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9.00 - 9.10am CONFERENCE OPENING
Welcome
Bob Bartlett, SQS
Competitions and Book Reviews
Wayne Mallinson, Test and Data Services
9.15 - 10.15 KEYNOTE
Profit From Applying Lean Principles to your Testing
Wayne Mallinson, Test and Data Services
Brian Swain, Takt-Group
Keynote Details: 9.15 - 10.15am
Profit From Applying Lean Principles to Your Testing
Presenters
Brian Swain and Wayne Mallinson
Level
Intermediate
Target Group
Test Managers & Test Practitioners
Key Points
Lean production transforms mass production.
Lean principles can / have been learned to propel organisations ahead of their competitors.
Lean production significantly improves project parameters (time, quality, budget).
Lean involves, rigour, creativity, and good relationships (it is not to be mistaken with 'lean and mean').
Abstract
Brian Swain gives an insight into the growing spread of the lean phenomenon throughout the world. In most cases where lean goes, lead times tumble, quality improves and significant savings accrue. Lean is a competitive advantage that you ignore to your peril.
Brian then illustrates a small sample of key lean principles based on case studies from industrial and other projects on which he has consulted over the past 20 years.
After this exciting journey led by Brian, Wayne Mallinson takes the same sample of lean principles that Brian introduced, and suggests how they can apply to your testing initiatives.
Biography
Brian Swain is an organisational development consultant with twenty years experience working in manufacturing, service and construction companies throughout the UK and Western Europe. He often typifies his approach as individual, organisational and corporate coaching. His work is focused on the Lean Transformation of companies through team building and personal development within the context of process management, continuous improvement and organizational design. He works at all levels in large and small organisations but with a primary focus on Value Stream Development in regards to strategic and operational performance. Typically he works and consults on long-term (1-3 years) change processes within his client companies. Some of his current work is with clients, which include Corus Steel, Marshalls Plc., Pilkingtons Tile, GlaxsoSmithKline, Vertex, General Electric (GE) and Hertz. Additionally, he has project managed and co-authored textbooks and manuals for work-based management development. He is a founding Director of Rubicon Associates and TAKT. He is a vice president of the Lean Construction Institute and founding Director of Rubicon Associates and TAKT.
Wayne Mallinson has tested in the air traffic control, banking, telecommunications and other industries for the past 20 years. Wayne founded and chaired the Computer Society of South Africa's Gauteng Special Interest Group in Software Testing (CSSA SIGiST) in its inaugural year. Wayne is Editor in Chief of 'Test Focus' magazine and founder and a director of Test and Data Services (Pty) Ltd. He has talked at testing conferences on many continents. In his private time Wayne enjoys running, skiing, reading, writing, gym, music, travel and time with family and friends.
Full Contact information of the Presenters Name: Brian Surname: Swain Company: Rubicon Associates Full Postal Address: Rubicon Associates; Hodore Farm; Parrock Lane; UPPER HARTFIELD; E Sussex; TN7 4AR E-mail Address: brianswain@rubiconassociates.com Phone Numbers: Mobile +44(0)78 999 28008 or via secretary Joan Simmons +44(0)1892 771042 Fax Number: +44 (0) 1892 771039
Name: Wayne Surname: Mallinson Company: Test and Data Services (Pty) Ltd Full Postal Address: PO Box 14138; Lyttelton; South Africa; 0140 Email: waynem@testdata.co.za Mobile: +27 (0) 083 604 0902 Fax: +27 (0) 12 664 6495
Abstract The growing popularity of Agile Software Development seems to divide the quality community. Some see it as playing fast-and-loose, dropping all the established doctrines of quality management best practice. Others embrace it as dynamic and results-oriented, with a refreshing emphasis on testing and customer collaboration. Love it or hate it, you cant ignore it agile is now in the mainstream and there is little sign of it being a passing fad.
