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The Southern California Quality Assurance Association (SCQAA) San Fernando Chapter presents

At What Stage is Testing Beneficial?

Kidra Shadroo

Wednesday, September 1, 2004 at Countrywide, 2900 Madera, Simi Valley, CA 93065

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

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has estimated the cost of an inadequate infrastructure for software testing to range from $22.2 to $59.5 billion per year. Despite of this fact, proving the benefits and costs of quality is a challenge for every Quality Control (QC) manager. Why? Because sometimes even experienced managers think quality should be free or it is too costly and it is not worthwhile.

Starting verification/inspection process in earlier software development stages is almost always controversial for many issues such as cost, time, effort and necessity. Usually those who resist implementing such process get blamed for inability of seeing the facts, lack of technical knowledge and increasing risk of failure, but is it really necessary for every single project to have such a process? This is the question that quality people should answer and if the benefits of quality are not proven by numbers, senior managers won’t buy it.

The Model

A model is designed based on the industry findings which enables the managers to estimate the benefit part of their Cost Benefit Analysis on QC activities. In that sense they will be able to support their decision on using verification/inspection processes by numbers rather than blindly following the past.

By comparing two types of QC involvement in software development projects, the model finds the minimum and maximum of cost saving. Project and QC managers can come up with the numbers to support go/no go decision by using this model. The model is designed so flexible so it can be fit in different software development environment and you can even consider your judgment as a subject matter expert.

Kidra Shadroo has been in IT industry since 1995 as software quality assurance, software tester engineer and project manager. He has been working with Countrywide as software quality assurance since last year. Kidra holds a masters degree in Engineering Management from University of Southern California (USC). He is also a SCQAA board member.

Managing Quality: – Pre-Meeting Bootcamp! This informative half hour training session by Bill Hackenberg, 1st VP, Countrywide, is an added bonus based on real life experience. Come a half hour early at 6:15 to learn and enjoy

Fee: $10 nonmembers; Free for members Questions? Contact scqaasf_newsletter@sbcglobal.net

Membership: $65/year standard (one year of meetings); $100/year (one year of meetings + training discount)

Message from your President: Judy Cheves

MARK YOUR CALENDAR!! The 5th Annual Vendor Showcase and Conference will be held at the Renaissance Hotel in Long Beach, CA on Saturday, September 25th. This is an event you will not want to miss. Multiple speaker tracks, Job Board, Vendor tool demos!!

Our September meeting features Kidra Shadroo, an SCQAA-SF Board Member. This is your chance to hear Kidra’s presentation “At What Stage is Testing Beneificial” without traveling to Orlando, where he will be speaking at the QAI conference in October! Hear it here, FIRST!

You don’t want to miss the networking session prior to the meeting. Come a little early for great discussion and great food!

See you there!

Judy

SCQAA-SF Meetings – Door Prizes

If you have stopped attending our meetings lately, you are missing out on some really GREAT door prizes. At our meeting in July we gave away a Visioneer 7100 USB flatbed 48 bit color scanner with powerful document software. For the month of August we had another great prize, a Canon LiDE 30 USB flatbed 48 bit color scanner with powerful document software. And in September, we will have on hand a DVD player and a conference pass to the September 25 Annual Vendor Showcase and Conference in Long Beach. Be sure to attend the September meeting so you can have an opportunity to win the next surprising prize!

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!

QAI Certification: CSQA and CSTE

SCQAA-SF is hosting testing for QAI Certifications (CSQA and CSTE) on Saturday, September 18, 2004 at 2900 Madera Road in Simi Valley. For details and to register go to www.softwarecertifications.com. The application deadline was July 19, 2004.

MARK YOUR CALENDAR! Saturday, September 25, 2004 5th Annual Vendor Showcase and Conference to be sponsored by SCCTC, which includes SCQAA and other Southern California organizations. Contact: WWW.SCQAA.ORG Wednesday, October 6, 2004 Monthly Meeting in Countrywide, Simi Valley, CA Speaker: LiGuo Huang Topic: Value-based Dependability Analysis based on COCOMO II and COQUALMO models Wednesday, November 3, 2004 Monthly Meeting in Countrywide, Simi Valley, CA Speaker: Steve Kaye, Ph.D. Topic: Effective Business Meetings

Quality Meetings Upcoming

September 1, 2004 At What Stage is Testing Beneficial? Kidra Shadroo. Sponsored by SCQAA-SF at Countrywide in Simi Valley. See website: http://www.scqaa.us/

September 8, 2004 Peter Coffee’s Annual Technology Forecast hosted by AITP. To RSVP email Roger2002 at juno.com or call 310-459-9680. http://www.aitp-la.org/

September 9, 2004 7 AM – 6 PM Joint ISSA LA/OC Annual Symposium. The regular registration fee for ISSA & ISACA members is $80. Early registration, by August 31, will be $60. The speaker line-up includes Peter Tippett of TruSecure, John Muir of Trusted Strategy, Eugene Shultz of Berkeley Labs, and Ira Winkler of CSC. Location: Renaissance Hotel,111 East Ocean Blvd, Long Beach, CA 90802

http://www.issa-la.org/

September 9, 2004 CMM Level 5 by Jim Cisneros. Sponsored by PMI-Los Angeles. Location: Proud Bird Restaurant near LAX. Reservations: http://www.pmi-la.org/

September 9 – 10, 2004 Certified Software Test Engineer prep class, conducted by Tim Peland, sponsored by SCQAA-Orange County in Lake Forest, CA. For the course outline, see http://qaiusa.com/chap ters/2004_cste_chap.html. To enroll in the class or to join SCQAA-OC, go to www.scqaa.com.

