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Better Software East Concurrent Sessions

Sessions are offered on Wednesday and Thursday at the conference and do not require a pre-selection. Build your own custom learning schedule by choosing from track sessions from both Better Software Conference East and Agile Development Conference East.

                 

Concurrent Sessions
BW1 Servant Leadership: It’s Not All It’s Cracked Up to Be
Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - 11:30am - 12:30pm

Ah, the sounds of feathers being ruffled! Tricia Broderick believes that servant leadership is not all that it’s cracked up to be. She wants and expects more from leaders then just being servants who act only when asked. Until now, a common (and easy) coaching style has been to transform managers from command-and-control leaders to serving others. How can anyone argue that the transition is a great step toward becoming an empowering leader? However, with this style, leaders keep experiencing problems―my team is not making decisions; my team is not making progress; my team doesn’t know what help they need. Let’s not forget a very personal concern―as the leader, am I now just an admin with a nice title? Join Tricia to explore the dynamics of various leadership styles that are essential for team evolution. Discover ideal traits and behaviors—beyond servant leadership—that will inspire, guide, coach, empower, and adapt to successfully serve others.

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Learn more about Tricia Broderick.
BW2 Requirements Are Requirements—or Maybe Not
Robin Goldsmith, Go Pro Management, Inc.
Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - 11:30am - 12:30pm

Many people talk about requirements. They use identical terms and think they have a common understanding. Yet, one says user stories are requirements; another claims user stories must be combined with requirements; and yet another has a different approach. These “experts” seem unaware of the critical inconsistencies of their positions. No wonder getting requirements right remains a major challenge for many projects. Robin Goldsmith analyzes several of the often conflicting, not-so-shared-as-presumed interpretations of what requirements are, reveals likely implications, and challenges not-so-wise conventional wisdom. Robin describes a more appropriate model of REAL business requirements whats that provide value when combined with product/system/software hows. He introduces the powerful Problem Pyramid™ systematic disciplined guide to help you more reliably get requirements right. The structure makes it easier to see where user stories do or do not fit, identifies pitfalls of the “as a <role>” format, and reconciles some of the conflicts between user stories, features, use cases, and requirements.

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Learn more about Robin Goldsmith.
BW3 This Is Not Your Father's Career: Advice for the Modern Information Worker
James Whittaker, Microsoft
Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - 11:30am - 12:30pm

In an era where college dropouts run successful companies and creative entrepreneurs out-earn corporate vice presidents, working smart is clearly the new working hard. James Whittaker turns on their head the career rules that guided past generations and provides a new career manual for working smarter that speaks to the need for creativity, innovation, and insight. James teaches a set of skills designed for the modern era of working for companies, both big and small. Learn how to avoid a one-sided relationship with your employer and ensure your passion is working for—and not against—you. Discover how to manage your technical skills and professional relationships for maximum effect. James introduces common career hazards and discusses how to identify and avoid them. Think more creatively and examine how to adopt specific career management strategies designed to supercharge your success. The modern age requires more modern ways to succeed—and James has them for you.

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Learn more about James Whittaker.
BW4 Incorporating 360 Degree App Quality in Mobile Development
Roy Solomon, Applause
Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - 11:30am - 12:30pm

The exploding apps economy has increased the businesses’ need to have a strong mobile app presence. This has spurred a dramatic upward shift in mobile app development. Traditionally, testing has been done in the lab, replicating user environments and usage scenarios. However, that approach can be insufficient. Complementing in-the-lab manual and automated testing with testing in real user environments is a critical new component of mobile app development. Today, leveraging the right holistic mix of software testing tools, in-house testing and automation, mobile SDKs, analytics tied to ongoing user sentiment, and outside-the-lab testers can be the difference between mobile app success and failure. Roy Solomon provides information, analysis, and real world examples showing the benefits of a 360 degree, user-focused approach to app quality. Learn the science behind this approach, and what you can do to overcome the ever-present challenges of speed, cost, and risk to launch apps that users love.