The challenge of Agile is how to preserve the same levels of Quality Governance over software and process quality that are normally associated with heavyweight methods, when the emphasis is on travelling light, responding quickly and embracing change. In this talk I examine the nature of how agile teams work effectively, how agile methods change the roles of the Test Manager and QA engineer, and the challenges that presents for traditional quality assurance processes. Finally I share a set of agile quality principles and propose an agile quality governance framework.
Biography
An IT professional with over twenty years' experience in both software development and testing, David Evans is currently Director of Methodology at SQS, where he has been the key intellectual force behind SQS's Software Quality Methodology (SQM). He has had several papers on software testing published in international business journals and is a regular presenter at testing and software quality conferences. David is a thought leader and evangelist on testing in Agile development environments, and has consulted on this topic for organisations in the UK, USA, Europe, India and South Africa. For two years he actively led an internal agile team developing and testing the Microsoft .NET web application "TestStrategist" for SQS, which won the Information Age award for "Most Innovative use of IT in Professional Services". David grew up in Australia, gaining a first class honours degree in Computing from Canberra University. He now lives and works in the UK.
Full Contact information of the Presenter Name: David Surname: Evans Company: SQS Group Limited Full Postal Address: 7 Moorgate, London, EC2R 6AF, UK E-mail Address: David.Evans@sqs-uk.com Phone Numbers: +44 (0) 20 7448 4620
10.20 - 11.00am
Don't take the P out of Testing
Presenter
Mike Hendry, Unum
Level
Intermediate
Target Group
Test Managers and Practitioners
Key Points
It is important to have a purpose for your testing organisation
People are the most important asset in a successful test organisation
Process is important but you should not be a slave to it
The characteristics of a good test analyst
Abstract
Testing is now seen by many companies in many industries as a Profession in its own right, and it has been recognised as an essential part of the development life cycle and business change in many more. Mike has created this recognition in two leading insurance companies and been instrumental in improving the quality of business solutions and delivering real benefit at both.
For years Mike has attended the SIGiST and other conferences taking all he can get, filched loads of good ideas from scores of books and attended every course he could get his employer's to pay for. This presentation seeks in some way to repay that debt and give something back to the testing community now that he has tested some of these teachings. In this presentation Mike will share with you the things that have worked and those that have not, in building and managing a testing function. Many of the ideas can also be applied at a personal level as well. Although this has been proven within Financial Services, most of this is transferable to any industry.
Biography
Mike Hendry is Head of Corporate Acceptance Testing at Unum and is the Secretary of the BCS Specialist Group in Software Testing. He has 16 years IT and Business Change experience in a variety of disciples including Project Management, Business Analysis, Application Development Management and of course his first love, Testing. Mike has spent all of his working life in the Financial Services industry (22 years) or in the Retail Drinks industry (as a part-time Barman for 10 years concurrent with his other jobs). This eclectic career path has given Mike a variety of experiences to draw upon and apply with a passion to his chosen professions of Testing and Leadership.
10.20 - 11.00am
Green Testing - The Race Against Waste
Presenter
Joan Jordan (nee Mc Donnell), o2
Level
Intermediate and Advanced
Target Group
Test Managers
Abstract
Few people would not be familiar with the "Three Rs": Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, which classify waste management strategies. The aim of the "Three Rs" is to extract the maximum practical benefits from products and to generate the minimum amount of waste. "Keep the productivity up and the costs down!"
In this presentation, Joan will outline and give examples of how to cut out waste while not compromising on quality in the Software Testing world. Joan's Team has reduced in size by a third in recent times while its productivity has increased by 50%. She will address the People, Process and Technology aspects as these are all critical elements of a working solution. She will also discuss the "fourth R", which involves Re-Thinking how things are currently being done- be this introducing automation or adopting an agile approach.
This presentation gives practical examples on how it is possible to make a difference!
Biography
Joan Jordan (nee Mc Donnell) is an accomplished Testing Professional with over 13 years experience in the IT Industry. She is well versed in all areas of the Software Development Life Cycle and specializes in the Product Verification arena. She is also experienced in the areas of service management, requirements management, automation, people management, budgeting, process improvement, planning and reporting.
