Past Meetings 2001

The Quality Disconnection
November 2001

How relevant is your company's quality system?  Does you quality manual collect dust?  Does quality management undermine its own objectives?  Has the whole quality/continuous improvement idea fallen out of step with business?

Learn how quality management systems can - and should - be aligned with business objectives to support customer, management, and employee needs.  Practical tools will be demonstrated for planning and implementing organizational systems that contribute to profitability while satisfying external (e.g. ISO and FDA) standards, with an emphasis on their application in the design and development world.

PDF Foils (aprox 350k)

Erik Metzler, E. Metzler Associates

With a background in music and computer science, and fifteen years of heavily-regulated experience in product development and configuration management, Erik Metzler (and his company, E. Metzler Associates) works with clients in such industries as aerospace, commercial software, medical instrumentation, and banking to develop business and quality management systems that really work.  Erik is an RAB-accredited ISO 9001 auditor (provisional).

Tips For Success when Selecting Testing
Tools
October 2001
So you are thinking about buying a software testing or software production QA tool. Where do you start? What kind of information will need? What are the best resources for collecting information? What are some useful techniques to get information from vendors? To answer these questions and others, SASQAG has put together a panel discussion featuring tips for success in QA and Testing tool selection. Our panel of invited guests will give short presentations then take questions from the audience.

Tool Evaluation Guidelines PowerPoint or HTML

Selecting Tools by Category PowerPoint  

Panel Discussion

Marie Ackley

David Herness

AUTOmatic PROcess Driven Task Execution And Management
(AUTOPROD TEAM)
September 2001
Using the "standard" approach of PowerPoint pitches in lieu of processes, emails and phone calls for communications, and spreadsheets for data capture usually results in delays of service, confusion, corrupted data and personnel burnout.  This is magnified when the organization is large and spread out geographically.  Embedding the process within a web application results in the processes being adhered to without the users being forced to learn all the process details.  It also ensures that the processes are followed.  This web-based approach also has the data rules integrated into the code and ensures that all required data is present.

Lawrence Day, The Boeing Company
Mr. Day has over 30 years of experience in the aerospace industry with 17 of those in engineering and computing management.  He has worked in every software development phase as both engineer and manager.  Lawrence has worked in military products organizations, a commercial products organization and current works in IT.  He has a BSEE and an MBA in Technology/Engineering Management and has earned the Certified Quality Analyst (CQA) and Project Management Professional (PMP) certifications.  Mr. Day has presented and participated in previous QAI conferences and international conferences.

Laura Wellington, Best Consulting
Ms. Wellington has worked in the computing industry for 8 years.  She spent the last 5 years designing and building web applications using many different tools and languages.  Laura has a Master's degree in Nuclear Engineering.  She has worked on numerous projects integrating Web design, database design and user interface to achieve truly process-driven applications.  She has also contributed in every software development phase. 

Intelligent Test Automation
August 2001
Software testing is getting harder all the time.  Manual testing and static test automation can no longer keep up with the complexity of software applications.  Model-based testing (also known as "intelligent test automation") is a new and evolving technique for achieving quality software releases and handling the testing load while retaining your sanity.  You can read an intro to model-based testing.

Using simple programmatic test tools and familiar applications, this presentation makes the case for intelligent test automation and shows you:
- Why modeling makes sense as a test approach
- How to use models to improve the efficiency of your testing
- How to apply it throughout the lifecycle.

Harry Robinson, Microsoft
Harry Robinson heads up test productivity initiatives as part of Microsoft's Six Sigma Team.  Prior to joining Microsoft in 1998, he spent ten years with Bell Laboratories and then three years with Hewlett-Packard.  He spends most of his time thinking about breaking software and is a long-time advocate and practitioner of model-based testing.

Mr. Robinson was a software developer for six years before coming to his senses and switching to testing.  He has a BA degree in Religion from Dartmouth College, and BS and MS degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.

The People Capability Maturity Model®
An Introduction
July 2001
The People Capability Maturity Model was developed by the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University and published in 1995.  The model focuses on developing management practices and people-related competencies that strengthen individuals, teams, and whole organizations.  Moving from the industrial age to the information age requires that most companies develop more effective management practices so people and teams can excel.  This presentation will cover some background information, the key architectures that support the model, and the benefits of applying the model.
Get the PowerPoint Slides (503KB).

