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Published by the Southern California Quality Assurance Association, San Fernando, a QAI federated Chapter. SCQAA-SF chapter sponsors the sharing of information to promote and encourage the improvement in information technology quality practices and principles through networking, training and professional development.. SCQAA enables members to share quality practices, principles, concepts, ideas, and methods through meetings, seminars, workshops, reinforces IT quality concepts and practices through networking and membership, and sponsors IT quality concepts and practices throughout Southern California. Join us and help lead the way to better quality software. Visit our web site: WWW.SCQAA.US. NOTE: "Quality In Blue" e-mails are never sent unsolicited. SCQAA-SF only sends e-mails to registered members. If you would like to unsubscribe follow the subscription information instructions at the end of this newsletter. Fee: $10 nonmembers; Free for members. Membership: $65/year standard (one year of meetings); $100/year (one year of meetings + training discount) Questions? Contact scqaasf_newsletter@sbcglobal.net

The Software Architect: Essence, Intuition, and Guiding Principles

Matt McBride, VP

Wednesday, January 12, 2005 at Countrywide, 2900 Madera, Simi Valley, CA 93065

Networking Dinner @ 5:45; Bootcamp @ 6:15; Business @ 6:45; Program @ 7:00 PM

Software architecture is a distinct and developing discipline in the software profession. Many practitioners have apparently entered the field with little effort; adding the word “architect” to a title is easy to do. However, beneath the surface appearance, distinct approaches and toolsets are required to succeed. Reports of IT overspending and project failures emphasize the fact that these skills must be leveraged and developed.

M. C. Escher-Waterfall

Matt McBride is a First Vice President for Countrywide Servicing Systems Development (CSSD). In his current role, he leads CSSD's Technology Strategies and Solutions group. Matt has held technical and executive level positions in software and systems development for both small companies and Fortune 100 organizations. He currently serves as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Southern Methodist University (SMU). Matt is a Founding and Practicing Member of the Worldwide Institute of Software Architects, a Senior Member of the IEEE and IEEE Computer Society, and, a Professional Member of the ACM. He is the author of several technical articles and presentations and a Professional Member of the ACM. He is the author of several technical articles and presentations.

QM Pre-Meeting Bootcamp!: UML, OOA/D: Presenter: Arturo Torres, Co-presenter: Bill Hackenberg. Come a half hour early at 6:15 to learn and enjoy

Message from your Editor: Elizabeth Runyon

We had a wonderful 2004 and now we are off to an incredible start in 2005! Come January 12, we will present Matt McBride, Vice President at Countrywide. He will be sharing his wisdom on software architecture gained both through extensive work experience and academic study as a University professor.

We have excellent speakers lined up in the new year and we invite you to join us at our monthly chapter meeting. We are always open to suggestions if you have experienced a particularly fine presentation. Just write us at scqaasf_newsletter@sbcglobal.net.

We are currently researching training opportunities to be offered over the coming months to SCQAA-SF members at special prices. These sessions are intended to increase your work capabilities and support professional certification. We’ll let you know as soon as plans are complete.

Don’t forget that our meetings include a nice dinner, too. And you don’t want to miss the networking session prior to the meeting, and, as an extra bonus, the half hour Quality Management boot camp. Come a little early for great discussion and great food!

Regards,

Elizabeth

SCQAA-SF Meetings – Door Prizes

Just by attending our great meetings, you are eligible to win the raffle for some really GREAT door prizes. During our meetings in 2004 we gave away a variety of great door gifts, including a Visioneer 7100 USB flatbed 48 bit color scanner with powerful document software, a Canon LiDE 30 USB flatbed 48 bit color scanner with powerful document software and various other software packages and books. We are also able to provide entrance tickets to professional conventions and other events from time to time. Be sure to attend so you can have an opportunity to win one of these useful and interesting door prizes!

Whether you come for our enlightening speaker, come for the announcements, come for the food, or come for a chance at the door prize, come to our next meeting and learn even more about software quality assurance!

