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Thursday
Aug 21, 2008
From Pointy Hair to Curly Tie... Surviving Project Management
Online

This presentation will take a light-hearted approach to the challenges a QA Manager faces while illustrating techniques that can improve product quality and communication from management to testers.

Speaker Keith Meyer, Lab Director, nResult, Inc.

Thank you to our 2008 Series Sponsors: McAfee & nResult.

Website
Wednesday
Oct 20, 2010
Agile PDX (formerly XPDX) features: Nancy Van Schooenderwoert, "Transient State: From Funding to First Iteration for Embedded Systems"
Intel Hawthorn Farms 3 (HF3) Campus

Does everyone at your company respond to change as fast as your agile team? Or do you have critical partners who simply can't move as fast as your team? Are you required to provide detailed estimates in order to get enough resources to start uncertain and complex projects? How do you even build enough buy-in to avoid death by a thousand cuts? In this presentation, Nancy Van Schooenderwoert will explore practical, proven ways to address these questions.

Who should attend: Anyone trying to build enough buy-in for their company to give Agile methods a genuine try. Embedded systems developers and project leaders who need to envision the concrete workings of Agile practices in their domain, as a first step to making it happen.

Speaker: Nancy Van Schooenderwoert is an Agile Enterprise coach with over a decade of experience applying Agile practices as an engineer, manager, and consultant. She has led Agile change initiatives in safety-critical, highly regulated industries, and coached clients in the art of Agile technical and management leadership. Nancy's experience spans embedded software development and applications in aerospace, factory automation, medical devices, defense systems, as well as in financial services. In 1998 Nancy introduced agile techniques to embedded software, including safety- critical applications. She was among the first to publish advice on the techniques that work in real world embedded projects. She has introduced agile ideas and practices to another field where it was thought to be impossible – data warehousing and large data migrations. Coaches she mentored are now the leaders in this new field applying lean-agile principles to applications where data quality is central. Nancy Van Schooenderwoert is Principal Coach at Lean-Agile Partners Inc. www.LeanAgilePartners.com

Pizza sponsored by PNSQC starts at 6:30 p.m. Program starts at 7:00 p.m.

The Hawthorne Farm MAX station stops right next to Intel. See this map for the correct location:

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Intel+Corporation,+hawthorne+farm,+hillsboro,+or&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=54.401733,61.523437&ie=UTF8&hq=Intel+Corporation,+hawthorne+farm,&hnear=Hillsboro,+Washington,+Oregon&t=h&ll=45.532372,-122.927656&spn=0.01189,0.01502&z=16&iwloc=A

Directions: From Cornell, head South on NE Elam Young Pkwy (near Costco). Take the first left to turn into the Intel parking lot. The HF3 campus will be directly in front of you. Parking is available on both sides of the building. Note: There are two NE Elam Young Pkwy streets that connect with Cornell. Go south on the street closest to Brookwood and Costco (between Brookwood and 51st).

Website
Thursday
Feb 3, 2011
Database Testing: Maximum Coverage with a Minimum of Data
Kells Irish Restaurant & Pub

Maximum Coverage with a Minimum of Data: How Equivalence Classes can be used to narrow down the amount of data needed for analysis

In Quality Assurance, an Equivalence Class is the set of all inputs that can be seen as interchangeable with one another without impacting the results of the test, where only one of them needs to be tested in order to have confidence in the test results. Automation can certainly help facilitate running all scenarios, but it isn't always possible or practical to create a completely automated test suite. This lunch time presentation is ideal for the QA Engineer who is trying create a data set and complimentary set of test cases that accurately validates the code without having to run through a seemingly endless matrix of possibilities.

When making an analysis of the behavior of a system that is based on a large set of data, you have basically three options presented: Full data-set analysis, Analysis of a randomly sampled subset of the data, or Selection of a subset of data based on Equivalence Class Elimination.

In this presentation we will talk about the pro's and con's of each approach, and then focus on how to proceed with the Equivalence Class methodology in greater detail. Please join us for this informative and interactive discussion followed by a Q&A session.

Website
Thursday
Sep 13, 2012
QA Forum Event: The Future of QA
Kells Irish Restaurant & Pub

QA has seen so much happen in the last 5 years, from mobile, to cloud, to social media and beyond - challenging every company to do things faster and still maintain high quality. The question on the table is: Where does QA go from here? We’ve been hearing from our members that they would like a discussion about the future of Quality Assurance, Testing methodologies, and the impact it may have on our career paths. This is highlighted by the need to define the role of QA on an Agile team, which may differ from the classic "career QA” path.

We have assembled a panel of thought leaders representing the academic, business, and practitioner view to discuss and clarify the future path of QA . We hope you can join us for this interactive lunch event!

Click here for more information and to register!.

Website
Tuesday
Sep 18, 2012
SQAUG Presents: A Conversation with James Bach
Con-Way

SQAUG and TAO Presents:

A Conversation With James Bach

James Bach: Author, Public Speaker on All Good Things QA and Principle Consultant for Satisfice,Inc.

James likes to explore the answer to what 'good' means in software development. Come and chat with him about what Rapid Software Testing means, to testers, companies and the definition of quality!

Website
Friday
Sep 21, 2012
CITCON: Continuous Integration Testing Conference
through Collective Agency Downtown

IMPORTANT: Space is limited to 150 participants, so please register to reserve a spot. The event is free, but a donation is suggested.

CITCON, the Continuous Integration and Testing Conference, is a world-wide series of free Open Spaces events for developer-testers, tester-developers and anyone else with an interest in Continuous Integration and the type of Testing that goes along with it.

CITCON provides a forum to connect with other people on topics you care about, to learn from their experience and share your own. Past topics include:

  • What is Continuous Integration?
  • What CI Tools can learn from the Rubber Chicken
  • What Is The One True Language For Writing Tests?
  • The Future of Build Languages
  • BDD is not TDD
  • How Far is End-to-End?
  • Fit for Fun and Profit
  • Overcoming Barriers to Adoption
Website
Wednesday
Oct 10, 2012
SQAUG Presents: "On Complete Testing" with Matt Heuser & Peter Walen
Con-Way

Both Matt and Peter are in Portland for PNSQC. Matt will be a keynote speaker at the event, as well as conducting a full day workshop. Peter will be presenting on Having User Experience Drive Testing. For our event they will be discussing the complete package of testing where they will provide pointers for:

 Explaining testing

 Setting expectations

 Risk management

 Doing more with less

Event Details:

 Onsite parking in front or on the side of Con-way. Please come into the front entrance, and sign in at the reception desk.

 Pizza and beverages will be served

 Event is FREE to the public and NO RSVP is required to attend

Matt Heusser

Software Process Naturalist, Excelon Development Matt Heusser has been developing, testing, and managing software projects for his entire adult life. A Consulting Software Tester and also contributing editor for ST&QA magazine, Matt was the initial organizer of the Great Lakes Software Excellence Conference. In 2008 Matt served as lead organizer for the Agile-Alliance Sponsored workshop on Technical Debt. Matt contributes to the STP Community Blog, and his personal blog, "Creative Chaos", is consistently highly ranked among testing blogs. After contributing a chapter to "Beautiful Testing", by O'Reilly, and finishing up a two-year stint as a part-time instructor in Information Systems at Calvin College, Matt recently served as Lead Editor for "How to Reduce the Cost of Software Testing" (Taylor and Francis, 2011). He is also a frequent presenter at software quality conferences.

