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All tutorials count for credit towards CSTP (Certified Software Test Professional) re-certification

M1: Improving Performance through Standards and Processes
Barbara Ainsworth

Introduction:

All of the international standards for IT excellence have one area in common: the full definition of all critical processes and the standards that govern them. ISO 9000, Six Sigma, SPICE and the Capability Maturity Model all begin with process and standards definitions. These fundamentals are well understood and have well-tested practices that any IT department can adopt, no matter the economic sector, size or country. Learn the basic steps to establish the Mission Critical Processes and their standards, procedures and guidelines. Learn a simple model to develop and deploy processes and standards. Learn to measure processes to make sure they are meeting standards. Learn to manage the processes and standards day-to-day and optimize them based on analyzing their efficiency and effectiveness. Learn to leverage your improved results.

Learning Objectives:

This tutorial focuses on the procedures for developing and deploying IT standards successfully. As a result of your participation you will be able to:

Understand the relationship of IT standards to international standards
Define Mission Critical Processes with internal and external customers
Use the New Process Development Model to develop and deploy processes and standards, procedures and guidelines
Measure standards usage, effectiveness and efficiency
Manage standards usage day-to-day
Optimize standards
Plan and deploy a standards program

M2: Low Overhead Software Process Improvement Methods
Robin Goldsmith

Software process improvement doesn't have to be synonymous with expensive formalized approaches, such as the Software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model (SEI CMM). This interactive seminar workshop describes it along with seven alternative approaches that can provide significant software productivity and quality improvements without extensive bureaucracy or organization-wide cultural change. Exercises enhance learning by allowing participants to practice applying practical techniques to realistic examples.

Planning Software Process Improvement (SPI) is just like planning anything else, right? Yes … and no.

The basics of project planning apply just as much to SPI as they do to software development (or putting on a play, or building a skyscraper, or …), but each type of project presents its own special challenges and has its specific risk areas. Those special challenges and risks are what make SPI planning unique.

This one-day tutorial will step through a mature project planning process (ala CMMI/PMBOK) and explore how those mature practices apply specifically to SPI projects. During the exercises, you will apply them to your specific project (a case study project will be provided for students who need one). You will leave this tutorial with a good start on an excellent SPI plan, and the tools and techniques you will need to do good SPI planning from now on.

M4: Software Quality Assurance Methods and Techniques
Dr. Magdy Hanna

Introduction:

Many software organizations try to achieve software quality by focusing on testing activities that are normally done after the product has been put together by the development team. Every project manager and every test managers know that this is not a very effective way to assure the quality of the application. The reason is that when the testers execute their tests against the application and find bugs, those bug reports go back to the development team, which in turn tries to fix problems under time pressure. And you know the rest of the story: more bugs get created and the cycle continues. More bugs, more bug reports and more bugs. For many years, experts and pioneers in software quality have suggested that software organizations focus more on the front-end of the software lifecycle to build quality into software rather than trying to test for quality at the end. This course covers all quality assurance methods and techniques that aim at achieving this goal of building quality into the software. The course is a must for every project manager, QA manager and test manger.

Outline:

Quality Assurance Vs Quality Control
Defining processes
Implementing Quality Assurance
Developing effective standards
Inspections and review of artifacts other than code
Development and Test lifecycles and methodologies
QA concepts, methods and approaches
Prominent quality assurance models such as CMM/CMMI, Six Sigma, IEEE standards, TQM, and ISO
ROI justification for Quality Assurance
Quality Assurance according to W. Edwards Deming
Quality Assurance for modern development methodologies: RAD, Agile and eXtreme
Independent Verification and Validation

Learning Objectives:

Course participants will learn:

The difference between quality assurance and quality control
How to effectively plan, execute, and verify plans to deliver quality software
How to start an effort to implement process improvement even in small projects
How to select between different quality assurance methods to get the most ROI
How to implement a cost effective inspection process that works with all types of project and all types of artifacts

Biography:

Dr. Hanna is a recognized educator, speaker and consultant in several areas of software engineering. His distinguished seminars on various topics have been highly rated by software professionals. Dr. Hanna's experience with software goes back to the mid 1970's when he worked as a developer at the NCR center in Cairo , Egypt . Over the last thirty years, Dr. Hanna has worked in all aspects of software projects and processes in all capacities.

Dr. Hanna is the founder, CEO and Chairman of the International Institute for Software Testing, ( www.iist.org ) the leading educational and professional development organization that provides education-based certifications to software test and quality professionals around the world.

Dr. Hanna is the founder and Chairperson of the International Conference on Practical Software Quality and Testing, (www.PSQTconference.com) and founder and Chairperson of the International Conference on Software Process Improvement, (www.icspi.com).

Dr. Hanna Also served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Software Test Professionals, a publication of the International Institute for Software Testing, now the Bug Free Zone (www.iist.org/bugfreezone)

As a consultant, Dr. Hanna has helped organizations define and improve their software processes using disciplined software engineering approaches.

As a professor of software Engineering at the University of St. Thomas , he taught graduate courses on several software engineering topics with emphasis on practical software quality techniques.

Dr. Hanna developed new approaches and methods in software engineering including the Software Quality Engineering Methodology (SQEngineer), the Unified Data Model (UDM), and the Data-Driven Object Model (DOM).

Dr. Hanna holds a Ph.D. and a Masters degree in Computer and Information Sciences form the University of Minnesota , a Masters in Operations Research from Cairo University , and B. Sc. in Petroleum Engineering from Suez Canal University , Egypt.

Dr. Magdy Hanna

M5: Gathering Requirements via Business Process Modeling
Clyneice Chaney

Today's market expects information technology organizations to create systems that meet and support a company's the mission critical business drivers for success. How well a system meets its intended business expectations is key to its success. There is a plethora of tools available that monitors application performance tied to business needs and the impact of its failure on the business. If business drivers are central to a system ‘s performance, then an approach to gathering requirements that encompasses business processes analysis provide benefits to IT organizations. This course introduces Business Area Analysis techniques as a part of the Project scooping and requirements gathering phases. It is based upon using the facilitated session as the means of capturing project information and requirements. Specific tools and techniques that are covered include:

One would think that managing a project, whether done locally or offshore, would follow a common framework. Unfortunately, when we turn over construction to others we give up control. All is not lost however since it affords an opportunity to shift attention to critical guidance components and outcome control. Still we must be prepared (and trained) in thinking differently about projects and how they demand a shift in thinking. This course orients participants in this change in focus and how true value contribution and control can be sustained, with successful outcomes.