Archived Presentations - 2004

January 2004

• Topic: Demonstration of software testing tools
• Description: Ever wonder how other QA departments do it? Take a peak at some tools these QA professionals use in their offices. We will have three presenters.
• Heidi Heagle of Thrivent will present information on their Corporate Test System (CTS). CTS is an in house developed, menu driven system running on a IBM mainframe. It includes applications that support test tools, database extract and load processing, system specific file maintenance and post-processing functions.
• Click here for html presentation
• Click here for MS Word presentation
• Ron Utz of Esker Software will talk about Test Case Manager. This is an open source program that Ron modified to fit Esker’s test case requirements. The program is used to create and manage test cases and test results using an MS Access backend. There is a link below to download TCM 3.0 that was developed for Esker Software by Ron. It still has some Esker specific settings, but in the near future Ron will be updating it to be generic for the general audience.
  • Click here to download TCM v3.0
  • Click here for html documentation
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• Dianne Schweiger of J. J. Keller & Associates, Inc. will be talking about Diff Doc, a file comparison utility. File comparison utilities are often used in a QA environment to compare build files to ensure fileset integrity.
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February 2004

• Topic: Professional Networking through Discussion Groups
• Description: Looking for a forum for sounding out new ideas and getting questions answered? Enjoy exchanging best testing practices with others? Want to find other QA professionals who face the same challenges you do? Then join us for the official launching of the WISQA Discussion Group. Ron Utz of Esker Software will do a live demonstration of the WISQA Discussion Group. This Yahoo group is provided to WISQA members to facilitate communication on quality assurance topics. See what opportunities for professional networking the WISQA Discussion Group has to offer, take a peek at some related discussion groups on Yahoo, and learn how easy it is to set up your account! Following the WISQA Discussion Group demonstration, get to know other QA professionals who share similar interests by joining a lively round table discussion on one of these high-interest topics:
• QA Certifications
• Automated Testing
• Web Testing
• Each round table will be moderated by an experienced QA professional. You are encouraged to join any group that interests you, whether you have a wealth of knowldege and experience in the subject, are just getting started with it, or simply want to meet some interesting people!
• Click here for html presentation of Yahoo Groups

March 2004

• Topic: VMware virtual machine software
• Description: VMware is powerful virtual machine software that enables the creation of multiple testing and development environments on a single system. Leading the presentation will be the VMware GSX Product Manager, Eric Horschman, who is well versed in both the VMware Server and Workstation products. He will speak to the needs of the IT test, development and QA areas as well as that of the production environment.
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April 2004:

• Topic: TQM in a Software Development Environment - Can any program succeed long term?”
• Description: For years now, attempts have been made to adopt CMM, Six Sigma, ITIL, CobiT and other models to improve software development productivity and quality. However, in most instances the efforts do not reach their potential. The lack of attainment can be attributed to many factors, but the most common is the difficulty of balancing the economics of the business with the cost occurrence of the programs over time. Questions such as: How much automation is necessary? How do we know if an application is ready to be released? What metrics are necessary to manage a process? How much process is too much process? are being asked of software professionals today. The reality is there is no holy grail that can direct managers to a one-size-fits-all answer. Yet, there are ways to make progress in ensuring long-term results without causing chaos in an organization.
• The topic will concentrate on the discussion of a framework that will foster long-term success for a TQM initiative within the Software Development environment.
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May 2004

• Topic: Adopt a Process - Save Your Job
• Description:Many organizations develop software-based systems without establishing or following organizational based standards and processes. This has led to annual losses of billions of dollars in productivity, customer dissatisfaction, low product quality, decreased time to market and eventually Outsourcing.
• Outsourcing is one of the most explosive political issues. Your competition uses the SEI CMM/CMMI Models, developed by the US DOD, to prove they are better than US companies. At least half of all CMM level 5 installations are located overseas.
• Establishing and following system development processes, compatible to SEI standards, can bring many benefits including, but not limited to:
  1. Greater understanding of product functionality and inherent risks.
  2. Increased employee productivity.
  3. Improved product quality.
  4. Increased time to market products.
  5. Decreased product development costs and time.
  6. Reduced risk of being outsourced.
  7. Being in control when Outsourcing is brought up.
  8. Increased profitability.
  9. Effective project planning and management.
• This presentation will help you to understand how to beat your competition, work smarter, and be more valuable to your company and profession by adopting a software development process.
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June 2004:

• Topic: Requirements Management Concepts
• Description: This presentation provides an interactive discussion of the issues and advantages for implementing requirements managements techniques in software development and implementation.
• Have you ever heard stories of the person who accessed their new application upon delivery and saying they did not get what they wanted? In reality, this story is far too common. To some degree, it is difficult to meet the end-user expectations perfectly every time. A great deal of effort and expense is wasted in going back and getting the user community what they had expected. However, there are a number of tactics that are useful in minimizing the gap between what the user asked for and what technology gets delivered to them.
• Speaker: Mike Lawler, National Practice Director for Spherion Software Quality Management Practice
• Mr. Lawler is an experienced Project Manager with more than 20 years of experience. He has been responsible for corporate-wide, regional and site strategic planning of software and technical implementations, managing hardware and software installations, providing Help Desk technical support, and managing Software Quality engagements for both manual and automated tool solutions. Mr. Lawler has managed and performed unit-, integration-, and user acceptance-level testing on software applications and hardware. He has authored installation and training manuals for numerous projects and applications; and developed, managed and conducted computer application training programs for internal and external clients. Mr. Lawler has successfully led several initiatives involving operational assessment and process improvement for a variety of industries.
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October 2004:

