Project Management

Conference Presentations

Requirements Workshops: What, Why, and How

There's no standard formula for requirements workshops. Each project, business situation, and group of people will combine to make each workshop unique. Preparing for the requirements workshop requires collaboration. It permits you to tap into the collective wisdom of all of the
project stakeholders. In your workshops, participants are active, engaged, committed and task oriented. A well-run workshop builds trust and mutual understand among all the participants. Workshops are not new, but are proven best practices in software development. They can go a
long way not only in product delivery, but also in building a "jelled" team.
Ellen Gottesdiener, EBG Consulting, Inc.
IS and IT Benchmarking: Current Status

Are you having trouble making a business case for benchmarking at your organization? Mark Czarnecki delivers his benchmarking expertise in a presentation designed to help participants impact their corporate culture as well as their benchmarking abilities. He reviews the current status of information systems and technology benchmarking, and he explains current benchmarking theory. The presentation also covers generalized database sources for benchmarking.
Mark Czarnecki, The Benchmarking Network, Inc.
Activity-Based Cost Estimating for Web-Based Software

What does it cost to provide a feature or complete a transaction for Web-based software? In traditional activity-based cost estimating, a company looks at a product's sales activity and resources used in order to determine its cost. But how do we measure the resources used by one product, when all of the company's products share a common Web site or server? Avon Leong explores the matters involved in calculating the ongoing cost of providing online functions, and why it's important. He offers participants strategies to tackle these modern-day eCommerce issues.
Avon Leong, Charles Schwab & Co., Inc
Requirements Are Requirements Are Requirements - Not!

"This isn't what I need," states Customer Bob. "But it's what you said you wanted," replies Engineer Joe. "It's not right. I need something else." We've all encountered this classic users-don't-know-what-they-want scenario. The fact that software professionals continue to have this same experience over and over again suggests that we're overlooking the real reasons for the user/engineer disconnect. This presentation contrasts the different uses of the term "requirements" as it explores the possible solutions to improving understanding between business people and technical people.
Robin Goldsmith, GoPro Management, Inc.
Get Real! Creating Realistic, Actionable Project Schedules

The preparation of a realistic, practical project schedule is an essential management function for obtaining stakeholder commitment, setting expectations, and communicating within the team and organization what is achievable. Doing this preparation well is another challenge-one that must be conquered. Rex Black helps participants see the bigger project scheduling picture by focusing on issues such as constituent tasks, the underlying dependencies between them, and the risks attached to the completion of those tasks.
Rex Black, Rex Black Consulting Services, Inc.
Measurement and the CMM: How Measurement Practices Evolve

People who use the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) for software often struggle with the apparent paradigm shift as they move from level to level, particularly when they reach Level four in the CMM one to five level scheme. This presentation illustrates the characteristics of a measurement program at the different CMM maturity levels. It particularly seeks to demystify the Level four concepts of process capability and process performance baselines, and how these concepts are applicable to all CMM levels. The presenter uses real-world examples from a variety of mid- to high-maturity organizations to show participants how to make the transitions across CMM levels without losing momentum.
Charlie Weber and Beth Layman, TeraQuest Metrics
Function Points! It's Our Middle Name

Function points are measures of software size that are critical to any successful measurement program. The International Function Point Users Group (IFPUG) is the non-profit organization responsible for defining the standard, documenting the rules, and promoting function point usage. This session offers an introduction to function points, including their components, usage, and counting process.
Scott Goldfarb, International Function Point Users Group
Measurement: The CEO Viewpoint

Software managers, process engineers, and measurement specialists often evaluate measurement and metrics based on how they help the software and its customers. Yet it's just as important to think about and quantify how they help the business. In this presentation, Don Winter shares the perspective of measurement from the top-more specifically, which numbers are most critical to the corporate bottom line. Discover how measurement drives senior-level decision making, and why a measurement system must take this viewpoint into account.
Don Winter, TRW Systems
Building a Learning QA Organization

As managers, we're stewards of our company's assets. Each team's capacity to learn-and rate of learning-should be treated as something to be developed, just like coding skills and other intangible corporate assets. Like many software teams, the QA team needs to be able to ramp up fast. However, due to the diversity of projects and customers, they need to know and grow even faster than most. Bill Goleman shares tricks of the learning trade and shows managers how to enhance team learning skills at little or no cost to the company.
Bill Goleman, Mangosoft, Inc.
Did Your Tests Pass or Fail? Answering with Automation

Automated tests using self-verifying data (SVD) can help determine if your query-type tests have the right information or if they are showing you the expected views. In this presentation, Noel Nyman provides a brief overview of an SVD testing method followed by a demonstration of automation techniques that allow you to run random tests on SVDs with millions of records or entries. Using applications such as Microsoft Office, learn how to adapt the techniques taught in this presentation to many different types of applications using most of the common automation tools.
Noel Nyman, Microsoft

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