Joan has worked in the USA, France, the Netherlands and Ireland for many organisations, among them O2, LogicaCMG and AT&T. She believes that the "Customer is Key" and is passionate about excellent service in all the roles she performs. She is currently managing a team providing Test Environments, Test Data, Test Tools and Configuration Management for all business projects tested in O2 Ireland.
Joan graduated in 1995 from Trinity College, Dublin with a B.Sc. (Hons.) in Computer Science, Linguistics and French. Her motto is "Quality at the Right Price".
Full Contact information of the Presenter Full Postal Address : Joan Jordan (nee Mc Donnell), Bonnydoon, Tenure, Dunleer, County Louth, Ireland E-mail Address joan_mc_donnell@hotmail.com Phone Numbers +353(0)868142271
A Thinking Framework for Context - Driven Test Documentation
Presenter
Matthew Archer, Ivar Jacobson International
Level
Intermediate
Target Group
Test Managers and Practitioners
Abstract
Whenever the topic of documentation is discussed, it always reminds me of the story of Goldilocks
and the Three Bears. In this story, a family of three bears live in a house in the woods. One day, the
bears go for a walk, leaving their house unlocked. While they are out, Goldilocks enters the house
and discovers three bowls of porridge. The bowls have been heated to each bears' specific taste so
when Goldilocks samples the porridge she finds that the father's porridge is "too hot", the mother's
porridge is "too cold", but the cubs porridge is "just right".
Many testers experience a similar problem when using other testers' documentation as a basis for
their own, only to discover that it results in "too much" or "too little" information and does not fulfil
their own written communication needs. Goldilocks could easily move from one bowl of porridge to
another, however, we aren't always so fortunate, regularly finding ourselves with documentation that
has become out-of-date, yet is too sparse or too unwieldy to maintain.
Working with too much or too little test documentation can significantly reduce the productivity of any
test team. As testing matures as a profession, so must our ability to reason about documentation
and select an approach that complements our own specific context. Hence, this talk will share a
thinking-framework for making decisions that allow us to spend just the right amount of time
documenting and leave the maximum amount of time for finding bugs.
The talk will begin by discussing documentation from past projects to reveal the foundation of the
framework - the fact that our written communication needs move along a scale from being light and
agile to formal and disciplined, depending on our context. Many factors affect our context as testers,
so the second part of the talk will focus on the factors that change our written communication needs
(often in relation to increasing or decreasing our use of other communication channels) and how
these factors can be used to reason about the level of detail and formality of our documentation.
Biography
Matthew is a Test Strategist for Ivar Jacobson International and a regular speaker at software
engineering events. He has taken breaks from testing to work as a project manager, analyst and
developer, but his true passion will always be finding bugs. He has been involved in all aspects of
testing, from creating automated tests to running process improvement initiatives. More recently, he
has focused his attention on model-based testing and testing within iterative development lifecycles.
11.30 - 12.55pm
Testing has no Future.... Unless
Presenter
Ian Howles, EDS
Level
Intermediate
Target Group
Test Managers and Test Practitioners
Key Points
Separate Testing Career paths are important in organisations
The right skills are required to be an effective tester
Practical Certification is important to sales and reputation
Testing is a whole lifecycle event that requires interaction (and skills) to be conducted efficiently
Abstract
An interactive session about why testing will always be perceived as the poor relation and has no
future unless....
1. The requirement for a "Testing Profession" is realised
2. Test analysis and design skills are added back onto the training plans -
3. Investment, by employers in practical certification
The time is right for testing and testing professionals to move beyond "poor relation" status to become an equal and essential partner in the software development process.
Gartner predicts that the need for software testing services will increase, which will increase the need to strengthen what testing has to offer. Education, training and certification can attract and develop testing professionals to meet that growing need.
So in conclusion, the face of testing is poised to change from a back-end activity that anyone can do to a fully integrated managed service that requires qualified professionals.
Biography
An energetic and experienced Testing Consultant with a 20+ year track record of delivery.
