CAI and the IT Metrics & Productivity Institute are proud to present The 2010 Software Best Practices Conference Schedule

Your Journey to World Class IT   The 2010 Software Best Practices Conference is about improving the productivity and quality of your entire software development and maintenance organization, through world class IT management. It is about leveraging best practice and software process improvement theory in order to achieve dramatic business success. Each conference will feature expert speakers who have extensively researched and successfully applied these principles to the development and maintenance of software. Their experiences include annual, double-digit software cost reductions along with corresponding service volume increases and software quality increases. Understand the Theory! Learn From Case Studies! Find Out What Steps You Can Take Right Away! Network with Industry Leaders and Colleagues! You will leave this Conference with a clear, proven approach on how to adapt these lessons to your own IT organization! The ITMPI is now on Twitter! Follow us at http://www.twitter.com/itmpi Back to Top

Program / Agenda

Ed Yourdon

Author and International IT Consultant

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Learning to Love Software Maintenance

For decades, we've known that maintenance consumes approximately 70% of the typical enterprise software budget; and we also know that maintenance has a reputation for being the most boring, undesirable assignment that a programmer could ever get. Indeed, it's no surprise that we refer to people in our industry as "software developers," and only rarely as "software maintainers." Does this mean we are doomed to tolerate an industry of miserable professionals, doing as little as possible to fulfi ll the demands of a job they hate? Based on his 45 years of experience in the fi eld (which included a lot of maintenance work!), Ed Yourdon will help CIO's and senior IT executives (as well as project managers) transform software maintenance into an activity that has the respect, satisfaction, and excitement it deserves. And he'll offer practical advice for staffing an IT organization so that it can most effectively carry out an enterprise mission that is most likely to devote the majority of its resources to software maintenance.

Ed Yourdon is an internationally-recognized computer consultant, as well as the author of over 500 technical articles and 27 books, including "Byte Wars" , "Managing High-Intensity Internet Projects", "Death March", "Rise and Resurrection of the American Programmer", and "Decline and Fall of the American Programmer." His latest book, "Outsource: Competing in the Global Productivity Race", discusses both current and future trends in offshore outsourcing, and provides practical strategies for individuals, small businesses, and the nation to cope with this unstoppable tidal wave.

Capers Jones

Chief Scientist Emeritus of Software Productivity Research, Inc. (SPR) and Author

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Balancing Software Risks, Software Value, and Return on Investment (ROI)

On one side of a risk/value balance sheet software applications have generated billions of dollars in revenue and created hundreds of multi-millionaires including some of the wealthiest entrepreneurs in the United States. On the opposite side, large software applications have one of the highest failure rates of any manufactured product and have triggered dozens of expensive lawsuits for breach of contract and poor quality. Corporate software portfolios are among the most expensive assets that corporations own. They are also among the most expensive to maintain and they are the most vulnerable to outside threats of data theft and denial of service attacks. This presentation with Capers Jones discusses the characteristics of polar opposites: applications that are extremely valuable and have large returns on investment; applications that fail or do not work effectively and have large negative returns on investment. There are dozens of ways for software projects to fail, but only a few ways for them to succeed. This talk discusses the paths followed by the most successful software projects in the most successful software companies. ROI calculations are illustrated for individual projects and also for corporate portfolios.

Capers Jones is Chief Scientist Emeritus of Software Productivity Research (SPR). Mr. Jones is the designer of several software cost and quality estimation tools including SPQR/20™, the first commercial software estimating tool to use function points as the basis for sizing source code and other deliverables such as specifications and user documents. He is also an international consultant on software management topics, a speaker, a seminar leader, and a prolific author. As an author, Mr. Jones has written 14 books including his best seller "Applied Software Measurement: Assuring Productivity and Quality." His most recent book is "Estimating Software Costs."

Tom Salvaggio

Managing Director, CAI

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Proactive Application Support to Boost your Bottom Line

Two thirds of today's CIOs are frustrated because 70+% of their IT dollars are directed to keeping the lights on instead of facilitating their company's growth engine.  To avoid this pitfall, CIOs must reduce the funds needed to maintain existing applications and target those dollars towards strategic projects.  Take charge of your IT spend and capitalize on the differences that result from improved processes, metrics, and management.