MARK YOUR CALENDAR! Wednesday, February 2, 2005 Monthly Meeting in Countrywide, Simi Valley, CA Speaker: Rich Hefner, Director of Process Initiatives, Northrop Grumman Mission Systems Topic: The Role of Quality Assurance Specialist in CMMI Wednesday, March 2, 2005 Monthly Meeting in Countrywide, Simi Valley, CA Speaker: Jeff Kohan, Information Technology Partner with Tatum Partners Topic: Outsourcing Benefits, Risks and Mitigation

Quality Meetings Upcoming

January 5, 2005 5:15 premeeting, 8 PM "XML: The Common Denominator" by Steve Rowell Inferential Solutions. Sponsored by Los Angeles Chapter of ACM at their monthly chapter meeting. at the LAX Plaza Hotel , 6333 Bristol Parkway, Culver City. http://la-acm.org/meetings.html

January 7, 2005 Above and Beyond Process Improvement - What makes Good Software? At the monthly chapter meeting of SPIN – LA. http://www.uces.csulb.edu/spin/2004meetings.htm

January 18, 2005 Dinner Chapter Meeting of SCQAA – Orange County. http://www.scqaa.com/meetings.htm

January 18, 2005 6:30 – 9 PM Documentation and Deming's PDSA Cycle of Continuous Improvement by Marc Hersh of Three Sigma Systems, sponsored by STC – San Fernando Valley Chapter at Radisson Hotel in Chatsworth. http://www.stcsfv.org/meetings.htm

January 21, 2005 8 – 12 noon 2005 Los Angeles HIPAA/e-Security Conference at the USC Davidson Conference Center. Presenters include Nick Sears, President of US Operations for Finjan Software and Eugene Chang, VP of Strategic Business Development for Funk Software. Call Kim Hakim at 314-525-7140 for more information

January 21, 2005 Interoperability: The National Agenda will feature Lori M. Evans, MPH, MPP, Senior Advisor to the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, Joyce Niland, Ph.D., Chair and Professor, Information Sciences, City of Hope National Medical Center, and Robert Seliger, President, CEO & Founder of Sentillion. Monthly chapter meeting of HIMSS at the Long Beach Holiday Inn Airport. http://www.himss-socal.org/

January 27, 2005 dinner meeting What your vendors don't want you to know about your projects! Peter Mansfield, President and CEO of Mansfield and Associates a Strategic Marketing and Web Development firm. Sponsored by PMI – Los Padres. http://pmi-lospadres.org/index.phtml

January 27, 2005 6 – 9 PM Managing Offshore Projects by Leslie Swanson, President, eXalt Solutions. Sponsored by PMI Los Padres Chapter. Location: Clarion Hotel, Thousand Oaks. http://pmi-lospadres.org/index.phtml

January 27, 2005 6 PM premeeting, 7 PM Charting your Future: Strategies for Career Advancement plus a Panel Discussion by IT Recruiters, Current Trends, and How to Stand Out in Todays’ Job Market. Brought to you by The Association of Information Technology Professionals at the Ramada Inn, Culver City http://www.aitp-la.org/schedule1.html

January 28, 2005 Negotiation Skills for Those Who Must Make Change By Influence, Not Authority: An Interactive Workshop, by Byron Hanchett. Sponsored by LA SPIN. http://sunset.usc.edu/cse/pub/event/future/index.html

February 8 - 10, 2005 “Advanced Audit Techniques for Windows 2000/2003 and Active Directory Networks” seminar taught by MIS Training Institute instructor, Randy Smith. Sponsored by ISACA-LA at New Horizons Computer Learning Center in Burbank. ISACA members $795 early, $895 late. Contact: David Lowe, ISACA, Los Angeles Chapter, Seminar Chair, 2004 – 2005. mailto:seminar@isacala.org

http://www.isacala.org

February 25, 2005 Software Engineering, Professionalism, and Liability by John Cosgrove, P.E., CDP, Cosgrove Computer Systems Inc. Sponsored by LA SPIN at University of Southern California - Information Sciences Institute http://sunset.usc.edu/cse/pub/event/future/index.html

