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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

Meaning of Change

and its challenges in the information technology

Farid Nourjahan

Wednesday, July 13, 2005 at Countrywide, 2900 Madera, Simi Valley, CA 93065

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

Computer technology has one constant element: Change. The rapid change in software technology, design and development mandates daily build and test as a standard practice in large software product companies. By the time a new software is released, there are multitude of different challenges to overcome within large corporations and users. The context and reference of software in this presentation is business systems software that is developed internally.

Based on the computer automation needs defined by the information technology (IT) department and the decisions made by the upper management, the deployment plan begins. Meanwhile, the major areas of concern are: industry competition, budget & time allocation for cost estimates, internal expertise, security risks, existing infrastructure, number of people, trained IT personnel, professional services and consulting fees, job automation, process management, departmental procedures documentation, division of roles & responsibilities, etc. These can become obstacles, potential inadequacies and fears that need to be addressed efficiently and properly when software change is being implemented and introduced to corporate users. This presentation identifies each of the most important corporate IT challenges that accompany new software development cycle and discusses them in detail with recommended solutions.

Farid Nourjahan has had a successful career in the computer industry since 1985. He was hired at Microsoft Corporation in 1992 at the Consulting Services division, where he contributed his knowledge for 11 years to Fortune-500 companies and gained technical & professional expertise. Besides programming in Windows platform from Visual Basic 1.0 to Visual Basic .Net, Mr. Nourjahan has been responsible for architecting software for multi-tier distributed business systems and managing large projects. He is a Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD) and is also certified in Microsoft Access and SQL Server data modeling, programming and administration. Prior to joining Microsoft, Mr. Nourjahan was a Senior Software Engineer at Omnifax Corporation for five years, developing inter-office communication systems, and spent two years as a programmer for Falcon Industries developing commercial security software systems on C/UNIX platform.

In 2003, Farid chose a different path of life and passion beyond the hands-on career of corporate high-technology, to be an educator. He has obtained his California Teaching Credential and owns Rainbow Seekers Group, an independent training business. Mr. Nourjahan has a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Systems Science, with a minor in Computer Programming from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

“Quality Topics” Pre-Meeting Bootcamp! This informative half hour training session, presented by Bill Hackenberg of Toyota, is an added bonus based on real life experience. Come a half hour early at 6:15 to learn and enjoy!

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 & 2005, 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, August 3, 2005 Monthly Meeting in Countrywide, Simi Valley, CA Speaker: TBD, Topic: TBD Wednesday, September 7, 2005 Monthly Meeting in Countrywide, Simi Valley, CA Speaker: TBD, Topic: TBD

Quality Meetings Upcoming

July 19, 2005 Monthly Chapter Meeting, SCQAA – Orange County. http://www.scqaa.com/meetings.htm

July 28, 2005 Effective Security Management, to be presented by AITP-LA. A Panel of Experts shares cutting-edge strategies to prevent enterprise security weaknesses. For networks, mobile computing, cellular and PDAs http://www.aitp-la.org/

August 16, 2005 Monthly Chapter Meeting, SCQAA – Orange County. http://www.scqaa.com/meetings.htm

August 25, 2005 6 – 9 PM. Predicting Project Disasters - Paul Glen. Sponsored by PMI Los Padres Chapter. Location: Palm Garden Hotel, Thousand Oaks. http://pmi-lospadres.org/index.phtml

September 10, 2005 All-day conference with speakers on leadership, systems development, process improvement, testing, security, SOX compliance, and more to be presented by AITP-LA.. http://www.aitp-la.org/

September 14, 2005 Peter Coffee, Technology Editor of e-Week, provides his Annual Forecast about key technologies in computing, communications, and business applications, to be presented by AITP-LA.. http://www.aitp-la.org/

September 20, 2005. 6:30 – 9 PM. Flash Forward, It's a whole new authoring world for the adventurous technical communicator. The new frontier is Bluetooth; "help systems" are museum guides on PDAs. Welcome to the world of Flash and Flash Lite. Presented by STC – San Fernando Valley Chapter. http://www.stcsfv.org/meetings.htm

September 22, 2005 6 - 9 PM. IT Strategy/Business Alignment/Get Control by Giving up Control - Susan Cramm, Columnist for CIO magazine. Sponsored by PMI Los Padres Chapter. Location: Palm Garden Hotel, Thousand Oaks. http://pmi-lospadres.org/index.phtml

October 27, 2005 6 – 9 PM Principle-centered leadership - Gregory D. Totten, Ventura County District Attorney. Sponsored by PMI Los Padres Chapter. Location: Palm Garden Hotel, Thousand Oaks. http://pmi-lospadres.org/index.phtml

Job Opportunities

Senior Software Quality Assurance Engineer to join Quality Assurance team of company in Santa Monica. This position reports to the Director of Web Quality Assurance. This position requires analyzing requirement and design specifications, and analyzing web business applications. You will be responsible for developing and executing test plans, test matrices and test cases. In addition, you will be performing integration, regression and system testing. The Senior Software Quality Assurance Engineer is responsible for submitting problem logs utilizing the online problem tracking system, and being the Lead on complex software testing projects. You will be responsible for preparing the QA project plans, maintaining schedules, and creating and documenting SQA procedures. Other key duties include reporting software issues and concerns to the Director o! f Web Quality Assurance, and working independently and within engineering practices to evaluate, maintain, modify and enhance existing quality methods and processes. Requirements for this position include a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science or a related field, 8+ years experience in a SQA, a strong knowledge of SDLC/SQALC, Internet/Web experience, knowledge of Win/UNIX/Browsers, experience with automation (Mercury, Segue, Rational) and project/schedule management (MS Project 2000, 2002). Advanced expertise in Oracle/SQL back-end testing, and expert knowledge in test plans, test cases, and test matrices are also a must. In addition, the successful candidate must have excellent communication and writing skills, strong organizational skills and the ability to multi-task. Contact: Steve Heckler, Steve Heckler Associates (310) 440-0353 or (310) 709-0383 (cell) www.stevehecklerassoc.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.

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	Arturo Torres
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.