Pete Walen

Quality Assurance Engineer, ACI Worldwide Peter Walen has been in software development for over 25 years. After working many years as a programmer, he moved to software testing and QA. Following a brief foray in Project Management and Business Analysis, he returned to software testing. He has worked in the fields of insurance and finance, manufacturing, higher education/universities, retail, distribution and point of sale systems. Peter is an active member of several testing associations, an active blogger on software testing, and presents at software quality conferences around the world.

For more on Matt and Pete: http://www.linkedin.com/in/mheusserhttp://www.linkedin.com/pub/peter-walen/3/55/100

=====================================================

SQAUG is Portland/Vancouver area’s only Software Quality Assurance User Group! We are BRAND NEW, and would like to extend a warm welcome to everyone who would like to participate in a user group dedicated to growing the Quality Assurance field.

SQAUG is made up of a group of SQA professionals who have banded together in an open forum to learn from each other through a series of interactive discussions, engaged debates, training presentations, exploring tools, and general networking and sharing of job opportunities. Our goals are to expand knowledge about Software Quality to all professionals who are passionate about their careers, and take Software Quality seriously.

SQAUG is very excited to have such great speakers for this event!

Website
Thursday
Oct 11, 2012
Agile Testing Open Northwest
World Trade Center

Sponsored by AgilePDX, Agile Open Northwest, TAO QA & Dev Forums, PNSQC:

"Agile Testing: How do WE Make it Work?"

As our organizations move toward "Agile” for developing software, we all face the challenge of understanding how to adapt our former roles and ways of working to new work roles and processes. How do we ensure the continued value of testing?

Join us in Open Space to share your questions, challenges, strategies, success stories, and how you've overcome stumbling blocks.

In small groups, we’ll discuss topics such as:

· How is Agile testing different from how we’ve always done it? · How do we know what to test? · How do we know what not to test? · On Agile teams, when does testing happen and whose job is it? · What is Exploratory Testing and why should we care? · How do regression tests work? · How does testing improve my design? Should it? · How do we ensure it is cost effective? · What do people mean when they say, "no defects”? · Does Agile change how we test or does it just raise the existing issues?

Bring the topics you feel passion for and add them to the list!

Each self-organizing discussion group will create a document or other record of their discussion, ideas, questions, and insights. We’ll share everyone’s experiences at the end of the day.

Who should attend?

· Testers facing an Agile adoption/People new to the testing role/Testers eager to jump in · Devs who want to get serious about defect-free code · CTOs and Managers of Test/Validation, Dev, Application Delivery · Academics preparing new software/IT professionals for the real world

Cost to attend: $75 per person (Register early. We expect to sell out.)

Website
Friday
Nov 2, 2012
AgilePDX Downtown Pub Lunch: QA's role on Agile Teams
McMenamins Ringlers Pub

This month, we’re talking about QA's role on the Agile Team.

Fresh from a successful ATONW (Agile Testing Open Northwest) we will delve deeper and discuss what QA's role is on agile teams.

Same bat time; same bat place: noon on Friday at Ringler’s (not Ringler’s Annex, keep heading east) on Burnside. Good food. Good beer. Good, straight talk.

Website
Thursday
Feb 28, 2013
QA Forum: 2013 the Year of Responsive Web Design $45 Nonmembers
Thetus Corporation

As mobile web usage has exploded over the past few years, Responsive Web Design (RWD) has become one of the go-to solutions to provide content across a universe of different browsers and devices. Apps and websites have merged into one. In simple terms, a responsive web design uses "media queries" to figure out what resolution of device it's being served on. Flexible images and fluid grids then size correctly to fit the screen. From a QA view, how can we effectively test RWD. The Technology Association of Oregon (TAO) is excited to provide an opportunity to gather and discuss lessons learned and real life strategies to test these applications.

On Thursday, February 28th, the Quality Assurance Forum of the TAO is presenting a panel discussion on Responsive Web Design – Testing. Come join us for an engaging evening with your SQA peers centered on how to test Responsive Web.

Panelists:

Lyza Danger Gardner, co-founder, Cloud Four Since co-founding Portland, Ore.-based mobile web start-up Cloud Four (http://www.cloudfour.com) in 2007, Lyza has tortured and thrilled herself with the intricate ins and outs of the bazillion devices and browsers now accessing the web globally. Lyza and co-founder Jason Grigsby are the authors of Head First Mobile Web.

Trent Peterson, co-founder, AppThwack - Trent Peterson spent seven years at Intel designing system-automation solutions trusted to test products used by millions of customers with an emphasis on simplicity and user experience. He left in early 2012 to co-found AppThwack,a mobile app testing service that helps developers quickly and automatically test their apps on real devices.

Pawel Wojnarowicz, co-founder, AppThwack - Pawel Wojnarowicz built an automation platform in his spare time that became the official solution for testing all wireless products at Intel. Pawel left after nine years to co-found AppThwack, a mobile app testing service that helps developers quickly and automatically test their apps on real devices.

Event Details: When: Thursday, February 28, 2013 Time: 5:30 – 8:30 PM Where: Thetus, 34 Northwest 1st Avenue, Portland, OR 97209 Cost: $25 Member | $45 Nonmember To Register: 503-228-5452

Website
Wednesday
Mar 20, 2013
SQAUG : Got Software? Get Automating!! A guide for the Beginner!!
Con-Way

A guide for the beginner: How to start up small with automation, and build up your portfolio! How to make your testing life easier!!

GUEST SPEAKER: Alan Ark, QA Manager at Compli

Alan Ark is the QA Manager at Compli, in Portland, Oregon. Alan has gained tremendous experience working for Unircu, Switchboard.com, and Thomson Financial – First Call. Mr. Ark has previously presented ‘Euro: An Automated Solution to Currency Conversion’ at Quality Week ’99, and ‘Collaborative Quality: One Company’s Recipe for Software Success’ at PNSQC 2008 and YES! You CAN Bring Test Automation to Your Company! at PNSQC 2011. At Compli, he is using Ruby to solve problems both large and small.

His LinkedIn profile can be viewed at http://www.linkedin.com/in/arkie

SQAUG is Portland/Vancouver area’s only Software Quality Assurance User Group! We are BRAND NEW, and would like to extend a warm welcome to everyone who would like to participate in a user group dedicated to growing the Quality Assurance field.

SQAUG is made up of a group of SQA professionals who have banded together in an open forum to learn from each other through a series of interactive discussions, engaged debates, training presentations, exploring tools, and general networking and sharing of job opportunities. Our goals are to expand knowledge about Software Quality to all professionals who are passionate about their careers, and take Software Quality seriously.

Website
Wednesday
Apr 17, 2013
SQAUG Presents: Murky Waters: Where Do Tests Come From?
Con-Way

SQAUG Presents:

Murky Waters: Where Do Tests Come From? A discussion about requirements, and other sources for the development of test cases

Moderated by: Mary Torres Lead QA Engineer, Viewpoint Construction Software, Portland, OR

at Con-Way 2055 NW Savier, Portland, OR 97209 on Wednesday April 17, 2013 5:30pm until 7:30pm

Where do tests come from? Pittsburg. No not really. Actually, we hope to discuss the various sources for tests in the different SDLC environments. We want everyone to share good practices for gleaning information needed for testing, including; rummaging through requirements, user stories, acceptance criteria, code commentary, etc. Do your Product Managers write up test cases, DEV’s? Business Analysts? Tech facilitators? Remember Use Cases? Much of what we used to do, has become muddled and wrapped up in terminology and processes that no longer mean the same things they used to. Let’s talk it through and see if we can help each other in this murky water.