March 31, 2005 Interpreting CMMI for COTS-Based Systems, by Lisa Brownsword and Ceci Albert, SEI. Sponsored by LA SPIN at Manhattan Beach Marriott. http://sunset.usc.edu/cse/pub/event/future/index.html

April 11-13, 2005. ISACA – LA Spring Conference. http://isacala.org/

Job Opportunities

Senior Quality Assurance Engineer at Countrywide in Simi Valley. Job Function Information Technology Division Corporate. Under general guidance, the Senior Quality Assurance Engineer acts individually or as part of a team to provide testing services of a highly complex and technical nature. Assignments at this level require extensive quality assurance and test experience in order to review and test applications submitted by the development staff. The Senior Quality Assurance Engineer must be able to take a broad view of testing and provide strategic recommendations for testing procedures. Incumbent will be required to write automated test scripts utilizing approved automation tools as well as provide technical analysis of testing results. Incumbent must also be able to work under the pressure of strict time constraints and constantly changing priorities.

The Senior Quality Assurance Engineer's primary responsibilities will include creating and maintaining automated test scripts utilizing the Mercury tools suite (QuickTest Pro, WinRunner and LoadRunner) and other tools, generating test documentation, providing reports to appropriate groups on test tools, scripts and results, and mentoring and training other Quality Assurance team members and/or project team members as needed. The Senior Quality Assurance Engineer must work with project teams and QA management to determine when automated testing is appropriate and the expense warranted to improve efficiency, coverage, and overall testing effectiveness. Additionally, this person must be able to analyze requirements, create detailed test plans, validate test results and manage defects. Contact: (805) 520-5206 or Kidra_Shadroo@Countrywide.Com.

Plantronics Staffing has several positions available in Santa Cruz. Visit www.plantronics.com/careers or Call Merrin Morse at 831.458.4404. The list includes:

Software Quality Assurance Engineer

Quality Assurance US-CA-Santa Cruz

Software Quality Assurance Engineer to support the Quality activities related to software dev

Sr. Technician (s)-Temporary

Quality Assurance US-CA-Santa Cruz

Implement verification test plans for new products

Product Assurance Engineer

Quality Assurance US-CA-Santa Cruz

Provide core team leadership for all Quality activities throughout the product definition

Compliance Engineer

Quality Assurance US-CA-Santa Cruz

Works with test labs and approval agencies to attain approvals

Technical Assistance Specialist - Gaming

Quality Assurance US-CA-Santa Cruz

Will provide technical assistance to Plantronics customers in a call center environment

Compliance and Component Engineering Manager, Quality Assurance US-CA-Santa Cruz

Manage attaining and maintaining regulatory and safety agency approvals

QA Testers and Analysts, RCM Technologies, Inc. (www.rcmt.com) 3-5 + years experience with both manual and automated testing, the ability to create test plans and test cases as well as write test scripts from scratch. Ideal candidates will have specific experience with WinRunner, but experience with other tools may also be acceptable. 800-972-6269

RecuitingManager has two open fulltime positions in Orange County. Software QA Manager and QA Engineer. Contact: "Sherilyn Allen" <sherilyn@recruitingmanager.com> or visit their website: http://www.recruitingmanager.com/careers.htm

Director of QA, based in Europe. Prerequisites include extensive experience managing/leading progressively larger QA teams. Strong Standards and Methodologies are also very important. Our client is a rapidly growing company in the telecommunications industry. Attractive compensation, paid accommodations, automobile, and other benefits. Contact: Gary Stein, BA, MBA,Business Development Manager, FERN STEVENS & ASSOCIATES, 4950 Yonge Street, Suite 1102, North York, Ontario, M2N 6K1. PH:416) 928-1212 EXT 228 FAX: (416) 928-0555 garys@fernstevens.com www.fernstevens.com

Our Corporate Meeting Sponsors

Serena, Corp. at 20920B Warner Center Lane, Woodland Hills, is our very first chapter Corporate Meeting Sponsor. We very much appreciate their sponsorship, which provides the SCQAA San Fernando Board with a fine workspace for our Board meetings.