Tom Salvaggio serves as Managing Director for Computer Aid, Inc. (CAI).CAI is an Information Technology consulting and outsourcing services organization with over 2,500 associate world-wide. In his role, Tom is responsible for strategic planning, as well as the fi scal and operational management of a 600-person operating region. Tom's region spans eight states as well as Canada and the United Kingdom. Tom also serves as a member of Computer Aid's Inc. Executive Board and holds board positions for the company's Canadian and Philippine subsidiaries. Tom graduated from the Pennsylvania State University where he earned a B.S. in Finance in 1990.

Bob Charette

President, ITABHI Corporation

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Why Do Software Projects Fail?

Why do software projects fail? It's simple, really. They're unaffordable. Why aren't they affordable? Because projects become overwhelmed by unplanned work and rework? Why does that happen? Because of a myriad of known but poorly managed risks, ranging from unrealistic project goals to sloppy development practices to commercial pressures that encourage taking gambles. All in all, software projects fail because the organization fails.  In this talk, Robert Charette will talk about why software projects fail, and what can be done from both a project and organizational perspective to minimize failure.

Dr. Robert Charette is the President of the ITABHI Corporation, an international high technology company involved in enterprise and program risk management consulting. He is the author of over 80 articles on software, systems, and business management in addition to the following books: "Software Engineering Environments: Concepts and Technology" (1986), "Software Engineering Risk Analysis & Management" (1989), "Applications Strategies for Risk Analysis" (1990), "Introduction to the Management of Risk" (1994, "A Unified Methodology for Systems Development" (1987) and "Decision Empowerment: A Parent's Guide to Raising Good Decision Makers' (2007). Several new books on managing enterprise risk are in progress.

John Keith

Former CIO of Unilever North America

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Application Service Management - Using Metrics to Drive Results

John Keith will provide a business case for using metrics to drive results in the application operations and support arena. His discussion will include the benefits realized and a realistic approach to improving the support organization.

John Keith, former CIO of Unilever North America IT, worked 31 years for Unilever United States and its predecessor company, Bestfoods. While at Unilever, he held many senior leadership roles in fi nance and information technology, including VP Finance for Bestfoods North American Retail and VP Information Technology for Unilever in North America. John recently led the Project Vital initiative at Unilever which was one of the company's largest and most strategic business transformation projects. IT delivered savings to the business from both a cost reduction and efficiency perspective. John is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in the State of New Jersey. He received a BS in Finance and History from Monmouth University in 1971.

Donald Reifer

President, RCI

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Twelve Myths of Software Maintenance

In this presentation, Don Reifer unravels the twelve most common myths about software maintenance. As part of his talk, Don will discuss how IT organizations can put the information he provides to work to improve the manner in which they perform their software maintenance tasks.  For example, Don will recommend that IT groups focus on regression testing because such revalidation and testing represent as much as seventy-five percent of the work organizations perform during the operations and support phase of the life cycle.

Don Reifer is an internationally-recognized software consultant. During his over 38 years in the software field, he has served as a consultant, built businesses, managed major projects, led recovery teams, served on red and greybeard teams, prepared proposals and served in executive positions in both industry and government. He has also served as a Visiting Associate at the Center for Systems and Software Engineering at the University of Southern California.Don has published more than one hundred papers and seven books. His many awards include the AIAA Software Engineering Award, the Frieman Award and the Secretary of Defense's Medal for Outstanding Public Service.

Bob Lawhorn

Chief Technology Officer, Computer Aid (CAI)

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Transforming IT Management to Achieve Dramatic Business Success

There are three main challenges that organizations getting started with a software process improvement program frequently face: 1) how to develop a workable method for gathering the metrics needed; 2) how to conduct meaningful analysis on that data, despite the fundamental comparison problems that arise across projects, teams, and technologies; and 3) how to institutionalize and market such a program so that it will overcome the inevitable resistance of an organization's various constituents. In this presentation by Bob Lawhorn, CTO of CAI, an automated approach to data collection is outlined that can address these challenges, at both a technological and a cultural level, while at the same time institutionalizing standard processes throughout an organization so that the data we wind up with, in the end, can be analyzed in a meaningful and consistent manner.