Saturday, September 11, 2004 How Project Managers can be Productively Disruptive in a Crazy World by Gopal K. Kapur. PMI-LA Chapter Professional Development Seminar. University of Phoenix, 1515 W. 190th St, Gardena CA 90248. http://www.pmi-la.org/

September 14, 2004 8:15 – Noon. CMMI Assessments. Half day seminar led by Jay Douglass of the Software Engineering Institute (SEI). Free seminar sponsored by SCQAA- Orange County. Location: 26561 Rancho Parkway South, Lake Forest, CA 92630, Phone: 949-727-3200 www.scqaa.com

September 14, 2004 5 – 8:30 PM Online Security, presented by Erik Laykin. Sponsored by ISACA – Los Angeles. Location: The University Club of Pasadena, 175 North Oakland Avenue, Pasadena, California 91101-1713, (626) 793-5157 fax (626) 793-1784 http://isacala.org/

September 21, 2004 Just Enough Precision: How to Get Adequate Specs by David Gelperin. Sponsored by SCQAA-Orange County. See http://www.scqaa.com/meetings.htm

September 21, 6:30 - 9:00 PM Telling Ain't Training, Harold D. Stolovitch, PhD, CPT. Sponsored by STC – San Fernando Valley. Radisson Hotel in Chatsworth. http://www.stcsfv.org/meetings.htm

September 23, 2004 6 – 9 PM How to deal with the Overachiever and the Underachiever on your Project - Debra Mandel, Ph.D. Sponsored by PMI – Los Padres. Location: Clarion Hotel, Thousand Oaks. http://pmi-lospadres.org/index.phtml

September 24, 2004 6 – 9 PM How to Deal with the Overachiever and the Underachiever on your Project by Debra Mandel, Ph.D.. Sponsored by PMI Los Padres Chapter. Location: Clarion Hotel, Thousand Oaks. http://pmi-lospadres.org/index.phtml

September 25, 2004 Aligning Technologies with today’s business strategies, 5th Annual Vendor Showcase and Conference to be sponsored by SCCTC: PMI-LA, PMI-OC, SCQAA-LA, SCQAA-OC, SCQAA-SF, and AITP-LA. Keynote Speaker: Julia King, National Correspondent, Computerworld, Inc.

Topic: Risky Business: I.T. Leadership in a New Landscape. Contact: WWW.SCQAA.ORG

September 27, 2004 Introduction to Wireless Sensor Networks and Applications. Speaker: Dwight Borses. Sponsored by IEEE Orange County Computer Society. Location: Wyndham Gardens Hotel. 3350 Avenue of the Arts, Costa Mesa, CA (714) 751-5100 http://www.ieee-occs.org/

October 7 & 8, 2004 Risk Management (ISO 14971) L presented by:ASQ Biomedical Division. Location: Costa Mesa http://www.asq706.com/event.htm

October 14, 2004 Topic TBA. NIKU Corporation. Sponsored by PMI – Los Angeles http://www.pmi-la.org/

October 26-29, 200419th International Forum on COCOMO and Software Cost Modeling. Sponsored by Center for Software Engineering. Location: Los Angeles, CA. http://cse.usc.edu/cse/pub/event/2004/COCOMO/COCOMO-SCM19.html

October 28, 2004 6 – 9 PM Six Sigma: What is it? And why is Project Management so Important? By Joe DeSimone. Sponsored by PMI Los Padres Chapter. Location: Clarion Hotel, Thousand Oaks. http://pmi-lospadres.org/index.phtml

Oct. 29, 2004 8:00 AM - 1:00 PM What's Scary in Healthcare? Sponsored by HIMSS-Southern California. NEW LOCATION: Doubletree Hotel, Anaheim/Orange County, 100 The City Drive, Orange, CA 92868. http://www.himss-socal.org/

November 11, 2004 Topic TBA. Speaker: Jack Wormington, Vice President, Program Execution Assessment, The Aerospace Corporation. Sponsored by PMI – Los Angeles http://www.pmi-la.org/

November 18, 2004 6 – 9 PM Predicting Project Disasters by Paul Glen. Sponsored by PMI Los Padres Chapter. Location: Clarion Hotel, Thousand Oaks. 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

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 new 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

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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.