Intel, HF3-Auditorium, Hillsboro, Oregon

December 9th Rose City SPIN Seminar Announcement:

Beyond Acceptance Testing

Presented by BJ Clark

Dates/Times: Thursday, December 9th, 2010; Networking @ 6:00 PM; Seminar 7:00-8:00 PM Location: HF3 Auditorium, Intel Hawthorne Farms 3 (HF3) Campus, 5200 NE Elam Young Pkwy, Hillsboro, OR 97124 - View Map

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 that there are two NE Elam Young Pkwy streets that connect to Cornell. Use the west one, closest to Brookwood and Costco.

Abstract Fit, Fitness, and Cucumber have revolutionized development and brought the idea of acceptance-level testing and "Outside-in-development" to a whole community of developers, testers and product owners. But can we take the idea of acceptance testing to another level and test things other than the "correctness" of our software? What if we could also specify and test the quality of interaction in our applications? What if we could involve a whole other community of people, interaction designers and user experience professionals, in not just the ideation of our products, but the actual execution of the software itself? In beyond acceptance testing, we'll look into who could be writing acceptance tests and all the things that we could be testing that most of us currently aren't doing.

Speaker Bio

BJ Clark is a SE Portland based designer, "extreme programmer", and user experience professional. He works for Goldstar Events (goldstar.com) running skunk-works projects and working on the overall user experience. He has more than 10 years experience developing e-commerce platforms and working for numerous venture funded startups. You can read his blog at http://bjclark.me. He received his formal education in Fine Art and when not in front of a computer, likes to make furniture and wood-fired ceramics.

A Special Treat from PNSQC

Plan on coming early! In collaboration with the Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference (PNSQC) the SPIN meeting will have pizza and pop provided by PNSQC beginning at 6:00 pm.

PNSQC is the Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference, a group of volunteers interested in Software Quality. The Mission of the PNSQC is to enable knowledge exchange to produce higher quality software. As a non-profit, it seeks to promote software quality by providing education and opportunities for information exchange within the software community.

How to Register

This is a FREE lecture sponsored by the Rose City SPIN. Please RSVP to Rose_City_Spin@yahoo.com so we know you’re coming!

Rose City SPIN

The Rose City Software Process Improvement Network (SPIN) is a monthly forum for networking, mutual support, and promotion of effective software practices. We exchange practical experiences, ideas, knowledge, wisdom, and war stories about the technical, business, and human facets of software process improvement. The Rose City SPIN serves the software development community of the Portland/Vancouver metro area. Whether you work for a large company or a small one, corporate or self-employed, industrial or academic setting, you are welcome at the Rose City SPIN.

This is a free talk open to the public and presented by the Rose City Software Process Improvement Network (SPIN).

Logistics: Networking from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM Talk presented from 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM (doors close at 7:15)

Talk: Developing Requirements for Legacy Systems presented by Bill Baker

Abstract: Many legacy systems were created without documented requirements. Over the years, changes were made, often without adequate documentation. Software quality suffers as the system becomes more and more complex. This presentation will provide a case study of bringing requirements management and other related process improvements to a legacy software product — one which has been successful for over twenty years.

A cross-functional team of management undertook a project to improve significantly the processes related to requirements. This presentation describes the lessons learned while undertaking this project. Among these are: • A good implementation start is essential. Outside consultants are useful. Fully involve all stakeholders. • Different audiences have different needs. Find effective ways to communicate to each audience. • Be pragmatic when choosing what requirements to write and how much effort to put into describing the current system. • Leverage tool adoption to make changes that are more general to the software development process.

Author Bio: Bill Baker is a software development manager at Sage in Beaverton Oregon. He has been involved in software development, project management, and process improvement for a number of years. While at Harland Financial Solutions, Bill led the improvements outlined in this paper. Bill has a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Washington State University and an excessive collection of other degrees from Washington State University and Michigan State University.

About the Rose City SPIN: The Rose City Software Process Improvement Network (SPIN) is a monthly forum for networking, mutual support, and promotion of effective software practices. We exchange practical experiences, ideas, knowledge, wisdom, and war stories about the technical, business, and human facets of software process improvement. The Rose City SPIN serves the software development community of the Portland/Vancouver metro area. Whether you work for a large company or a small one, corporate or self-employed, industrial or academic setting, you are welcome at the Rose City SPIN.

The global high-tech sector has gone through a series of profound changes in the past couple of decades (Internet revolution, rise of new technology hubs in Asia, offshore development, and clean tech revolution starting now). This event brings together three consummate technology executives with a professional audience to explore the future of technology in Oregon and beyond.

After presentations and open discussion, please join us down the road at the McMenamins Cornelius Roadhouse to share a drink and network with our presenters and participants.

Presenters Ananthan Thandri, Vice President & CIO, Mentor Graphics On global outsourcing strategies: outlook and challenges in a changing global economic landscape.

Hugh Heinsohn, Senior Associate, PriceGain AB On pricing technology products for international markets.

Steve Kemper, Web Strategist, ISITE Design On Balancing Global Initiatives with Regional Creativity in Technology Marketing

[Postponed. See http://eth0.cpq066.bea1.oen.easystreet.com/blogs/oen/2008/12/17/fyi-postponed-wednesday-december-17-thunderbird-speaker-series-event]

Global Technology Trends Offshore Development Strategies and Global Tech Marketing

A speaker and networking gathering by The Thunderbird Alumni Network (TAN) Portland Chapter

The global high-tech sector has gone through a series of profound changes in the past couple of decades (Internet revolution, rise of new technology hubs in Asia, offshore development, and clean tech revolution starting now). This event brings together three consummate technology executives with a professional audience to explore the future of technology in Oregon and beyond. After presentations and open discussion, please join us down the road at the McMenamins Cornelius Roadhouse to share a drink and network with our presenters and participants.
Ananthan Thandri – Vice President & CIO, Mentor Graphics - http://www.mentor.com/ on global outsourcing strategies: outlook and challenges in a changing global economic landscape. Hugh Heinsohn – Senior Associate, PriceGain AB – http://www.pricegain.com on pricing technology products for international markets. Steve Kemper – Web Strategist, ISITE Design - http://www.isitedesign.com/ on Balancing Global Initiatives with Regional Creativity in Technology Marketing

Wednesday December 17th 2008: from 6:00pm to 7:00PM at the HF3-Auditorium on Intel’s Campus, 5200 NE Elam Young Parkway, Hillsboro, OR 97124 from 7:00PM to 8:00PM at Imbrie Hall in McMenamins’ Cornelius Roadhouse, 4045 N.W. Cornelius Pass Rd, Hillsboro, OR 97124 RSVP mandatory please to tanpdx@gmail.com with attendee(s) name(s). Questions/Contact : Dan Nicollet, Portland TAN Chapter - +1-503-616-4007