Bob Lawhorn has over 40 years of experience in software development, software measurement, and software project estimation. He spent his first twenty years at Bethlehem Steel working on applications related to steel, mining, and ship building and his next twenty years at CAI, where he is credited with the invention of CAI's application development methodologies and fixed price estimating matrices. Bob is currently CTO of CAI where he spends most of time consulting with companies and government agencies on how to implement application development best practices within their own organizations.

2010 Speaking Dates: Orlando, 10/13; Rochester, 10/27; Miami, 11/16
2011 Speaking Dates: Orlando, 4/14  

Larry Dribin

Former Director, Chicago Software Process Improvement Network (SPIN)

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What Gets Measured Gets Done

An approach to organizational improvement that has been successful focuses on improving an organization's internal processes through best practices. For this approach to work, a strong measurement system is needed to guide the process improvement. This presentation by Larry Dribin will discuss how software measurement programs can increase the effectiveness of process improvement initiatives.

Dr. Larry Dribin is a process improvement consultant and President of the Pearl Street Group, Inc., (PSG). Pearl Street provides process improvement and measurement consulting services to Information Technology and Business organizations. Dr. Dribin utilizes industry best practice frameworks such as the SEI's CMMI, itSMF's ITIL, PMI's PMBOK and Six Sigma to develop solutions for clients. He incorporates organizational change management techniques to speed the change process and make it more enduring. Dr. Dribin holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology from Illinois Institute of Technology, an MBA from Loyola University of Chicago, and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Illinois Institute of Technology. Dr. Dribin is also an adjunct Professor in Software Engineering at DePaul University of Chicago. He is active in local professional groups where he has been past Director with the Chicago Software Process Improvement Network (C-SPIN) and the Chicago Quality Assurance Association (CQAA).

David Herron

Founder, David Consulting Group (DCG)

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I'm Late, for a Very Important Date; Project Delivery & Managing Customer Expectations

Welcome to Wonderland. I wonder when we will be finished with this project? I wonder how much this will cost? Does your customer live in Wonderland; constantly wondering when their project will be delivered. Wondering if it will be on time and within budget? Managing the technical resources and the programming staff is what project managers do, but what about managing the customer? One of the criteria for a successful project is that it meets customer expectations. However, we often pay little attention to properly setting and then managing our customers expectations. This presentation by David Herron will demonstrate how basic project management tools and techniques can be more effectively used to help manage customer expectations. Help your customers get out of Wonderland!

David Herron is a Founder of  The David Consulting Group.  Mr. Herron is an authority in areas such as Functional Measurement and Software Process Improvement. He has over 25 years of experience in software development. During the past ten years he has served as a consultant to Fortune 1000 companies in the areas of software metrics, software process improvement and applications outsourcing management. He is an acknowledged authority in the measurement and estimation of software productivity and quality, specializing in the determination of software project size, effort and cost. His engagements have supported clients on the use of metrics to monitor the impact of IT on the business, on the advancement of IT organizations to higher levels on the Software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model and on the governance of offshore outsourcing arrangements. Mr. Herron is also the author, along with David Garmus, of Function Point Analysis: Measurement Practices for Successful Software Projects.

Ian Brown

Booz Allen Hamilton

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10 Habits of Highly Effective Measurement Programs

Accurately measuring product quality and process capabilities is challenging in any software organization. Most organizations do not attempt any real measurement at all, and the ones that do often fail miserably. In this presentation, Ian Brown presents ten keys to measurement success, including: devising measurements directly related to articulated business goals; automating measurement collection tools, and integrating measurement into the process.

Ian Brown, a senior associate with Booz Allen Hamilton, leads the firm's Quantitative Software Analysis capability. He has 8 years of experience in software measurement and analysis, CMM/CMMI, and goal-question-metric (GQM) implementation. Ian was elected to the Board of Directors of the International Function Point Users Group (IFPUG) in 2004 and serves as the Secretary and Director of Communications and Marketing. Ian is a Certified Function Point Specialist (CFPS) and has earned a bachelors degree from Cornell University and a master degree in public policy from Harvard University. He has worked closely with the firm's Earned Value Management (EVM) capability to integrate software measurement concepts with EVM and is currently implementing the approach on a large maintenance and enhancement task at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Carl Pritchard

Founder, Pritchard Management Associates

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Math Free Risk Management

Risk management is often seen as a deep mystery wrapped in higher mathematics. In this presentation, Carl Pritchard will examine the non-mathematical aspects of risk, and the importance of using qualitative, rather than quantitative practices to generate an organizational culture that effectively communicates and resolves risks.