Mary Torres; our moderator for this event currently works at Viewpoint Construction Software as Lead QA Engineer. She a degree in Computer Science, has almost 17 years working in the software industry, and has worked in QA for that entire time. Her work experience includes QA management, automated testing, and functional testing. She is also a certified scrum master. Mary has worked on projects that have utilized traditional Waterfall and Agile/Scrum SDLC’s.

Event is FREE and Open to the Public

Agenda: 5:30-6:00PM: Pizza, Networking and SQAUG Announcements 6:00-7:30PM: Scheduled Moderator: Mary Torres

Details: • Event is Free to the public • Onsite parking (directions below) • Light dinner and beverages will be served • No RSVP is required to attend

SQAUG is Portland/Vancouver area’s only Software Quality Assurance User Group! We are NEW, and would like to extend a warm welcome to everyone who would like to participate in a user group dedicated to growing the Quality Assurance field.

SQAUG is made up of a group of SQA professionals who have banded together in an open forum to learn from each other through a series of interactive discussions, engaged debates, training presentations, exploring tools, and general networking and sharing of job opportunities. Our goals are to expand knowledge about Software Quality to all professionals who are passionate about their careers, and take Software Quality seriously.

For more on SQAUG: http://www.sqaug.org/ Linked in: SQAUG Meetup: SQAUGPDX

Website
Tuesday
Aug 20, 2013
Quality Enablement through Agile Testing
Microsoft Portland Office (Pearl District)

Producing high quality software, closely aligned with the constantly changing requirements of business stakeholders is more important than ever. Especially in an Agile development setting, every team member has to ensure that their work is of the highest quality – all the time. Testers can verify quality but not ensure it – proper QA procedures and a quality mindset are essential for high performance development teams.

During this event, your local Microsoft Developer Technology Specialist will provide you an inside look at Black Box Testing, show you the capabilities of Microsoft Test Manager, and address the Developer’s experience in quality enablement through white box testing. Furthermore, we’ll cover how quality is an accountability and addressable by the entire development organization.

You’ll also have an opportunity to learn the value of Build, Deploy, Test, and Lab Management from our ALM Partner, Crosslake Technologies, and gain exposure to enterprise cloud based cross platform application testing with Perfecto Mobile. We look forwarding to seeing you there!

Website
Wednesday
Sep 25, 2013
TAO QA Webinar: Crowd Source Testing
Webinar

Crowdsourcing has become widely acknowledged as a productivity solution across numerous industries. However, for companies incorporating crowdsourcing into existing business practices, specific issues must be addressed: What problem are we trying to solve? How do we control the process? How do we incentivize people to achieve our goals? Ultimately, the key to successfully employing a crowdsourcing model is to move beyond the realm of the "mob" to create an engaged, interactive community of diverse and skilled professionals. In the world of quality assurance, crowdsourcing has the potential to effectively solve emerging challenges and take your testing to new heights. Using real-world examples, uTest's John Montgomery explains how you can leverage the crowd to complement your internal systems, ensure systems work as intended under real-world conditions and effectively manage the scalability of efforts.

Website
Wednesday
Oct 2, 2013
Fall Puppet Triage-a-Thon
Puppet

Interested in contributing to Puppet? Want to come hang out with fun people and do geeky things all day? Come to our Triage-A-Thon on Wednesday, October 2nd! You can participate virtually from anywhere in the world, or join us in person in our office in Portland, OR.

If you plan to attend, please register to help us plan for food and space!

Our goal is to review all the open tickets in the Puppet and Module projects to: - Update and confirm that issues are still relevant - Ensure tickets are in the right status and all the right information is present to fix the problem - Close any invalid or no longer relevant tickets

We’ll assign blocks of tickets to every participant, explain what you need to do, and provide people on the ground to answer questions and help you make decisions. If you want a few more details about how you can help, you should read about the process we use to triage bugs.

Participate online worldwide: Virtually we’ll provide an IRC channel (#puppethack), IM, and rewards for people who triage tickets and get involved. The Triage-a-Thon will be happening online from 1am-5pm PDT so that our friends and employees outside the US can also participate, so drop in any time that works for you.

In Portland: Join us in person at our office in the Pearl! We'll provide breakfast, coffee, a delicious lunch, snacks and space in our office. Please bring a laptop computer with you. The in-office portion of the Triage-a-Thon starts at 9am, and runs all day, so you're welcome to drop in at any point.

The first 200 people who help for at least 2 hours will be sent a special edition Puppet Triage-a-Thon 2013 t-shirt, and we'll have additional prizes for top participants!

Website
Wednesday
Feb 19, 2014
Agile PDX Evening: The Role of QA in Scrum - Leveraging Agile for Defect Prevention
Puppet

The key to successful adoption of any development methodology is a clear understanding of the roles and responsibilities of each team member within that framework. As agile continues its rapid adoption, it’s essential to define the role of QA in Scrum as concretely as we’ve defined the other team roles.
Agile methodology gives QA an opportunity for broader and deeper involvement in the software development lifecycle, enabling us more effectively to ensure quality, not by finding defects, but by preventing the introduction of defects in the first place. Because quality starts with the user story, QA can drive defect prevention by asking key questions of product owners during requirements definition. We can ensure that comprehensive acceptance criteria are in place, to drive high quality development, testing, and story acceptance. We can also ask technical questions of developers. This results in more thoroughly defined user stories and prompts developers to consider additional issues, and avoid pitfalls in advance of implementation. Finally, to prevent the steady growth of technical debt, we must remind scrum masters to plan story points for fixing both known and unknown defects as part of every sprint. This presentation will teach you how to leverage Agile within your organization to see immediate improvements in the quality of your software delivery.

About the speaker... Karen Ascheim Wysopal has been in software QA for over 20 years, in roles including tester, release manager, software engineer, test automation engineer, and 8 years as QA manager. She’s spent the past five years at Hewlett Packard, and currently heads Quality & PMO in the Software and Web Services organization, overseeing HPConnected.com, ePrintcenter.com, and related HP web-connected print technologies. She was a leader in the organization’s transition to Agile last year. Karen has presented at the Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference. Her professional passions are building high functioning innovative teams from the ground up, defining processes that encompass a holistic approach to quality, and speaking on best practices to foster improvements across the industry. She can’t seem to stop breaking software.

Website
Wednesday
Mar 19, 2014
Software QA User Group (SQAUG)
Con-Way

SQAUG Presents: Building Automation on Business Concepts – Michael Cowan, SQE Viewpoint Construction SW Topic: Building Automation on Business Concepts - A Real World Example

Come participate in an open discussion of advanced automation concepts using real world examples from Viewpoints massive ERP Solution. There will be an initial presentation on key concepts, followed by a code review of real tests and ending in an open discussion of how these concepts can be applied to your work

The presentation will focus on how Viewpoint has structured its automation framework to focus on common business concepts and not a single technology. We wi ll show you how a single test can be written so it runs against a WinForm UI, Web UI, REST API or even directly against a database.