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Learn more about Roy Solomon.
BW5 We Need It by the End of the Year: What's Your Estimate?
Tim Lister, Atlantic Systems Guild, Inc.
Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - 1:30pm - 2:30pm

Letting good estimates made by smart people be overwhelmed by the strong desires of powerful people is a cardinal sin of project management. Accurate estimates are the foundation of all critical project decisions regarding staffing, functionality, delivery date, and budget. How do we properly estimate in a world where tradition declares that the deadline is set before the requirements are even known? Tim Lister offers practical advice on dealing with this thorny issue. Tim presents strategies and tactics for project estimating and describes his favorite estimating metric—the Estimating Quality Factor (EQF). By thinking of your project this way—goals are important and so are good estimates—you will be on the road to better quality and better projects. If you can learn to start the project and estimate continuously as events unfold, your goals and estimates will eventually converge.

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Learn more about Tim Lister.
BW6 EARS: The Easy Approach to Requirements Syntax
Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - 1:30pm - 2:30pm

One key to specifying effective functional requirements is minimizing misinterpretation and ambiguity. By employing a consistent syntax in your requirements, you can improve readability and help ensure that everyone on the team understands exactly what to develop. John Terzakis provides examples of typical requirements and explains how to improve them using the Easy Approach to Requirements Syntax (EARS). EARS provides a simple yet powerful method of capturing the nuances of functional requirements. John explains that you need to identify two distinct types of requirements. Ubiquitous requirements state a fundamental property of the software that always occurs; non-ubiquitous requirements depend on the occurrence of an event, error condition, state, or option. Learn and practice identifying the correct requirements type and restating those requirements with the corresponding syntax. Join John to find out what’s wrong with the requirements statement—“The software shall warn of low battery”—and how to fix it.

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Learn more about John Terzakis.
BW7 You Said What? Becoming Aware of the Things We Say
Doc List, Doc List Enterprises
Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - 1:30pm - 2:30pm

Most of us take language for granted. We use words without thinking about how they may affect others and then are surprised at the reaction we get. Learn the importance of language in building and maintaining high performing agile teams. Become more aware of the words you choose and the impact of those words on your listeners. Doc List presents a series of exercises in a game show format. Participants attempt to identify loaded words in seemingly simple statements and questions. Some of the exercises are written; others are acted out in role play. You’ll engage in discussion and reflection as part of the activity, gaining greater insight into your own use of language and understanding how language affects your interactions and your teams. Discern how to read the subtle messages in your own and others' language. Learn how to craft what you say so that it means what you want it to.

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Learn more about Doc List.
BW8 Tips and Tricks for Building Secure Mobile Apps
Jeff Payne, Coveros, Inc.
Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - 1:30pm - 2:30pm

Mobile application development is now a mission-critical component of many IT organizations. Due to the security threats associated with mobile devices, it is critical that mobile applications are built to be secure from the ground up. However, many application developers and testers do not understand how to build and test secure mobile applications. Jeff Payne discusses the risks associated with mobile platforms/applications and describes best practices for ensuring mobile applications are secure. Jeff discusses the unique nuances of mobile platforms and how these differences impact the security approach that must be taken when building mobile applications. Topics such as session management, data encryption, securing legacy code, and platform security models are presented. Learn what to watch out for when building mobile applications and leave with tips and tricks for effectively securing your apps.

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Learn more about Jeff Payne.
BW9 Gamification and Arbejdsglæde (Danish: Work Gladness/Joy)
Ryan Kleps, Boeing IT
Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - 2:45pm - 3:45pm

You get paid for doing that? Is it possible to both work and have fun in a large corporate setting? Can joy be made part of the workplace? For the past few years Ryan Kleps and his colleagues have been conducting an informal social experiment using gamification (before they knew it had a name) in their corporate training modules to encourage participation, engagement, and enjoyment. Along the way they discovered that what they were doing was not only an effective training method, but that it had actual formal names associated with it―gamification and arbejdsglæde, a Danish word for work gladness/joy. The results of their “experiment” exceeded their expectations, but there were some failures and obstacles along the way which impeded their progress. Ryan relates some of his favorite stories from the journey, highlighting and illustrating the transferable brain-friendly techniques used for the past five years in Boeing IT.