• Topic: T-WorMS, The Testing - 'Workflow Management Suite
• Description: Something that most successful testing organizations seem to have in common is good process. To many testers, however, process is a four letter word. Let's face it: having to slavishly adhere to processes like a robot can be the least attractive part of the job. So how do successful organizations get their testers to follow their processes?
• Mainly, by setting up processes that make the job easier, not harder. By having tools that simplify required process in every phase of the testing life cycle. By only requiring processes that make sense and getting rid of those that don't.
• Jamie Mitchell and Judy McKay of Test & Automation Consulting, LLC have worked as testers, automators, and test managers in both small and large companies as both employees and consultants. They decided it was time to attack this process problem, so they got together and wrote a tool suite that would make their jobs easier. Not just for manual testers, but for automators too; even for (**gasp**) test managers and developers. They analyzed all of the processes that they had lived with, good and bad, and came up with a set of the ones that universally worked for them, their testers, their managers, and their organizations. Then they wrapped a tool around it.
• T-WorMS is the result. The Testing - Workflow Management Suite. This set of tools has a number of modules that work together to simplify the processes needed for each stage of the testing lifecycle. By helping handle the details, T-WorMS allows testers to do more of what they are paid to do: test. Using T-WorMS lets testers create tests more intelligently, document tests with less overhead, run tests with less bureaucracy, capture metrics almost invisibly, review results with fewer headaches - all for both manual and automated tests. And maybe most importantly, T-WorMS facilitates learning from the hard work you did in the last cycle to improve the efficiency and accuracy of what you do in the next cycle.
• What if you're just a manual test shop? T-WorMS helps you tune your manual testing for the highest productivity. And, when you are ready to start automating some of your testing, T-WorMS helps you move in that direction without overhauling your current testing processes. Automation fits in seamlessly when your organization is ready (using any commercial automation or home-brew tools.)
• Already automated or on your way there? Congratulations. T-WorMS provides a merged view of the automated and manual test worlds, providing a comprehensive look at the testing project. And if you ever have to make reports for your management, that 10,000 foot view can be very important.
• What about test data? Tests are only as good as the data that is used during execution. Is your testing data out of control? Struggling with hundreds or thousands of Excel files here and there, mostly out of date or holding questionable data? The Data Repository for Testing (DiRT) will help you simplify your creation, collection, use, update, and documentation of data. Need to keep records of the test data used for regulatory purposes? Click the checkbox and all data that you pull out of DiRT is versioned and documented for each test you run: manual or automated.
• What about those other daily tasks that currently require you to use several different tools? Want to take snap shots of the screen while testing and make them available for use later (perhaps to show the developers that the problem you found does indeed exist?) T-WorMS makes it simple: for manual and automated testing. Want to look at the results of a test run in another building from your own workstation at your desk? Want the results to include any screen snap shots, partial result files, comparison results, or any other file-based information that you can imagine: manual or automated? T-WorMS has it built in! Want to get instant, up-to-date reports of exactly where you are in the testing cycle: manual and automated? Want to institute a painless test review process to cross train and improve your tester's skills? Want to run the tests needed to mitigate the greatest risks to your project but have only a short window of opportunity? Ask T-WorMS to show you which tests to run. Want to painlessly record how long your testing actually took, in a way that you can prove where you are to management? Need metrics to prove that you cannot safely release a week early the way marketing wants to?
• T-WorMS does all of these things - and more.
• T-WorMS provides a simple interface that allows testers, analysts and automators to create their attack plan, design and write the actual tests, document those tests, collect summary information and track run time statistics in a reportable format. Simple, yet powerful is the key - no one wants to spend the time to learn or use a complex tool. We already have too much to do and not enough time to do it. Tools should help, not hinder and frustrate. We designed T-WorMS because we want to use it.
• Speaker: Jamie Mitchell is CTO and Principal Consultant of Test & Automation Consulting LLC.
• Mr. Mitchell is a pioneer in the test automation field. He has worked with a variety of test automation tools since Windows 3.0. He has written test tools for several platforms; for Windows, he has developed the Test - Automation Programming Interface (T-API), a leading edge test automation solution that increases the flexibility, ease of use, and ROI of automated tools.
• In his role as Principal Consultant at Test & Automation Consulting LLC, Jamie Mitchell is responsible for developing and implementing test automation initiatives for a range of clients. In addition, Mr. Mitchell also provides training, mentoring, and expert technical support.
• Over the last several years, Mr. Mitchell has spoken at many test and automation conferences throughout the United States, including STAR, QAI and PSQT. His presentation on Automation Architectures at this year's STAR East conference was elected best of conference.
• Mr. Mitchell holds a Master of Computer Science degree from Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. He holds the Certified Software Test Engineer certification from QAI.
• Click here for presentation (HTML), (MS PowerPoint)
• Click here for T-WorMS Feature Listing (HTML), (MS Word)
• Click here for T-WorMS 12 Steps (HTML), (MS Word)

November 2004:

• Topic: Software Testing in an Iterative Development Process: the Programmer's Viewpoint
• Presenters: Robert Merrill, Gene Zadzilka, Stephen Anderson, Berbee employees in the Application Development department. Tracy Benton, Berbee test engineer, will be moderating.
• Description: Iterative development -- the process of delivering software in many small cycles rather than one long one -- can make a software tester used to old software models feel a bit uneasy. If you keep developing in tiny cycles, how can you be sure you haven't broken all of last cycle's code? And where do the testers come in when the programmers say they wrote all the tests themselves? In this panel discussion, three Berbee programmers will talk about how iterative development has worked (and not worked) for them, and envision how it ought to work; then they'll invite and discuss questions from the attendees.