This framework was implemented in C# (but I have implemented Java and Scala versions at past companies) and was executing test cases in less than 30 days. Everything we discuss will be targeted at how to get something viable up and running in less than 30 days

About Our Speaker: Michael Cowan has over 20 years’ experience in the
software industry, and has held individual and management roles in both QA and Development. His passions have always been automation, and he has been a lead engineer on several successf ul automation frameworks

Agenda: 5:30-6:00 PM: Pizza and Networking 6:00-6:15PM: SQAUG Announcements 6:15-7:30PM: Michael Cowan will discuss automating business concepts, and any questions you’ve sent.

Details: . Event is Free to the public · On site parking (directions below) · Light Hors d'oeuvres and beverages will be served · No RSVP is required to attend

SQAUG is Portland/Vancouver area’s only Software Quality Assurance User Group! We are BRAND NEW,
and would like to extend a warm welcome to everyone who would like to participate in a user group dedicated to growing the Quality Assurance field.

SQAUG is made up of a group of SQA professionals who have banded together in an open forum to learn from each other through a series of interactive discuss ions, engaged debates, training presentations, exploring tools, and general networking and sharing of job opportunities. Our goals are to expand knowledge about Software Quality to all professionals who are passionate about their careers, and take Software Quality seriously.

For more on SQAUG: http://www.sqaug.org/ Linked in: SQAUG

Website
Wednesday
Jul 9, 2014
SQAUG - Viral QA: Making Progress in Software Quality One Small Step at a Time
Con-Way

Viral QA takes its name from the process of a virus infiltrating a host, adapting to its new environment and spreading itself throughout the system. It is an iterative approach to implementing structured QA into projects and teams that are ‘too busy to do it right’.

Viral QA is not meant to replace traditional QA, instead it enables the QA Team to continue driving structured QA forward even when the rest of the organization is struggling and overwhelmed.

About Our Speaker: Michael Cowan has over 20 years’ experience in the software industry, and has held individual and management roles in both QA and Development. His passions have always been automation, and he has been a lead engineer on several successful automation frameworks.

Website
Wednesday
Sep 17, 2014
SQAUG Presents: Lean Sensei Robert Shaw
Con-Way

This presentation will describe barriers to superior customer service including waste, process issues, and cultural challenges in the workforce. We will also discuss the importance of the Plan, Do, Check, Act cycle. Improvement methodologies covered include: Process Improvement, Problem Solving, and Daily Kata.

Website
Monday
Oct 20, 2014
The Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference (PNSQC)
through World Trade Center

Annually, PNSQC provides a two-day technical program and a one-day workshop during our fall conference. PNSQC events draw participants from Universities and Corporations from around the world. Among the major participants are ADP, Boeing Computer Services, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Mentor Graphics, Tektronix, Microsoft, Portland State University and Oregon State University.

Website
Wednesday
Oct 22, 2014
SQAUG Presents: UX & SW testing - Identifying specific design areas where UX and testing pair well
Con-Way

The team needs to build a product. The team readily recognizes the testers’ need to work with the developers but the same team often doesn’t consider that the testers also need to work with the UX staff. Often the UX staff is tucked away in a different part of the office, working with multiple teams and yet rarely working directly with the testers. Why? How can testers review a product without a good understanding of the design? Testers need closer access to UX and UX would benefit from working directly with the testers. Karen highlights specific design areas where UX and testing pair well.

About Our Speaker: Karen N. Johnson is an independent software test consultant. Her client work is often centered on helping organizations at an enterprise level. In recent years, she has helped companies transitioning to Agile software development. While focused on software testing and predominantly working with the testers throughout an organization, Karen helps teams and organizations improve quality overall. Her professional activities include speaking at conferences both in the US and internationally. Karen is a contributing author to the book, Beautiful Testing by O’Reilly publishers. She is the co-founder of the WREST workshop, the Workshop for Regulated Software Testing. She has published numerous articles; she blogs and tweets about her experiences. Find her on Twitter as @karennjohnson (note the two n’s) and her website: http://www.karennicolejohnson.com

Agenda: 5:30-6:00PM: Pizza and Networking 6:00-6:15PM: SQAUG Announcements 6:15-7:30PM: Karen Johnson Presents/Q&A

Details: • Event is Free to the public • Onsite parking (directions below) • Light Hors d'oeuvres and beverages will be served • No RSVP is required to attend

Website
Wednesday
Dec 10, 2014
SQAUG Holiday Celebration Party!!
Touché Restaurant & Bar

SQAUG Presents a Winter Celebration & Networking Event!

Let’s get together for FOOD, LIBATIONS, and Networking of Course!!!

at

Touché Restaurant & Bar 1425 NW Glisan Street Portland, 97209

on

Wednesday, December 10, 2014 from 5:30pm until 8:00pm

Join the Fun: We are well into our third year, and going strong! Come celebrate with us, blow off some work-steam – and enjoy refreshments with your SQAUG compatriots! Whether you talk tech, look for work, or just enjoy the evening – it’s going to be great to see all of you again!! Join us!!

Details:

• We have a section reserved in the upstairs pool room at Touché Restaurant, just ask for the SQAUG group

• Appetizers will be served and pool tables can be reserved

• Come mingle with us! Event is FREE to the public and NO RSVP is required to attend

• There is a free parking lot and surrounding metered parking available

A HUGE THANK YOU to our Sponsor for this event:

CorSource 419 SW 11th Avenue • Suite 300 • Portland, Oregon 97205 • 503-726-4545

SQAUG is Portland/Vancouver area’s only Software Quality Assurance User Group! We are new, and would like to extend a warm welcome to everyone who would like to participate in a user group dedicated to growing the Quality Assurance field.

SQAUG is made up of a group of SQA professionals who have banded together in an open forum to learn from each other through a series of interactive discussions, engaged debates, training presentations, exploring tools, and general networking and sharing of job opportunities. Our goals are to expand knowledge about Software Quality to all professionals who are passionate about their careers, and take Software Quality seriously.

For more on SQAUG:

WEB: http://www.sqaug.org/

Linked in: SQAUG

Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/SQAUGPDX/

Website
Wednesday
Jan 14, 2015
SQAUG Presents : QA in an Agile World
Con-Way

SQAUG Presents:

QA in an Agile World

by Lloyd Bell, Quality Engineering Manager at CrowdCompass by Cvent

at Con-Way 2055 NW Savier, Portland, OR 97209 on Wednesday January 14, 2014 5:30pm until 7:30pm

Event is FREE and Open to the Public

As more companies are moving toward agile development, there isn't a lot of knowledge on where QA fits into the development life cycle. The objective is to go over some common problems and some possible solutions that could be implemented for those riding the agile train.

About Our Speaker: Lloyd Bell is an 18 year veteran of software and hardware testing and development. Lloyd has experience in game design, voice acting, test management, has been a producer on multiple titles and has also started a 3rd party customer service and testing lab. He has recently worked with Microsoft on the Connected Experiences team and has led teams to help with the release of Microsoft’s day-one launch of the Windows 8 platform. Lloyd is currently working at CrowdCompass by Cvent as the Quality Engineering manager. CrowdCompass helps organizations make their conferences, meetings, conventions, and trade shows a lot more popular through the power of mobile event apps. They have developed thousands of apps for events of all sizes and industries each year. Lloyd has been a resident of Portland for the last 4 years.