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Learn more about Ryan Kleps.
BW10 Non-Functional Requirements: Forgotten, Neglected, and Misunderstood
Paul Reed, EBG Consulting
Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - 2:45pm - 3:45pm

Implementing non-functional requirements is essential to build the right product. Yet teams often struggle with when and how to discover, specify, and test these requirements. Many teams neglect non-functional requirements up front, considering them less important or unrelated to user requirements; other teams specify them incompletely or with untestable and non-measurable attributes. Paul Reed introduces three types of non-functional requirements: interfaces; attributes including performance, usability, security, and robustness; and the environment for the product’s design and implementation. Paul helps you explore ways to visualize interfaces and value their options, examine techniques to specify quality attributes and their acceptance criteria, and consider environmental requirements. Leave with a better understanding of how these dimensions intertwine with functional requirements, and the challenges of incorporating non-functional requirements in your product backlog. Join Paul in a fast-paced survey of key practices designed to help you discover and define holistic non-functional requirements for your agile project.

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Learn more about Paul Reed.
BW11 You, Inc.: Building Your Personal Brand
Jennifer Bonine, tap|QA, Inc.
Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - 2:45pm - 3:45pm

Building the right personal brand is one of the most critical success factors in today’s workplace. Organizations develop a brand and image, but not many individuals think about their brand on sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social media outlets. Every person with career aspirations should be actively shaping their brand. As we interact with people, we want to influence them to support our efforts—approving projects, budgets, and funding; supporting our next career move; or recommending us for that promotion or raise we want. As a professional, it is critical to understand how you are being perceived by your “target audience.” Jennifer Bonine shares ideas on building your brand, mastering politics, reading your colleagues’ and bosses’ perspectives—techniques that get the results you want. Jennifer presents a toolkit for creating your personal brand, changing perceptions in the organization to ensure successful interactions with others, and improving your ability to achieve your career goals.

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Learn more about Jennifer Bonine.
BW12 The Coming Mobile Wearable World
Philip Lew, XBOSoft
Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - 2:45pm - 3:45pm

For better or for worse, like it or not, mobile wearables are already changing our lives. Combined with social media, mobile wearable devices form a new generation of personalized technology that knows us better than our closest friends. How many of your friends know how far you walked or what you ate? The challenge for developing applications is correctly incorporating context to add value your users hadn’t considered while being sensitive to their privacy. In the future, our devices will wake us up earlier because of the ice storm last night and contact the people we are meeting to warn them we could be late. Philip Lew covers the most important element of mobile user experience and customer experience―context. Using examples, Phil breaks down context into elements you can incorporate into your design and development. Learn the contextual elements you need to incorporate right now and identify key factors for future generation products based on providing anticipatory services.

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Learn more about Philip Lew.
BW13 Lean Software Development Is for Everyone
Ken Pugh, Net Objectives
Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - 4:15pm - 5:15pm

Lean software engineering emphasizes continuous delivery of high quality applications. Ken Pugh explains the principles and practices that form the basis of lean software development―concentrating on developing a continuous flow by eliminating delays and loopbacks; delivering quickly by developing in small batches; emphasizing high quality which decreases delays due to defect repair; making policies, process and progress transparent; optimizing the whole rather than individual steps; and becoming more efficient by decreasing waste. Ken describes lean’s emphasis on cycle time, rather than resource utilization, and demonstrates the value stream map which helps you visualize the development cycle flow to identify bottlenecks. He explores the differences between push and pull flow, describes how lean thinking shows up in agile processes including Scrum and Extreme Programming, and discusses how lean can be applied to the entire workflow—not just the development portion. Ken concludes with a discussion of how you can begin your lean transformation.

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Learn more about Ken Pugh.
BW14 Big Data Business Analytics: Get Ready for Tomorrow’s Projects
Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - 4:15pm - 5:15pm

Normal people don't look at data sets just for fun; they analyze them to make business decisions. More and more often, business analysts and product managers find themselves on strategic projects that require turning large—and often highly complex—data sets into meaningful information from which conclusive decisions and actions can be derived. In most IT organizations today, analysis of big data is a reality and will grow in significance as businesses look to better understand capturing, structuring, and learning from their data. Candase Hokanson offers advice on tackling requirements for business analytics projects. She outlines how to elicit strategic analytics decisions to help prioritize requirements work and how to prepare for the future of big data by specifying data needs. Explore examples of questions analysts can use to engage businesses to think outside the box about their requirements and consider new possibilities from analytics projects.