Experienced in working with multiple Software development life cycles in various roles and on different size projects from 5 people to 500 people.
Has held multiple roles in his career including people, team and financial management in addition to his end to end test lifecycle experience.
Full Contact information of the Presenter Name: Ian Surname: Howles Company: Electronic Data Systems Ltd (EDS) Full Postal Address: Registered Office:, Lansdowne House, Berkeley Square, London W1J 6ER E-mail Address: ian.howles@eds.com Phone Number: +44 (0) 7790 492008
11.30 - 12.10pm
How to Boost your Productivity in Software Testing through Successful Outsource Partnerships
Presenter
Mike Bartley
Level
Intermediate
Target Group
Test Managers and Test Practitioners
Key Points
Defining your strategic goals for outsourcing
Practical advice on managing outsource relationships.
Building a business case for outsourcing.
Maximising the benefits from outsourcing.
Abstract
The speaker made a decision to outsource software testing activities in mid-2006. That decision has proved to have had mixed results but overall the benefits have far outstripped the problems. In this workshop we give practical advice on how to ensure your outsourcing experience boosts your corporate software testing productivity.
We start right from the beginning: what are your strategic goals for outsourcing? And then go through
the complete process from outsource partner selection to the practical day-to-day management of
the relationship:
What are your partner selection criteria and what is your evaluation process?
How to identify projects suitable for outsourcing
Differences between outsourcing of test design and test execution
Managing and measuring the quality of the testing
Ensuring suitable technical communication between engineers in the outsource organisation and engineers in ClearSpeed
The day-to-day project management of the outsourced projects
Taking final delivery and closing down a project
Development of long-term relationships with the outsource organisations
The overall goal of the workshop is to give practical advice to allow the attendees to understand how to avoid the pitfalls in outsourcing software testing and how to reap the many potential productivity benefits and achieve their desired strategic goals.
Outsourcing has the potential to significantly boost your productivity in software testing - we need to understand how to do it!
Biography
Dr Mike Bartley graduated from Bristol University with a PhD in Mathematics. Since then he has studied with the Open University obtaining an MSc in SW Engineering and an MBA.
He has been involved in both SW and HW testing for about 20 years. He started in software testing
at IPL and Praxis in Bath , before moving to verify hardware at ST Microelectronics and Infineon in
Bristol . Most recently, as Test and Verification Manager at start-up companies Panasonic and
ClearSpeed in Bristol , he has been responsible for setting up processes for testing and signing off
complex HW/SW products. This has included outsourcing a number of activities to a number of
companies in India. Mike has now set up his own company helping companies outsource their SW
testing and HW verification.
Mike spent 8 years as BCS Chairman in Bristol, has had numerous papers published, presented at a
number of conferences, and has written on SW testing for the Open University.
Full Contact information of the Presenter
Name: Mike
Surname: Bartley
Company: Test and Verification Solutions
Full Postal Address:
Email: mike@tandvsolns.co.uk
Tel: +44(0)7796 307958
Mobile: +4407796 307958
Fax: 0117 903 1001
Presenter
Jonathan Liebling and Justin Stopforth, Carphone Warehouse
Level
Intermediate
Target Group
Test Managers & Test Practitioners
Abstract
Attendees will:
Understand and relate to the challenges of releasing people's potential to deliver
an I.T. Strategy
Varied Roles
Stretch Objectives
Not asking for permission
Understand how a flat and adaptable structure helps to facilitate communication and understanding across all areas of the organisation and helps deliver solutions through
Collegiality/Collaboration/cooperation
Efficiency, scalability, adaptability
Less Bureaucracy
Empowermen
Understand the drivers behind a limitless culture where employees are not boxed in by rigid job specifications
Walls removed
Ability to define your own role within the organisation
Less skills gaps, more opportunities
Self determination
Understand the value associated with encouraging growth within and outside roles to understand, meet and better business expectations, including career inspiration and encouragement to explore roles – delivering internal transformation programmes such as Agile and Rapid delivery techniques.