Agenda: 5:30-6:00PM: Pizza and Networking 6:00-6:15PM: SQAUG Announcements 6:15-7:30PM: Presentation/Q&A

Details: • Event is Free to the public • Onsite parking (directions below) • Light Hors d'oeuvres and beverages will be served • No RSVP is required to attend

SQAUG is Portland/Vancouver area’s only Software Quality Assurance User Group! We are BRAND NEW, and would like to extend a warm welcome to everyone who would like to participate in a user group dedicated to growing the Quality Assurance field.

SQAUG is made up of a group of SQA professionals who have banded together in an open forum to learn from each other through a series of interactive discussions, engaged debates, training presentations, exploring tools, and general networking and sharing of job opportunities. Our goals are to expand knowledge about Software Quality to all professionals who are passionate about their careers, and take Software Quality seriously.

For more on SQAUG: http://www.sqaug.org/ Meetup: SQAUGPDX Linked in: SQAUG

Wednesday
Feb 18, 2015
SQAUG Presents: Using Pre-mortem Meetings to Predict and Prevent Failures
Con-Way

SQAUG Presents:

Using Pre-mortem Meetings to Predict and Prevent Failures

by Julie Green

at Con-Way 2055 NW Savier, Portland, OR 97209 on Wednesday February 18, 2015 5:30pm until 7:30pm

Event is FREE and Open to the Public

Post-Mortems or Retrospective Meetings can be too little too late. Learn how to increase your ability to predict failures by 30% by holding a Pre-mortem meeting. Using the Pre-mortem strategy you can stop the failures from ever occurring.

About Our Speaker: Julie Green has been a QA Engineer for 10 years and has experience with Agile and Waterfall methodologies. In her research on Pre-mortems she has contacted the inventor, Gary Klein, and is in discussions with two of his colleagues who use Pre-mortem meetings in their work. She is currently looking for a group willing to try a Pre-mortem discussion. She can be contacted at [email protected]. Agenda: 5:30-6:00PM: Pizza and Networking 6:00-6:15PM: SQAUG Announcements 6:15-7:30PM: Presentation/Q&A

Details: · Event is Free to the public · Onsite parking (directions below) · Light Hors d'oeuvres and beverages will be served · No RSVP is required to attend

SQAUG is Portland/Vancouver area’s only Software Quality Assurance User Group! We are BRAND NEW, and would like to extend a warm welcome to everyone who would like to participate in a user group dedicated to growing the Quality Assurance field.

SQAUG is made up of a group of SQA professionals who have banded together in an open forum to learn from each other through a series of interactive discussions, engaged debates, training presentations, exploring tools, and general networking and sharing of job opportunities. Our goals are to expand knowledge about Software Quality to all professionals who are passionate about their careers, and take Software Quality seriously.

For more on SQAUG: http://www.sqaug.org/ Meetup: SQAUGPDX Linked in: SQAUG

Website
Wednesday
Mar 18, 2015
SQAUG Presents: Non-Expert Automation Testing (NEAT)
Con-Way

SQAUG Presents:

Non-Expert Automation Testing (NEAT)

by Loren Brown

at Con-Way 2055 NW Savier, Portland, OR 97209 on Wednesday March 18, 2015 5:30pm until 7:30pm

Event is FREE and Open to the Public

Non-Expert Automation Testing (NEAT) is an automation testing framework that enables non-experts to harness the power of data-driven, Selenium automation tests. The NEAT web portal simplifies and guides the creation of otherwise complex scripts through the use of an intuitive user interface that manages a web element object repository, test case input data, and test scripts. This approach is intended to enable test script automation to be completed in hours or days instead of weeks or months. The motivation behind NEAT is to equip business analysts, without automation expertise, with an intuitive tool to create and execute sophisticated, automated end-to-end testing scripts. This framework enables teams to increase automated test coverage and allows the highly skilled automation developers to focus on more complex automation testing needs of the organization.

About Our Speaker: Loren J. Brown is a Test Automation Architect and owner of Quantum Peg, Inc. He is currently teaming up with John Cvetko from TEK Associates to develop the DEAP testing tool. After obtaining a Bachelor’s in Computer Science at Portland State University, Loren worked for over two decades as a QA Engineer in various capacities. At Intel Corporation he spent a little over a dozen years in various product teams and Intel Labs as a QA Lead in various software projects including Video Conferencing, IP Telephony, TCP/IP Network Performance, and others. He spent over six years at Automatic Data Processing (ADP) as a QA Lead developing various test automation frameworks and harnesses, and multiple software lifecycle data visualization projects. When he carves out time for hobbies, Loren likes tinkering with microcontrollers and small electronics projects. Agenda: 5:30-6:00PM: Pizza and Networking 6:00-6:15PM: SQAUG Announcements 6:15-7:30PM: Presentation/Q&A

Details: · Event is Free to the public · Onsite parking (directions below) · Light Hors d'oeuvres and beverages will be served · No RSVP is required to attend

SQAUG is the Portland/Vancouver area’s leading Software Quality Assurance User Group. We are in our 3rd year and extend a warm welcome to everyone to participate in a group dedicated to growing the Software Quality Assurance profession.

SQAUG is a group of SQA professionals who come together in an open forum to learn from each other. We engage in discussions, debates, presentations, explore tools of the trade, network, and share job opportunity information. Our goals are to expand knowledge of Software Quality to all professionals who are passionate about their careers and take software quality seriously.

For more on SQAUG: http://www.sqaug.org/ Meetup: SQAUGPDX Linked in: SQAUG

Website
Tuesday
Apr 7, 2015
RCSQE Presents: 'Multiply with Beaker' by Alice Nodelman (Puppet Labs)
CrowdCompass by Cvent

Rose City Software Quality Engineers (RCSQE)

Empowering software professionals to build better software for tomorrow by championing quality today

Tonight's discussion: 'Multiply with Beaker' by Alice Nodelman (Puppet Labs)

Beaker is an acceptance level testing tool developed by Puppet Labs that supports both multi-platform and multi-virtualization techniques.  Beaker tests combine basic Ruby with a custom DSL and are designed to be executed no matter the operating system or cloud provider selected at runtime.  SUTs of a variety of platforms (linux, mac, windows, etc) are provisioned on a variety of virtualization systems and are then validated and configured.  The result is a SUT abstraction that allows automators to write understandable and powerful scripts.

Website
Wednesday
May 20, 2015
SQAUG Presents: The Importance of Abstraction in Automation Projects
Con-Way

SQAUG Presents:

The Importance of Abstraction in Automation Projects at Con-Way 2055 NW Savier, Portland, OR 97209 on Wednesday May 20, 2015 5:30pm until 7:30pm

Event is FREE and Open to the Public

The majority of automation projects fail, most within the first 6-12 months. Initially it’s easy to put something together that works for a small number of test cases, but as the application evolves, the troubleshooting/maintenance needs of the tests quickly overcome the ability of the team. Eventually (around 6-12 months) a new engineer takes over and restarts the automation effort in a new direction, often with the same issues.

This presentation will be focused on how to use the OOP concept of Abstraction to reduce the maintenance costs of automation and extend the life of your frameworks. Additional benefits will be discussed, like the ability to change the Automation Technology without rebuilding all your tests.