Dave Brandes, The Boeing Company
Dave Brandes is an internal consultant who works with managers to apply the People CMM at Boeing.  Mr. Brandes has over 30 years of experience in planning, developing, deploying, maintaining, and operating management information systems.  He also managed information systems at Battelle Pacific Northwest National Laboratories in Richland, Washington.

Mr. Brandes has a master's degree in organization development, is a graduate of the Bill Hitt management and leadership series and the UCLA Leadership Development Institute.  He served as adjunct instructor for the master's degree program in Information Systems Management at Seattle Pacific University.

Certification: The Next Step
June 2001
Have you wondered what the differences are between the certifications?  how to apply?  what the exams are like?  what it means to be certified?  how you stay certified?  Hear what some quality assurance analysts from SAFECO have to say about the Certified Test Engineer and Certified Quality Analyst certifications from the Quality Assurance Institute.

Bar Biszick
CQA, Quality Assurance Systems Analyst, SAFECO Insurance Corporation
Steven Blaire
CQA, Systems Manager, SAFECO Insurance Corporation
David Capocci
CQA, CSTE, Senior Quality Assurance Systems Analyst, SAFECO Insurance Corporation
Jeanne Robinson
CQA, CSTE, Quality Assurance Systems Analyst, SAFECO Insurance Corporation
May Woo
CQA, CSTE, Quality Assurance Analyst, SAFECO Insurance Corporation

If the World Were Perfect and Quality Assurance
Was Not Just About Testing
May 2001
A look at the "perfect" quality assurance department and what we can do to help achieve it.

Many of us are faced with “testing” undocumented or requirement-less software on a daily basis with fewer and fewer hours between test entrance and launch.  We are faced with compacting the test cycle to cover the time lost by the development team.  Learn what we as individuals can do to improve our situation and to develop high performance teams who enjoy working together.

Keith Couch
Mr. Couch has worked in the computer industry since punch cards were made of stone. He has enjoyed working on bleeding edge hardware and software technology during his 33 years in the industry and has been on both the development and quality assurance sides of numerous major software projects. 

He has been a principle in a successful software development company, vice president of a computer manufacturing company, senior software engineer for Unisys Corporation, director of Quality Assurance for Oxygen Media and a sought after consultant for companies such as: Digital Equipment Corporation, American Stores, the United States Navy, British American Consulting Group, The Boeing Company and the Internal Revenue Service.

QA Beyond the Box:
Applying Pattern Theory in the Real World
April 2001
This talk is of interest to Quality Analysts interested in project risk analysis and in guiding their teams toward quality excellence.  But it is of special interest to QAs who feel trapped in "The Box" of quality control, unable to fully exercise their knowledge and training in quality process principles, risk evaluation and quality team management.  We'll explore the tell tale signs of different project patterns in various stages of crisis, and checklists will be provided to participants to determine which patterns their own projects may be in.  Most importantly, this presentation will illustrate how the author effectively applied these concepts to influence both the project team and corporate IT management to make quality software policy decisions.

Testing Web to Wireless and Back
March 2001
The System?  A multi-tiered architecture with multiple components: NT/SQL Server back end, Web, Wireless Windows CE client, middleware (wireless internet), a COTS package and of course, databases.
The Product?  ARROW (Advanced Resource Routing & Optimization of Work) is a complete mobile work-force management system designed to manage field technicians providing installation and maintenance services for in-home wireless phone installations.   Testing covered unit, full system integration, functional, web, handheld client, middleware, stress, end-to-end acceptance, plus parallel field-testing in the production environment.
PowerPoint Slides (664KB)

Implementing Inspections at AirTouch Cellular
February 2001
Implementing Inspections at AirTouch Cellular (now Verizon Wireless)
In January, 1999, we were told "implement inspections" for the biggest development group here in Bellevue.  This is our implementation story: how it went and what we learned along the way.  I'll also describe the metrics program we set up and what we've learned from it.  We also had partial success implementing inspections at other AirTouch development sites.
Power Point slides 190KB

Localization
January 2001
This talk discusses basic localization processes, common functional defects associated with current localization processes, and approaches to solving these ongoing problems.  There are various defects found during the localization process that require changes in the source code; these defects are classified as localizability-type bugs.  By understanding the cause of these bugs, we can develop a tool that simulates the localization process and helps identify these issues.   Pseudo localization models can identify many localizability-type bugs and reduce our localization costs.
PowerPoint slides 473KB