Carl Pritchard is the principal and founder of Pritchard Management Associates (PMA). He is a recognized lecturer, author, researcher, and instructor. He is the lead chapter author for risk management in the 4th Edition of the Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge, the ANSI standard for project management. His work as an instructor has taken him around the world, training with some of the leading international training organizations, as well as for private clients and the Project Management Institute®. He has presented at each of the last 13 North American Project Management Institute Symposia and Congresses. He is the U.S. Correspondent for the U.K. project management journal, Project Manager Today.

Dan Galorath

President, Galorath, Inc.
 

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Sizing, Cost, Schedule and Risk for Software: A 10 Step Process

The focus of this presentation will show IT professionals how to make software projects more successful by properly estimating and planning costs, schedules, risks, and resources. It begins by covering the fundamental problems of unreasonable software estimation: not planning up front; failure to use viable estimates as the bases of an achievable project plan, not updating the plan and estimates when a project changes, and failing to consider the uncertainties inherent in estimates. Most estimates are prepared early on in the life cycle of a project, when there are typically a large number of undefined areas related to the project. The steps presented in this presentation provide a complete method for developing estimates and plans. This presentation essentially proposes a 10-step estimation process that begins by addressing the need for project metrics and fundamental software estimation concepts. It shows how to build a viable project estimate, which includes the work involved in the actual generation of an estimate, including sizing the software, generating the actual software project estimate, and performing risk/uncertainty analysis. Finally the process rounds out with a discussion on validation of the estimate, obtaining lessons learned, and use of the estimate throughout the project.

Dan Galorath is one of the principal developers of the SEER-SEM™ software evaluation model. His teaching experience includes development and presentation of courses in Software Cost, Schedule, and Risk Analysis; Software Management; Software Engineering; and Weapons Systems Architecture. His company, Galorath Incorporated, has developed tools, methods, and training for software cost, schedule, risk analysis, and management decision support. Among Mr. Galorath's published works are papers encompassing software cost modeling, testing theory, software life cycle error prediction and reduction, and software and systems requirements definition. Most recently, Mr. Galorath was named winner of the 2001 International Society of Parametric Analysts (ISPA) Freiman Award. awarded to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the theoretical or applied aspects of parametric modeling. Dan is also the author of "Software Sizing, Estimation, and Risk Management."

Dr. Leon Kappelman

Director Emeritus of the IS Research Center

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Early Warning Signs of IT Project Failure

Postmortem examinations of IT projects often reveal that long before problems and failures materialize there are significant "early warning signs" (EWSs) of trouble.  EWSs are events or conditions that alert one of impending problems.  EWSs indicate risks, probable future pain, or failure.  Managers need to ask themselves as early as possible to what extent any EWS warrants project redirection or even termination.  In this presentation  Professor Leon Kappelman reports on a study of seasoned IT project professionals that ranks the importance of EWSs, describes four main sources of IT project risk (the Four Horseman of Project Pain); and provides practical advice about how to spot EWSs and what to do about them.

Dr. Leon Kappelman is a research scientist, teacher, author, speaker, and consultant whose research, publications, and presentations in software project management, enterprise architecture, and technology management have received world-wide recognition.  He is Director Emeritus of the Information Systems Research Center and a Professor of Information Systems in the College of Business at the University of North Texas, where he is also a Fellow of the Texas Center for Digital Knowledge.  His professional expertise includes software project management; technology-related legal and ethical issues including intellectual property; continuity of operations; performance measurement; system development and maintenance; enterprise architecture and strategy; and high-tech and public policy matters like privacy, security, and software quality.  He currently serves as chair of the Society for information Management's Enterprise Architecture Working Group and contributed to and edited the SIM Guide to Enterprise Architecture (CRC Press, 2010).