These concepts will work with 3rd party automation products like QTP as well as homegrown frameworks. You will get the most value from abstraction when its added at the beginning of the projects, but we will discuss how they can be leverages in larger, existing frameworks. Level: Intermediate. Knowledge of automation concepts along with some basic understanding of development practices will be assumed.

All code examples will be shown in C#, but the concepts will apply to any tool or language.

Supporting Material https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C1CHFX_enUS550US550&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=Why+software+automation+fails

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstraction_%28computer_science%29#Abstraction_in_object_oriented_programming

About our speaker: Michael Cowan is a Principal QA Engineer at Viewpoint Construction Software. He has over 20 years’ experience in the software industry, and has held individual and management roles in both QA and Development. His passions have always been automation, and he has been a lead engineer on several successful automation frameworks.

Agenda: 5:30-6:00PM: Pizza and Networking 6:00-6:15PM: SQAUG Announcements 6:15-7:30PM: Presentation/Q&A

Details: · Event is Free to the public · Onsite parking (directions below) · Light Hors d'oeuvres and beverages will be served · No RSVP is required to attend

SQAUG is Portland/Vancouver area’s only Software Quality Assurance User Group! We are in our 3rd year and would like to extend a warm welcome to everyone who would like to participate in a user group dedicated to growing the Quality Assurance field.

SQAUG is made up of a group of SQA professionals who have banded together in an open forum to learn from each other through a series of interactive discussions, engaged debates, training presentations, exploring tools, and general networking and sharing of job opportunities. Our goals are to expand knowledge about Software Quality to all professionals who are passionate about their careers, and take Software Quality seriously.

For more on SQAUG: http://www.sqaug.org/ Meetup: SQAUGPDX Linked in: SQAUG

Website
Wednesday
Jun 17, 2015
SQAUG Presents: QA and The Role They Play in Team Dialogue
Con-Way

SQAUG Presents:

QA and The Role They Play in Team Dialogue at Con-Way 2055 NW Savier, Portland, OR 97209 on Wednesday June 17, 2015 5:30pm until 7:30pm

Event is FREE and Open to the Public

Dialogue is a contraction from the Greek words for through and words. It suggests an activity aimed at eliciting meaning…

The Greeks introduced the idea that individuals are not intelligent on their own, that it's only by reasoning together that they are able to uncover the truth for themselves. …By questioning and probing each other, carefully dissecting and analyzing ideas, finding the inconsistencies, never attacking or insulting but always searching for what they can accept between them, they can gradually attain deeper understanding and insight.

The role of QA is often seen as one that only reports negatively on the work of others: “…found a bug with your code”; “…the way you designed this isn’t good for the end user”; “…You never include requirements in your stories…and when you do, they lack sufficient details.”

The importance of True Dialogue is that it allows positive reactions and outcomes, from negative input…when done well, the benefits can be extraordinary!

About our speaker: Joe Famme is a Quality Minded individual, who’s been helping to improve the quality of his teams, and the software they work on, for over 20 years. He started in phone support with WordPerfect, in the early nineties. After about a year and a half of that…and the release of Windows 3.0…he discovered the world of QA, and has never looked back.

Besides WordPerfect, Joe’s also worked for internationally known companies Novell, Corel, Intel, and Sage.

Joe’s been working in the Portland Tech Community since 1996. He’s been part of several strong Oregon Companies and several startup companies, .com’s & .bomb’s. And, Joe’s been part of the SQAUG organization since before it became a public group.

In all of his years of being part of the Quality Assurance field, he has found that the quest for the mastery of effective communication and true dialogue has been a key element to success. And, he hopes that some of the dialogue during his presentation provides at least one insight for all attendees to take back to their teams.

Agenda: 5:30-6:00PM: Pizza and Networking 6:00-6:15PM: SQAUG Announcements 6:15-7:30PM: Presentation/Q&A

Details: · Event is Free to the public · Onsite parking (directions below) · Light Hors d'oeuvres and beverages will be served · No RSVP is required to attend

SQAUG is Portland/Vancouver area’s only Software Quality Assurance User Group! We are in our 3rd year and would like to extend a warm welcome to everyone who would like to participate in a user group dedicated to growing the Quality Assurance field.

SQAUG is made up of a group of SQA professionals who have banded together in an open forum to learn from each other through a series of interactive discussions, engaged debates, training presentations, exploring tools, and general networking and sharing of job opportunities. Our goals are to expand knowledge about Software Quality to all professionals who are passionate about their careers, and take Software Quality seriously.

For more on SQAUG: http://www.sqaug.org/ Meetup: SQAUGPDX Linked in: SQAUG

Website
Wednesday
Oct 21, 2015
SQAUG Presents: QA and Poetry - Scott Poole is here to discuss how these two disciplines are surprisingly related!
Con-Way

SQAUG Presents:

QA and Poetry - how these two disciplines are surprisingly related at Con-Way 2055 NW Savier, Portland, OR 97209 on Wednesday October 21, 2015 5:30pm until 7:30pm Event is FREE and Open to the Public

This month, we are excited to welcome Scott Poole for a talk on how writing a poem is similar to QA. You have to anticipate the pitfalls an audience and a user might fall into. To illustrate this, Scott will read several humorous poems that reflect on this QA type experience. He will discuss about how both disciplines have influenced each other and the benefits gained. Scott is also one of the keynote speakers for the PNSQC’s October events and will be tailoring his presentation specifically for SQAUG!

About our speaker: Scott Poole is most well known as the “House Poet” on the weekly Live Wire! public radio variety show, taped in Portland and broadcast nationally by Public Radio International. However, he is also a software developer. Currently, he’s the Senior Web Developer for Columbia United Providers in Vancouver, WA. He’s been writing code for 9 years and poetry for 25. He is the author of three books of poetry, The Cheap Seats, Hiding from Salesmen and, most recently, The Sliding Glass Door.

Agenda: 5:30-6:00PM: Pizza and Networking 6:00-6:15PM: SQAUG Announcements 6:15-7:30PM: Presentation/Q&A

Details: • Event is Free to the public • Onsite parking (directions below) • Light Hors d'oeuvres and beverages will be served • No RSVP is required to attend

SQAUG is Portland/Vancouver area’s only Software Quality Assurance User Group! We are in our 3rd year and would like to extend a warm welcome to everyone who would like to participate in a user group dedicated to growing the Quality Assurance field.

SQAUG is made up of a group of SQA professionals who have banded together in an open forum to learn from each other through a series of interactive discussions, engaged debates, training presentations, exploring tools, and general networking and sharing of job opportunities. Our goals are to expand knowledge about Software Quality to all professionals who are passionate about their careers, and take Software Quality seriously.

For more on SQAUG: http://www.sqaug.org

Meetup: SQAUGPDX Linked in: SQAUG

Website
Monday
Oct 17, 2016
Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference (PNSQC)
through World Trade Center

A two-day technical program and one day of workshops for software quality engineers, testers, managers, consultants, software developers, Agilists and non-Agilist.

A featured speaker is author, consultant and “Pragmatic Manager” Johanna Rothman of the Rothman Consulting Group, Inc. She will lead a workshop on using Agile + Lean to deliver business value every day..

PNSQC events draw participants from Universities and Corporations from around the world. Among the major participants are ADP, Boeing Computer Services, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Mentor Graphics, Tektronix, Microsoft, Portland State University and Oregon State University.