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Learn more about Candase Hokanson.
BW15 The Magic of Assumptions
Payson Hall, Catalysis Group, Inc.
Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - 4:15pm - 5:15pm

There are no “facts” about the future. Everything we think we know about tomorrow is based on what we think we know about the world today and our assumptions of where that will likely lead. Through a process of trial and error successful project managers, software developers, testers, and analysts usually develop a heightened sense of assumption recognition. But they often don’t think consciously about the assumptions they, their colleagues, business partners, and customers are making. Consulting project manager Payson Hall argues that improving your ability to detect and make assumptions explicit is a vital career skill. Payson will lead session attendees through a series of short experiential exercises to underscore the importance of identifying assumptions to facilitate problem solving, task definition, estimation, and conflict resolution. Gain insights that you can immediately apply in the workplace to improve your productivity and decision making.

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Learn more about Payson Hall.
BW16 Privacy and Data Security: Minimizing Reputational and Legal Risks
Tatiana Melnik, Melnik Legal, PLCC
Wednesday, November 12, 2014 - 4:15pm - 5:15pm

Privacy and data security are hot topics among US state and federal regulators as well as plaintiffs’ lawyers. Companies experiencing data breaches have been fined millions of dollars, paid out millions in settlements, and spent just as much on breach remediation efforts. In the past several years, data breaches have occurred in the hospitality, software, retail, and healthcare industries. Join Tatiana Melnik to see how stakeholders can minimize data breach risks, and privacy and security concerns by integrating the Privacy by Design Model into the software development lifecycle. To understand how to minimize risks, stakeholders must understand the regulatory compliance scheme surrounding personally identifiable information; the Privacy by Design approach and the Federal Trade Commission’s involvement; and enforcement actions undertaken by federal agencies, State Attorneys’ General, and class action suits filed by plaintiffs.

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Learn more about Tatiana Melnik.
BT1 Seven Deadly Habits of Ineffective Software Managers
Ken Whitaker, Leading Software Maniacs
Thursday, November 13, 2014 - 10:00am - 11:00am

As if releasing a quality software project on time were not difficult enough, poor management of planning, people, and process issues can be deadly to a project. Presenting a series of anti-pattern case studies, Ken Whitaker describes the most common deadly habits—along with ways to avoid them. These seven killer habits include mishandling employee incentives; making key decisions by consensus; ignoring proven processes; delegating absolute control to a project manager; taking too long to negotiate a project’s scope; releasing an “almost tested” product to market; and hiring someone who is not quite qualified—but liked by everyone. Whether you are an experienced manager struggling with some of these issues or a new software manager, take away invaluable tips and techniques for correcting these habits—or better yet, for avoiding them altogether. As a bonus, every delegate receives a copy of Ken’s full-color Seven Deadly Habits comic.

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Learn more about Ken Whitaker.
BT2 Emergent Design: History, Concepts, and Principles
Rob Myers, Agile Institute
Thursday, November 13, 2014 - 10:00am - 11:00am

Software design is about change. A good design facilitates adding features—and adding new developers to the team. Yet any change to the code impacts design and could damage existing functionality. Without design idioms and practices, the code can degrade into a "big ball of spaghetti” and a maintenance nightmare. Your team must know which decisions to make early in design and which to defer. Rob Myers reviews “families” of design attributes and practices, showing the common principles within each. Exploring emergent design by tracing how the concept itself has evolved and matured over time, Rob covers traditional attributes of good object-oriented code (cohesion, encapsulation, polymorphism, coupling); design patterns and the wisdom discovered within; S.O.L.I.D. principles—all culminating in emergent design, where simple (not easy) practices meet the simplest of guidelines, such as Kent Beck’s “Four Rules of Simple Design.” And the result is code that is easy to understand and delightful to work on.