Soft skills training
Coaching and mentoring
Insights
Transformation
Carphone Warehouse is one of the most ambitious players in the retail and Telecoms space.
A massively successful retail empire across Europe is now being supplemented by a tie-up with the US’s largest consumer electronics retailer in an ambitious move to take on the world in consumer electronics and mobile living.
In such a challenging IT environment with constantly changing requirements and competing priorities, rigidity in roles and responsibilities has proven to restrict and inhibit our ability to deliver.
A cultural revolution has been started - enabling walls to be torn down, greater overlap in roles, encouragement for innovation and enhanced relationship and customer management by leveraging offshore partners and lateral thinking from personal development to customer delivery.
11.30 - 12.55pm
Is Testing on a Kamikaze Course?
Presenter
Michael Pilaeten, CTG
Level
Intermediate
Target Group
Test Managers and Test Practitioners
Key Points
Testing is the victim of its own success
How to increase the number of testers
The added value of testers
How to convince people to become testers
Abstract
As testers, we introduce our methodologies and techniques, based on our professional experience.
We educate people in the fine art of testing. We always leave some knowledge behind. While we
enhance the general understanding of testing, our added value is fading away. After some time, our
presence might become superfluous.
Testing has grown rapidly. Are we becoming the victims of our own success? We might, if we don't
find solutions fast. How can we increase the number of testers? We have seen clients try to
transform blue-collar workers into testers. This might work for easy tasks, such as test execution, but
requires extensive training.
Promoting the education of testers could help. Our IT students are almost pushed into developer
profiles, and hardly come into contact with software testing before they start their career. Only one
way to go: specialisation. Motivate your people to become experts in one specific area.
Full Contact information of the Presenter
Name: Michael
Surname: Pilaeten
Company: CTG
Full Postal Address: Meerstraat 79/1; B-1840 Londerzeel; Belgium
E-mail Address: michael.pilaeten@ctg.com
Phone Number: +32 (0) 477 603514
12.15 - 12.55pm
"Test" Isn't a Four Letter Word
Presenter
Daryl Elfield, Ernst & Young LLP
Level
Introductory and Intermediate
Target Group
Test Managers and Practitioners
Key Points
Process improvement improves quality
Software development process
Improved requirements
Testing is an investment and not a cost
Abstract
Are you tired of arguing about the cost of poor quality? Are you bored of asking your customers to
involve the test team up-front? Are you sick of defending the time and money spent on testing? Me too.
So here are some facts:
1) Productivity is all about the process of turning inputs into outputs.
2) Therefore improving the quality of those inputs, and of the process itself, will lead to increased productivity.
3) Software development is all about the process of turning customer requirements and technical designs into fit-for-purpose applications.
4) Therefore improving the quality of those requirements and designs, and of the development process itself, will lead to increased productivity.
This presentation will demonstrate the clear link between increased quality and increased
productivity in software development, and give you the tools, and facts, you need to persuade your
customers to treat testing as an investment rather than a four letter word - "cost".
Biography
Daryl is currently a Senior Manager in the IT Advisory Service at Ernst and Young. He has over 12
years experience in testing and quality, gained in the UK and USA, delivering major test projects for
blue-chip clients including Barclays, Tesco.com, Capital One, Compaq and Marks & Spencers. When
not working in IT, he has interned at the White House, trained as a Barrister and taken up Swing
dancing.
Full Contact information of the Presenter
Name: Daryl
Surname: Elfield
Company: Ernst & Young LLP
Full Postal Address: Senior Manager; FS IT Advisory; Ernst & Young LLP; 1 More London Place; SE1 2AF; UK
E-mail Address: delfield@uk.ey.com
Phone Numbers: Direct: +44 (0) 20 7951 1439; Assistance Pauline Clinch +44 (0) 20 7951 2767
1.00 - 2.10 LUNCH &
EXHIBITION AND EXHIBITOR'S FORUM
2.10 - 3.10 KEYNOTE
IT Productivity - Governance and Procurement
Tim Willoughby, Local Government Computer Services Board - Ireland
.