplanned tasks
·         When re-planning is called for

Biography:

Alan S. Koch’s 24 years in software development includes 9+ years designing, developing and maintaining software, 5+ years in Quality Assurance (including establishing & managing a QA department), and 3+ years in Software Process Improvement.  Alan is now an independent consultant helping companies to improve the return on their software investment by focusing on the quality of both their software products and the processes they use to development them.

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Proving Testing Leads to Quality and Quality Leads to Value!
Bill Hufschmidt

Concepts:

This presentation discusses practical examples of reports that can and have been used in explaining and proving the value of your testing needs and plans.  Example reports include the Rack and Stack, True Quality, Efficiency, Bottom Line Customer Satisfaction, Leverage, Value Index, Frontier Metrics and more.

Presentation Outline:

·         10 Sample reports, that connects software quality with productivity, estimating, business impact, customer satisfaction, mission importance, and more
·         Sample reports will address issues like:
·         If three systems have the same number of defects, which has the best quality?
·         If defects increase by 20%, could quality be improving?
·         Which of your systems has the best quality, Marketing, Product Creation, Distribution, Financial, Human Resources…?  What if they are different technologies?
·         How long should testing take, to achieve my best quality rates?
·         What is bottom line customer satisfaction?
·         How do I figure in the business impact of particular systems?
·         Which of my systems is most efficient?  How does that affect quality?
·         How do I factor in, that some systems are more critical than others?
·         What is my “best of the best” combination of quality and productivity?  How do all the other systems compare? 

Learning Objectives:

·         10 example reports than can be implemented immediately to sell your Testing and Quality needs

Biography:

Now in their fifteenth year, Bill and the Development Support Center have assisted with the implementation of measurement programs worldwide in over 250 companies and organizations covering over a dozen industries.   His experience with the above metrics includes instances of proving multi-million dollar savings.   Bill helped establish IFPUG; gave it its name; served multiple terms on the Board and is currently involved with several committees.  He has been a keynote or featured speaker at PSQT, SIM, QAI, ASM, IFPUG, GUIDE, SHARE, IASA, LOMA and other Productivity, Quality and Measurement forums.  Bill holds a BA in Economics and has been named to Who’s Who in American Business.

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PSTT Feature Presentation (10:00 - 11:00 AM)