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Learn more about Rob Myers.
BT3 Cloud Computing: Yes, It Will Radically Change Your World
Mike Wood, Red Gate Software
Thursday, November 13, 2014 - 10:00am - 11:00am

You can't read a technology article these days without some mention of "the cloud." Many have labeled it the next sea-change in the industry; others point out that the model has been around for ages. Regardless of its origins, the cloud certainly does change things. But the bigger question is: Does it really change things for you? The only way to answer that question is to understand the possibilities the cloud provides. Mike Wood discusses why you should care and shares the fundamentals of cloud computing by not only defining cloud computing but also describing ideal workloads, the concept of disposable computing, and how the cloud might not be as different as you think. Since the cloud is more than just virtualized machines, Mike discusses various services of cloud providers, including mapping those services to more familiar aspects of traditional on-premises architectures. Leave with a better understanding of cloud computing and the possibilities behind the hype.

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Learn more about Mike Wood.
BT4 The Survey Says: Testers Spend Their Time Doing...
Thursday, November 13, 2014 - 10:00am

How can testers contribute more to the success of their project and their company? How can they focus on asking the right questions, improving test planning and design, and finding defects so the business releases a quality product―even though there’s always one more fire to extinguish or one more request to fulfill? There aren’t enough hours in the day to do it all. Join Al Wagner as he reveals recent survey results showing where testers actually spend their time and where testers think their time would be better spent. Compare your own experience with what 250 test professionals from around the world reported. You may be surprised how prevalent testing challenges really are. Learn what techniques and technologies are available to help today’s test professionals execute what they were actually hired to do—test software. Return to your organization with an increased understanding of how other testers are dealing with their testing bottlenecks and what activities your peers view as the best use of their valuable time.

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Learn more about Al Wagner.
BT5 Applying Courtship Principles: Hiring for the Long Term
Philip Lew, XBOSoft
Thursday, November 13, 2014 - 11:30am - 12:30pm

As managers, we tend to focus on improving our processes. But have you considered that good people—not processes—are really the foundation of high-quality software? Competent and skilled people—combined with good process—can consistently produce higher-quality software. When we look for a spouse, we go out on a date, then another, and another as part of an information gathering process. We collect several months or even years of information to make this critical decision. So, why do we often make long-term employment decisions with a few brief interviews? Philip Lew shares his ideas on how to find the best testers. Determining what qualities and characteristics to look for, what questions to ask, and which non-traditional activities or exercises to employ can be done as part of the interview process. Phil says that adapting our questions and methods can help us not only find people suited for our development processes but also help us hire for the long term.

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Learn more about Philip Lew.
BT6 Avoiding Over Design and Under Design
Al Shalloway, Net Objectives
Thursday, November 13, 2014 - 11:30am - 12:30pm

The question of how much design to do up-front on a project is an engaging conundrum. Too much design often results in excess complexity and wasted effort. Too little design results in a poor architecture or insufficient system structures which require expensive rework and hurt more in the long run. So, how can we know the right balance of upfront design work and emerging design approaches? Al Shalloway shows how to use design patterns—coupled with agile’s attitude of “don’t build what you don’t need”—to guide your design efforts. The trick is to identify potential design alternatives, analyze how each may affect the system in the future, and then find the simplest approach for isolating those potential effects. Al describes the essence of emergent design—start with a simple design and let it evolve as the requirements evolve—and demonstrates how to refactor to achieve better designs, which really is quite different from merely refactoring bad code.

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Learn more about Al Shalloway.
BT7 The Art and Science of Cloud-Based Performance Testing
Scott Barber, SmartBear
Thursday, November 13, 2014 - 11:30am - 12:30pm

Although organizations spend a lot of time and money creating their applications, unfortunately they may not test them with a production-level user load. This often results in the application failing in production. The hardware cost to simulate thousands of concurrent users makes the organization think twice, so it tests with limited concurrent user volumes based on the available hardware. If you feel limited by the traditional ways your organization conducts performance tests, join Scott Barber as he explores how to leverage the cloud infrastructure for performance testing and to improve the application’s performance before it goes to the end user. Learn how to effectively leverage the cloud for performance testing to save money and time, and increase confidence that the application will perform well in production.