Herb Krasner

Founder, Software Quality Institute and Lead CMM Assessor

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The ROI for Improving Software Quality

Leading organizations have learned that whenever proactive quality management with measurable outputs is used as a foundation for action, the concept of financial ROI is applicable. But what is software quality's ROI and how can it be measured? This presentation with Dr. Herb Krasner explores the following basic questions: 1. How can "good" software quality increase ROI? and; 2. How can "poor" software quality decrease ROI? Examples and cases of actual company software quality ROI results will be presented, and their implications discussed.

Dr. Herb Krasner is a senior faculty member at the University of Texas at Austin, and the Director of the Software Engineering Industry Affiliates Program. He is best known for his leading edge work on modeling the costs of software quality, reporting the ROI data for software process improvement, coaching organizational improvement programs and reporting the results from his empirical studies of professional programmers. He has published over 55 papers, articles and book sections and has been lead CMM assessor on over 40 CMM capability assessments.

Joe Burns

Director, Vericenter

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Applying QA Testing in an Agile Development Methodology

The growing popularity of utilizing the Agile Development methodology to develop systems has changed the way software is tested. In this presentation, Joe Burns will discuss the appropriate approaches, artifacts, and metrics for successfully delivering high quality products on time in an Agile methodology.  Customer experiences and real world examples will be included.

Joe Burns has over 20 years experience developing and implementing products and services for the quality assurance industry. He is an entrepreneur and enjoys building world class QA solutions.   He has successfully founded and developed testing products which are integrated with companies like IBM, TIBCO, and webMethods.  He is one of only a handful of people that developed a startup product that is now being commercially sold all over the world.  This product is currently on the Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Integration Testing. He is an expert in QA tools and processes and enjoys sharing his real life experiences with his audience.

James P Ryan

Director, CAI Consulting

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IT Best Practices for Application Support

In this presentation Jim Ryan will discuss IT Best Practice frameworks and how they relate to Application Support.  As part of the discussion Jim will discuss the different frameworks, key framework elements and how you go about selecting a framework or frameworks for your IT environment.  Also, once a framework selection is made how you start the implementation of the framework and IT and this translates into IT and business value.  Jim will also provide examples of how institutionalizing a framework has resulted in reduced costs and increased IT business value in several environments.

James Ryan is the Director of the CAI Consulting Practice in Wilmington, DE.  His expertise is in business and technology transformation, process reengineering, performance management, and customer relationship management.  Mr. Ryan has over forty years of experience in the information management industry helping clients redesign more effective businesses that result in the growth of profitable revenue streams as well as lower cost structures. He has worked in a variety of industries with a wide variety of clients including distribution, healthcare, manufacturing, development engineering, utilities, finance services and insurance.

Rick Brenner

Principal, Chaco Canyon Consulting

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Communication in Global and Distributed Teams

Virtual teams are now officially the way of things. Nevertheless, everything about such projects or operations is more difficult than face-to-face teams. The people of virtual teams are dispersed geographically, they meet infrequently or never, and they might even come from different cultures. And these three factors conspire to make what's usually easy, difficult — and what's usually difficult, impossible. This presentation by Rick Brenner will help people who sponsor, lead or participate in virtual organizations by focusing on communication within global and distributed teams.

Rick Brenner is principal of Chaco Canyon Consulting. He works with people in problem-solving organizations that need state-of-the-art teamwork and with organizations that want to create innovative products by building stronger relationships among their people. In his 25 years as a software developer, software development manager, entrepreneur and consultant, he has developed valuable insights into the interactions between people in the workplace environment, and between people and the media in which they work. He coaches managers at all levels.

Jutta Eckstein

Agile Coach

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Global Agile Software Development

On the one hand there are meanwhile not many projects left that are made at home without outsourcing, off- or nearshoring. On the other hand more and more projects discover the success factor of agile development which requests - among other things - an emphasis on face-to-face communication. In this presentation, Jutta Eckstein will report from her experiences in bringing these two trends together and will discuss which practices help and which hinder the success of a project.

