People & Teams

With the ever-increasing demand for software products, it is imperative for organizations to move away from trying to "test in" software quality and move toward adopting a comprehensive, total-life cycle software quality management approach. Such an approach is the basis of real software quality assurance (QA)-all the planned and systematic actions necessary to provide confidence that a system will perform satisfactorily in production. In contrast to software quality control (QC), which consists of detection activities such as testing that are product focused, software QA is process focused. Software QA includes defining, establishing, and monitoring the control practices that ensure policies, systems, and processes are effective and efficient across the entire software development life cycle. Linda Westfall focuses on defining the elements and techniques of a comprehensive software QA program.

Companies often invest a lot of time and money into defining their mission statement, expecting it to drive employee behavior toward the stated purpose. Unfortunately this is a myth. Instead it is values that drive behavior, and corporate values are often not part of the mission statement. We'll look at what other companies have posted as their mission statement and their values and how that has affected their business. We'll walk through a common example of how a mission statement without values can lead to project failures. You'll find out how to determine what your company values and how to compare that to what you value-and what to do if they are different. Most importantly, learn how to apply what you've learned in your own situation. See how to define values at the team level, a must in order to ensure effective working relationships and that the right actions are taken by everyone to achieve project goals.

Faster is better for software projects-if and only if all the right elements are in place and ready to go. Sometimes your organization is in a sweet spot-that period of time when your project should start immediately. Other times, it's better to wait. Join Johanna Rothman to discover how to decide whether your project is ready to go, including how to help your managers define the project portfolio to see where your project fits in and how it supports your organization's goals. Johanna discusses fifteen ways to measure and steer projects to help you get to the end faster. Learn about rolling wave scheduling, continuous integration, time-boxing, and much more. In this interactive session, you'll discuss the meaning of "done" so you can help the team finish a project sooner and avoid having it drag on. Although you don't have to use all of the tips, the more you use, the faster your project will run.

Are the challenges confronting your project normal and treatable setbacks or signs of something more serious? Can we treat them with a Band-Aid® and a kiss? Should we call the ambulance? The undertaker? Payson Hall shares patterns he’s observed while consulting on dozens of large software development and systems integration projects-executive sponsors distancing themselves from your project, ebbing morale, aggressive schedules, and more. Although good project teams react to adversity and try to get the job done in spite of troubles, their adaptive behavior can lead to a loss of perspective. Sometimes, teams become desensitized to the warning signs of degrading project health and are slow to respond to significant issues. Learn the symptoms of project problems and regain perspective as you identify the causes and find the remedies.