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Learn more about Scott Barber.
BT8 Software Testing’s Future—According to Lee Copeland
Lee Copeland, Software Quality Engineering
Thursday, November 13, 2014 - 11:30am - 12:30pm

The original IEEE 829 Test Documentation standard is thirty years old this year. Boris Beizer’s first book on software testing, Software Testing Techniques, also passed thirty. Testing Computer Software, the best-selling book on software testing, is more than twenty five. During the past three decades, hardware platforms have evolved from mainframes to minis to desktops to laptops to smartphones to tablets. Development paradigms have shifted from waterfall to agile. Consumers expect more functionality, demand higher quality, and are less loyal to brands. The world has changed dramatically—and testing must change to match it. Testing processes that helped us succeed in the past may prevent our success in the future. Lee Copeland shares his insights into the future of testing, including his views in the areas of technology, organization, test processes, test plans, and automation. Join Lee for a thought-provoking look at creating a better testing future.

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Learn more about Lee Copeland.
BT9 Product Management: Optimizing the What to Develop
Ernani Ferrari, Mondo Strategies
Thursday, November 13, 2014 - 1:30pm - 2:30pm

Most organizations struggle with the processes that define what software they should develop, when to do it, and how it will evolve over time—all parts of the product management role and activities. Because repeatable processes have not been established and organizations cope with conflicting priorities, teams stress needlessly over day-to-day decisions. Product management requires a fundamental company-wide understanding of its goals and opportunities coupled with the discipline to optimize development and maintenance efforts. Ernani Ferrari addresses why product management for software is crucial to maximize revenue and reduce costs in the short and long terms, explains the product manager’s role and activities, and examines how to translate company strategies into product strategies. Ernani also explores what business aspects you should consider during product planning, discusses the product artifacts you need, and outlines orchestrating product releases to improve corporate communication and overall financial results.

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Learn more about Ernani Ferrari.
BT10 Service Virtualization: Speed Up Delivery and Improve Quality
Anne Hungate, DIRECTV
Robb Kelman, DIRECTV
Thursday, November 13, 2014 - 1:30pm - 2:30pm

“We could not test this because…” Every technology professional has experienced issues during system testing when unit testing was overlooked or cut short. Every project team has hit roadblocks during system testing when dependent systems or complicated data have been unavailable. Service virtualization is a tool that eliminates the waiting and the excuses, making thorough and complete unit and system testing realistic. Done well, service virtualization improves defect detection and resolution in every phase of a project—driving down cost while improving quality. Done poorly, service virtualization is expensive, time consuming, and difficult to maintain. Anne Hungate shares her formula for picking the right project, building the business case, and staffing to get the work done. Anne shows how to capture the value of service virtualization―compressing project schedules, delivering high-quality software, and delighting customers along the way. Learn how to ask for and get the most from your service virtualization efforts.

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Learn more about Anne Hungate and Robb Kelman.
BT11 Develop a Defect Prevention Strategy—or Else!
Scott Aziz, Cognizant
Thursday, November 13, 2014 - 1:30pm - 2:30pm

Defects occurring throughout the development of a software project penalize the project. The effort spent remediating these defects robs the project team of valuable time, resources, and money that could otherwise be used for further innovation and delivering the highest possible quality product to wow the customer. The occurrence of a large percentage of these defects can be avoided with preventive defect removal strategies. Scott Aziz describes various methods for removing defects during the early design and development phases―long before testing. Methods include requirements-based testing that eliminates 95 percent of requirements defects prior to the coding phase, code reviews and inspections, and establishing model-based test design practices that allow for testing business requirements before any code is developed. Take back and adopt in your environment some of the most effective early defect prevention practices known and practiced in the industry today.

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Learn more about Scott Aziz.
BT12 Strategies for Mobile Web Application Testing
Raj Subramanian, Progressive Insurance
Thursday, November 13, 2014 - 1:30pm - 2:30pm

Mobile web testing is still a widely unexplored territory—with no standardized tools or testing processes—where testers often struggle due to lack of guidance and resources. With mobile devices, tools, operating systems, and web technologies rapidly evolving, testers must adapt their thinking in this quickly changing domain. Raj Subramanian is a tester who went through this experience, trying out different testing approaches including paired exploratory testing, blink tests, and tools to get quick feedback on the web pages. Raj provides a basic foundation for mobile web testing by explaining the mobile ecosystem and device selection strategies. He shares his experiences in testing a mobile web application used by millions of people worldwide. He discusses the lessons learned from testing “responsive web sites”―the idea that every website should render properly for every form factor of a particular device. Finally, Raj shares his vision for the future of mobile web testing.