PNSQC’s mission is to enable knowledge exchange to produce higher quality software. We seek to increase the awareness of the importance of software quality. As a non-profit corporation, we seek to promote software quality by providing education and opportunities for information exchange within the software community. PNSQC provides opportunities to demonstrate, teach and exchange ideas on both proven and leading edge software quality practices.

Website
Tuesday
Apr 11, 2017
Self-guided learning — A survival guide
PDX Code Guild

You’re just getting started, but where exactly do you start? Should you freelance or head for corporate cover? How soon should you qualify your experience as, well, experience? How much advice should you take from so-called mentors? Is it possible to love too many things at once? Why hasn’t school made you the programming wizard you’d hoped to become?

Admit it: you’re a little intrigued. I’m going to tell you my story—the bumps and scrapes and occasional victories experienced over my nearly twenty years as a web developer. I’ve learned a few things that can hopefully help you succeed on your new self-guided journey.

Website
Tuesday
May 30, 2017
Open Source Bridge Volunteer Meetup
Lucky Labrador Brew Pub

Open Source Bridge is in just a few weeks — June 20-23. Come find out about volunteering positions, including Session Monitor, Hacker Lounge volunteer, Logistics assistant, Party volunteer, and more! Working just 8 hours (spread over 4 days of conference and load-in day) gets you a free ticket.

Open source Bridge is the best regional open source tech conference around! A language-agnostic conference created by developers, designers, hardware hackers, and community leaders for the greater tech industry, OSBridge focuses on the intersection of activism, tech, and culture. Students and those looking for internships and work are always welcome — we have a job board on-site to connect you with companies looking to fill positions.

Website
Monday
Jun 19, 2017
Volunteer Orientation #1 for Open Source Bridge volunteers
The Eliot Center (Buchan Building)

If you volunteer for 8 hours, you'll get a free ticket to Open Source Bridge! Come to orientation to get details! And sign up for your shift hours at http://volunteer.opensourcebridge.org/welcome/.

OSBridge organizers will show you around the facility, go through roles and some conference best practices, and teach you how to respond to a Code of Conduct report.

Website
Volunteer Orientation #2 for Open Source Bridge volunteers
The Eliot Center (Buchan Building)

If you volunteer for 8 hours, you'll get a free ticket to Open Source Bridge! Come to orientation to get details! And sign up for your shift hours at http://volunteer.opensourcebridge.org/welcome/.

OSBridge organizers will show you around the facility, go through roles and some conference best practices, and teach you how to respond to a Code of Conduct report.

Website
Tuesday
Jun 20, 2017
Organizing Community Events 101
The Eliot Center

Looking to engage or recruit donors, volunteers, ambassadors, or community partners in person? Want tips on how to make things run more smoothly? Get potential advocates excited to come to your community event.

Join us as Melissa Chavez (core organizer of many nonprofit events over the years, including tech conferences Open Source Bridge, PNSQC, PyDX, and Portland VegFest) shares tools, and how to plan community events.

Website
Wednesday
Sep 6, 2017
AgileCamp Northwest - Enterprise Agility, Business Strategy & Transformation, Agile Leadership
Nike - Tiger Woods Conference Center

Agilists from across the Pacific Northwest will converge at the Nike World Headquarters for a career changing day. This is a one-day conference with 3 keynote speakers (Richard Sheridan, best-selling author of Joy Inc., Gene Kim, founder and CTO of Tripwire, and Mamie Jones, SVP of Product Development at Intuit) as well as 20 workshops on Leadership, Product, Technical Enablement, Leadership, Innovation, Agility and much more.

Use this promo code, MeetAC17 for a 10% discount on registration if you register by 8/23/2017!

Website
Tuesday
Jan 23, 2018
Ministry of Testing Social Meetup
The Oregon Public House

Meet other testers, chat about challenges and successes, share stories, and make new friends. We'll spend time getting input on new topics for meetup talks or presenters and other events that we can do to help support each other.

Website
Monday
Oct 8, 2018
Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference
through World Trade Center

Now in its 36th year, the Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference prioritizes adding and improving the quality of software.

Our industry learns from working with education, healthcare, manufacturing, government sectors, and more. What can those other industries learn from us? Come and find out at PNSQC 2018.

Website
Monday
Oct 14, 2019
Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference
through World Trade Center

The 37th Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference will be held October 14-16, 2019. With two days of technical talks and keynotes and a full day of workshops, this conference focuses on ways to improve the process of building and deploying software projects and systems.

Tracks Include - People, Management and Leadership - Technologies and Tools (including Machine Learning and AI) - Performance and Security - Automation - Processes, Practices, and Methods - Quality Engineering

Registration information is online https://www.pnsqc.org/2019-conference/2019-registration-information/

Our industry learns from working with education, healthcare, manufacturing, government sectors, and more. What can those other industries learn from us? Come and find out at PNSQC 2019.

Website
Thursday
Jan 23, 2020
PNSQC 2020 Vision: Lighting the Torch
Cvent

This year’s theme for PNSQC is 2020 Vision: Quality Looking Forward. We chose this theme to inspire attendees and speakers to think of ways to learn from the past, and envision ways to achieve quality software in the future.

Just as lighting the Olympic flame before the games is a gesture of ceremony and inspiration, this kickoff of the call for proposals for PNSQC 2020 is a way to spark your imagination to contribute your own vision of quality.

Come hear a "full stack" of lightning talks on visions of quality. What’s in store for software QA in the future as it merges with DevOps. How will you adapt to changing organizational structures, roles and required knowledge? Find out what leaders in the field are thinking and doing.

Get inspired to see yourself presenting in October at PNSQC 2020 Networking afterward for ideas to achieve 2020 vision. Snacks and refreshments available during the talks.

Then prepare to share your own clarity of vision at PNSQC 2020 by submitting a proposal to present at the conference in October.

How do I get involved? To attend, please finish your RSVP here on meetup. If you wish to present at this event, please submit your ideas on PNSQC’s OpenConference site: https://www.openconf.org/pnsqc2020/author/submit.php

This event is open to software developers, IT managers, project managers, product owners, testers, security professionals -- anyone who is passionate about professional software quality.

Website
Friday
Jan 24, 2020
PNSQC Workshop: An Engineering Approach to Public Speaking
Cvent

Whether you’ve given hundreds of talks, just gave your first talk, or perhaps are thinking of giving a talk next year, we all could use tips in not only overcoming our fears of public speaking but getting good at it. As engineering professionals, sometimes we may focus on the engineering problem and analysis yet don’t realize that how we deliver the message can be just as important as the message itself.

If you break a sweat when speaking to more than a few people as we did, you’ll appreciate these transformational tips as Brian and Phil discuss practices for putting together a talk for a conference. As an engineer, learn a step by step pragmatic approach with several techniques and exercises to cure your nervousness and improve your delivery in a systematic way. Public speaking is a top skill for anyone who wants to effect change. Whether speaking to a department, at a meetup or presenting keynotes around the world, Phil and Brian have worked to hone their presentation skills.

You’ve heard “Practice Makes Perfect” right? Well, that’s not quite right. “Practice With Feedback Makes Perfect”. In this free workshop, you will learn systematic methods with exercises so that you can improve on the spot.

Walk away more confident in your ability to improve your public speaking skills with a framework and techniques for improvement.

