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

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

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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!

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!

The Balanced Scorecard and Strategy Map (BalSC-StratMap) combination is an increasingly popular strategic toolset that all OD practitioners should become familiar with. Not only is the BalSC-StratMap a powerful tool for turning strategies into executable realities, it is also liable to arrive in the OD practitioner's environment without warning (often by way of the CEO or a board member learning about it at a seminar and becoming enthusiastic). The prepared OD professional will be able to help make the BalSC-StratMap a success. Without significant OD assistance, BalSC-StratMap initiatives may flounder and fail.

Just as significantly, BalSC-StratMap approaches can directly assist in boosting individual productivity by providing three of the Five Preconditions of Top Performance. In this program, Tom Cox will elaborate on this relationship and lead us in creating a BalSC-StratMap for Oregon ODN. As a result of the session, participants will have an experience-based perspective on BalSC-StratMap and how it affects both organizational and individual performance. Multiple samples will be shared, along with templates and a bibliography of sources.

Cost: Free to current members in good standing of ODN, ASTD-Cascadia, PHRMA and PMI. The cost for non-members is $10. The $10 fee can be used to offset the annual membership investment of $75.00 if paid at the program.

About the Speaker

Tom Cox is a successful consultant, author and speaker. He has worked in industries ranging from retail to wholesale to manufacturing to government to business services -- for firms including IBM, Oracle, Tektronix, ODOT, Intel, Regence Blue Cross, Standard Insurance, OHSU and dozens of others.

Tom is the author of one book, countless articles, and he co-authored the chapter on Metrics and Performance Improvement for a textbook on Medical Trauma Care. A frequent writer, his column runs twice a month in Oregon Business Magazine’s online edition.

A graduate of the University of Chicago, Tom earned his four-year degree in psychology in just three years, with honors. Tom was the 2002 Libertarian candidate for Governor of Oregon.

We learn more, more quickly, and more deeply, once we redefine true learning as fluency, and play our way to getting there.


"Where are your Keys?", a language learning game system developed by Evan Gardner, is an integrated set of teaching techniques that creates fluent speakers in a language without resorting to textbooks or homework.  You can play the game anywhere, anytime, with anyone, so long as you have a single fluent speaker of the target language.


Because "Where are your Keys?" is a game, learning how to play the game also trains you to teach the game.  You can take your level of fluency and teach another person up to your level.  It is a way for a community to rapidly teach themselves a language by making every learner a new teacher.


"Where are your Keys" teaches not only language, but principles of learning that can be applied to any skill or field of knowledge.


Rather than presenting a lecture, Evan Gardner and Willem Larsen will actually run and debrief the game so everyone will have a hands-on experience (and a spankin' good time!).

For July’s meeting, Diana Larsen will run a retrospective for us. We’re going to cover the last year of XPDX activities.

This will be a good chance to see a well-run end of project retrospective. It’ll also be a chance to come weigh in and change what we do for next year.

Beer afterward will be at the Lucky Lab a few blocks from the meeting place (given our discoordination last month, we decided to figure the most important parts out ahead of time).

I hope to see several of you there.