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Learn more about Raj Subramanian.
BT13 Managing Technological Diversity: Avoid Boiling the Ocean
Katy Douglass, Nationwide Financial
Thursday, November 13, 2014 - 3:00pm - 4:00pm

Drop everything! We need to regression test the newest browser version. Apple just released a new device and iOS. We need to test our site on IE11 with Windows 8.1. Sound familiar? The number of technologies our software products must be compatible with has grown exponentially, and the market is adopting new technologies with ever-increasing speed. So, how do we manage the diversity of technology with which our software products must be compatible? Katy Douglass shares Nationwide Financial’s story of transforming their reactive processes into proactive processes that anticipate change. Katy shares a strategy to manage and predict technological diversity that you can use in your organization. She shows how to gain better insight into trends, determine test coverage through application usage data, implement a process of anticipating new technology through risk and issue management, and create frameworks for browser, OS, and device test scope decision making.

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Learn more about Katy Douglass.
BT14 Data-Driven Software Testing: The New, Lean Approach to Quality
Ken Johnston, Microsoft
Thursday, November 13, 2014 - 3:00pm - 4:00pm

The Internet of Things and always connected devices are generating exabytes of user data and device telemetry. Organizations worldwide are leveraging this data for new products and new business insights, but this data is also fundamentally changing how organizations drive, assess, and improve product quality. Testers have traditionally relied on test results, but, with additional data sources now available to testers, the testers’ ability to process these is expanding like never before. Data-driven quality (DDQ) strategies such as Testing in Production (TiP) are essential tools for most testers. But the questions are: How do you implement these strategies to benefit your specific product? How do you convert testers into data scientists? How do A/B testing, continuous delivery, and creating products from service components drive us to a leaner and better approach to quality? Ken Johnston answers these questions and more in this insightful session.

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Learn more about Ken Johnston.
BT15 Seven Key Metrics to Improve Agile Performance
Andrew Graves, InterContinental Hotels Group
Thursday, November 13, 2014 - 3:00pm - 4:00pm

It’s been said: If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. For most agile teams burndown charts and some type of velocity measurement are all they are doing. However, with just a few more metrics, you can gain substantial insight into how teams are performing and identify improvement opportunities. Andrew Graves explores seven key metrics―Effort by Class of Service, Accuracy of Estimation, Cost per Point, and four others―to measure how your team is doing and make adjustments in real time. Andrew illustrates how to use these metrics to communicate progress to stakeholders. Discover how to use these metrics to identify and analyze trends that lead to performance improvement ideas and strategies. Learn how to use these seven metrics to monitor the impact of changes made to verify they are bringing the hoped-for difference.

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Learn more about Andrew Graves.
BT16 Automating End-to-End Business Scenario Testing
Sandra Alequin, Allstate Insurance
Monika Mehrotra, Infosys, Ltd.
Thursday, November 13, 2014 - 3:00pm - 4:00pm

Allstate Insurance had a problem. While thoroughly testing each of their more than thirty business systems, they were still failing to provide good service to their clients, agents, and internal customers. The reason was simple. Implementing end-to-end business processes requires more than just running data through a set of separate systems. While focusing on automating unit, integration, and system testing, they had failed to consider the need for system-to-system integration tests―tests that would verify that their business systems passed data correctly, met interface expectations, and synchronized properly. Monika Mehrotra and Sandra Alequin describe how Allstate, with the assistance of Infosys, supplemented their existing test suites with a set of end-to-end tests that provided deeper test coverage, demonstrating proper system operation from beginning to end. In addition, Allstate implemented a test environment that more closely resembled their production environment, discovering defects that had previously escaped into daily operation. Learn the importance of end-to-end, not just piecemeal testing.

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Learn more about Sandra Alequin and Monika Mehrotra.