This is a free three-hour workshop limited to the first 18 people. The content will be in three parts, but each section builds on the previous. Please RSVP on Meetup: https://www.meetup.com/Pacific-NW-Software-Quality-Conference-PNSQC/events/266871919

Both Brian and Phil are officers and board members of the Pacific NW Software Quality Conference (PNSQC).

Brian Gaudreau is a seasoned quality professional with 20+ years of management, software testing and QA experience relevant to telecom, enterprise metadata, government, multimedia, health care and marketing CRM platforms.

Philip Lew, CEO of XBOSoft, has founded and managed companies in his 25+ year professional career. He frequently can be found speaking at conferences including Softec Asia, HUSTEF, TestIstanbul and StarEast.

Website
Thursday
Mar 26, 2020
Three Steps to Better Estimation
Santé Bar

PNSQC, in association with PDX Blacks in Technology, is happy to present "Three Steps to Better Estimation" with Moss Drake.

How many times has someone asked you how long it would take to build some software even before they have told you how it might work? Do you think you could estimate a series of random tasks within 90% accuracy? We’ll do an interesting exercise in estimation and then talk about the value your estimates provide. We will talk about three steps to improve your estimates right away and discuss other methods of estimation.

This event will be hosted by PDX Blacks in Technology with networking and food sponsored by PNSQC.

Agenda: 5 pm - Network & social 6-ish - Announcements & Lighting Talk

Bio: Moss Drake has over 30 years of experience developing software and leading software projects. Which, coincidentally, is about the same amount of time he has been encountering managers in hallways and answering the question “How long will it take to build X?”

Website
Sunday
Mar 29, 2020
PNSQC Pitchfest - Call for Proposals Ends April 15th!
Rogue Eastside Pub & Pilot Brewery

There's still time to submit a proposal to present at PNSQC 2020. And, to help you get inspired, we are hosting the second annual Pitchfest to give you quick feedback on ideas.

What is a Pitchfest? Speaking at PNSQC 2020 is your chance to share your software quality expertise and experience on trends, process improvement and technology solutions. The Pitchfest is your chance to quickly propose and iterate on an idea before submitting it.

Why show up for a Pitchfest? - You have an idea for a paper, but don't know "if it's good enough" - You have the germ of an idea and want to refine it before writing a proposal - You're curious what ideas other people have - You have questions about the overall paper/presenter/speaking "thing" - You want to have appetizers and something to drink while networking with software quality professionals

Appetizers will be provided by PNSQC. We are meeting in the "Barrel Room" (ask at the bar if you can't find it).

Even if you can't attend the Pitchfest, check out the program committee's "wish list" for topics. Remember, proposals for papers must be received by April 15th, 2020 at 11:59 PM PDT.

Here is the URL to submit a proposal https://www.pnsqc.org/2020-conference/call-proposals/

Here is the link to the "wish list" https://www.pnsqc.org/a-pnsqc-wish-list-topics-to-inspire-your-vision-for-quality/

PNSQC’s mission statement is to enable knowledge exchange to produce higher quality software. The event is free and open to all interested.

Website
Monday
Apr 6, 2020
Secrets of Test-Driven Development with James Shore (Online!)
Cvent,

UPDATE: Due to Coronavirus, this session will be held online. Join here:

https://cvent.zoom.us/wc/join/170670023

PNSQC, in association with PDX Veterans in Technology, is pleased to present "Secrets of Test-Driven Development" with James Shore.

Test-Driven Development (TDD) is an essential part of agile software development. Without it, codebases lose the flexibility they need to change direction and respond to new business needs.

But what is TDD, exactly? And how does it work? In this brief introduction, expert TDD practitioner James Shore will show you what TDD is, how it works, and why it works. You’ll leave with new insights about this key software development practice.

This event will be hosted by PDX Veterans in Technology with networking and food sponsored by PNSQC.

The agenda is:

  • 6 - 6:30 Networking & Food
  • 6:30 - 6:35 Quick intro to event , thank sponsors.
  • 6:35 - 7:05 Presentation
  • 7:05 - 8:00 Q & A, Socialize
  • 8p - Good night

James Shore teaches, writes, and consults on Agile development processes with an emphasis on technical excellence. He is a recipient of the Agile Alliance's Gordon Pask Award for Contributions to Agile Practice, co-author of The Art of Agile Development, host of “Let's Code: Test-Driven JavaScript,” and co-creator of the Agile Fluency® Model.

InfoQ has named him one of the “most influential people in Agile.” You can find his screencasts at letscodejavascript.com and essays at jamesshore.com.

Moss Drake will represent PNSQC to talk about the call for abstracts and the conference this year.

Website
Monday
Oct 12, 2020
The 2020 Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference
through World Trade Center

The 38th Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference will be held October 12-14, 2020. For this year’s conference, we’re focusing on Quality Looking Forward — how AI is changing the industry, staying ahead of hacks on the security front, managing remote teams during COVID-19, and where software quality is heading in the future. PNSQC 2020 will be online this year, so you can easily join keynotes, technical presentations, panels, and workshops. Stream the conference to watch from the comfort of your home office, or next to your cat or dog on the couch. Early bird pricing is just $95 for all three days, which includes a hands-on security vulnerability testing workshop. Join us for October 12-14, 2020, by registering now.

Tracks Include - People, Management and Leadership - Technologies and Tools (including Machine Learning and AI) - Performance and Security - Automation - Processes, Practices, and Methods - Quality Engineering

Registration information is online https://www.pnsqc.org/2020-conference/

Our industry learns from working with education, healthcare, manufacturing, government sectors, and more. What can those other industries learn from us? Come and find out at PNSQC 2020.

Website
Thursday
Jan 28, 2021
PNSQC Culture Jam 2021
TBD

Come Together for the 2021 Culture Jam!

It’s time to open the PNSQC 2021 Call for Papers with a Culture Jam. This year the theme is Quality Coming Together. As we begin planning for the conference, we’re hosting an afternoon of lightning talks to have a meeting of minds and get your ideas flowing for new proposals on software quality.

Each speaker will have 15 minutes to get to the point and convey their ideas on the theme of how quality comes together for their teams, organizations and projects.

This is the official opening of the call for papers for the 2021 conference. It will be held virtually with breaks for networking, announcements and PNSQC 2020 Conference Award presentations.

How do I get involved?

Watch past Culture Jam events on PNSQC’s youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/PNSQC/playlists

PNSQC’s mission statement is to enable knowledge exchange to produce higher quality software. The event is free and open to all interested.

Website
Monday
Oct 11, 2021
PNSQC 2021: The Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference
through TBD

The 39th Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference will be held October 11-13, 2021. The conference theme is Quality Coming Together — how all the separate people, teams, processes, libraries and ideas come together to build a quality system (or not). PNSQC 2021 will be online this year, so you can easily join keynotes, technical presentations, panels, and workshops. Stream the conference to watch from the comfort of your home office, or next to your cat or dog on the couch. Early bird pricing extended until September 20th!

Register online https://mms.pnsqc.org/members/evr/regmenu.php?orgcode=PNSQ

Tracks Include - People, Management and Leadership - Technologies and Tools (including Machine Learning and AI) - Performance and Security - Automation - Processes, Practices, and Methods - Quality Engineering

The full schedule is here:

https://www.pnsqc.org/pnsqc-2021-conference-glance/

Our industry learns from working with education, healthcare, manufacturing, government sectors, and more. What can those other industries learn from us? Come and find out at PNSQC 2021.

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