Countrywide, Corp. in Simi Valley is our second chapter Corporate Meeting Sponsor, as they are providing Membership meeting space, starting with the first monthly meeting on September 17, 2003.

Our Corporate Sponsors

Kaiser Permanente, headquartered in Oakland, is sponsoring SCQAA-SF this year to enable its Southern California employees to take advantage of chapter meetings and instructor-led QAI training.

QAI Certification Programs

To request more information, send email to certify@qaiusa.com.

Earn CPEs

Are you a CQA or CSTE? Earn some of your Continuing Professional Education (CPE) points by attending SCQAA-SF meetings. Earn even more by helping with our committees!

Southern California Quality Assurance Association San Fernando Chapter (SCQAA-SF)

QAI Certification Programs

To request more information, send email to certify@qaiusa.com.

Meet Your SCQAA

San Fernando Chapter Board

The current Board slate is composed of:

Position	Board Member	Backup Member
Chapter Chair	Judy Cheves	Shahidul Manan
Vice Chair	Shahidul Manan
Treasurer	Deanna Witrack	Judy Cheves
Secretary	John Heeg	TBD
Chapter Advisor	Jim Stoumpos
Distribution Chair	Gerry Caruso	Karina Gamble
Employment Opportunity Chair	Tina Tararache
Events/Promotion	TBD
Food Service Chair	Peter Reidy
Librarian\Historian	Lenni Lara
Meeting Chair	Kidra Shadroo
Membership Chair	Ron Winters
Newsletter Chair	Elizabeth Runyon	Deanna Witrack
PMI Liaison	Bill Hackenberg
Program/Education Chair	Karina Gamble
Sponsor/PR Chair	Bob Tabaka	Bill Hackenberg
Web Team	Shahidul Mannan Kidra Shadroo Leonard Daly
Webmaster	TBD

Would you like to be a speaker and have a topic of interest to the quality community? Contact the Program Chair (karina@qainsight.com) or Chapter Chairperson (Judy.cheves@Countrywide.com) and let us know what you would like to contribute.

Would you like to contribute information to this Newsletter? Contact the Newsletter editor at this address: scqaasf_newsletter@sbcglobal.net.

The SCQAA San Fernando Board holds monthly Board Meetings at Serena Inc. in Woodland Hills. If you would like to attend the Board meeting and would like to help this chapter, please contact Judy Cheeves at E-Mail (Judy.cheves@Countrywide.com ) to obtain the meeting schedule and location.

Subscription Information

"Quality In Blue" e-mails are never sent unsolicited. SCQAA-SF only sends e-mails to registered members. To unsubscribe, send just the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject line to: scqaasf_newsletter@sbcglobal.net. If someone forwarded this newsletter to you and you want your own free subscription, e-mail to scqaasf_newsletter@sbcglobal.net

Would you like to advertise in our "Quality in Blue" newsletter? mailto:newsletter@scqaa.us

We'd love to hear from you. Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Please help us respond to your requests and input by writing to one of the Board members. See our contact list at http://scqaa.us/contact.php

Privacy policy: We will not distribute your name or e-mail address to anyone, other than for SCQAA or QAI chapter purposes.

Directions to Our Meeting Location in Simi Valley:

You might want to check out driving directions from your starting point on yahoo.com, but here is how you will finish the trip:

Countrywide Financial 2900 Madera Road, Simi Valley, CA 93065 1C Central Lobby Presentation & Video Make your way to CA-118 and go to Simi Valley Exit CA-118 on Madera Road North Go 0.3 miles then turn right on North Madera Road Go 0.3 miles past Countrywide Way to first driveway on the right: 2900 North Madera Road. Follow the driveway up and around the building on your right and park on the other side (which is actually the front). Conference room 1C is right off the main lobby.