Jutta Eckstein is an independent coach, consultant and trainer from Braunschweig, Germany. Her know-how in agile processes is based on over ten years experience in developing object-oriented applications. She has helped many teams and organizations all over the world to make the transition to an agile approach. She has a unique experience in applying agile processes within medium-sized to large distributed mission-critical projects. This is also the topic of her books 'Agile Software Development in the Large' and 'Agile Software Development with Distributed Teams'. She is a member of the AgileAlliance and a member of the program committee of many different European and American conferences in the area of agile development, object-orientation and patterns.

Gary Gack

Founder and President, Process-Fusion.net

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Cost of Quality

Many organizations are facing the challenge of measuring the results of efforts they devote to improving performance. The Cost of Quality metric is a very effective way to measure the results realized by applying any or all of the various industry standards and best practices, including Lean Six Sigma, PMI's PMBoK, ITIL, and SEI's CMMI. Our featured presenter Gary Gack brings a deep understanding of all of these best practices and in this session clearly explains how the CoQ metric can be used.

Gary Gack, is the founder and President of Process-Fusion.net, a provider of Assessments, Strategy Advice, Training, and Coaching relating to integration and deployment of software and IT best practices. Mr. Gack holds an MBA from the Wharton School, is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and an ASQ Certified Software Quality Engineer. He has more than 40 years of diverse experience, including more than 20 years focused on process improvement. He is the author of many articles and a book entitled "Managing the Black Hole: The Executive's Guide to Software Project Risk". LinkedIn profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/garygack

Scott Fabel

Director of Corporate Training, CAI

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Social Networking and Corporate Productivity

Are you LinkedIn? What does your Facebook say about you? Can MySpace make your space more productive? Have you tweeted lately? If you have no idea what these things are, then you need to learn about social networking. If you think that social networking is the downfall of corporate productivity, then you really need to learn about social networking. This presentation with Scott Fabel will provide an overview of several major (and minor) social networking sites while providing solid evidence of increased productivity in the workplace through their use.

Scott Fabel is a senior corporate training consultant with Computer Aid, Inc. He has nearly 18 years of experience working with various Fortune 1000 companies on Help Desk Implementations, Microsoft Technologies, Business Analysis, and Project Management. This includes both consultative services and customized training programs. He is HDI certified, PMP certified, CBAP certified, and a MCT. Scott has been teaching others business skills, professional skills, and technical skills for more than 12 years. He is currently pursuing his doctorate in education for which his dissertation will focus on the benefits of corporate training and mobile learning. He speaks three languages and was recently inducted into the International Martial Arts Hall of Fame. His communication skills, combined with his martial art skills, provide him with a unique combination for keeping his sessions informative, lively, and interactive.

Matthew Peters

Director, Business Intelligence Programs

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We're Making Progress: Trust Me! Measuring Performance Improvement with Software as a Service (SaaS)

This stimulating and thought provoking joint presentation with David Herron and Matthew Peters presents the basic elements of an effective process performance measurement technique and demonstrates how the use of a software as a service tool can be used to measure and monitor on-going process improvement. Successful process performance measurement requires both quantitative and qualitative data points in order to effectively analyze the impact of key attributes on productivity and quality. Once analyzed, the data is used to create a performance profile depicting process strengths and weaknesses. This information forms the basis for a series of process improvement recommendations. These same performance measurement techniques can also be incorporated into a SaaS tool for ongoing process and progress monitoring.

Matthew Peters is a research associate with CAI, and doctoral candidate in Information Sciences & Technology at Penn State University. His research focuses are systems design and architecture, knowledge management, decision-making, and learning. Throughout his career Matt has served as a subject matter expert consultant on projects for several major technology corporations in the areas of enterprise systems integration and knowledge management. He has authored several papers and workshops on design research, workforce learning, and the ROI of research. His primary focus at CAI is development of the IT Management Insight application suite for executive decision support.

Dave Smith

Director, Product Development

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Building an IT Control Room

Have you ever been surprised by something of significance in your business? Have you ever gotten inconsistent information from your organization? How does one address these challenges? How does one acquire visibility, control, and optimization across all IT departments? In this presentation, Dave Smith will share some of the challenges he has faced in IT over the last 25 years and will discuss a method for controlling and automating the flow of IT information so that it can be made available to teams, managers, and executives.

Dave Smith is a senior technology executive at CAI with 25 years of experience leading complex, challenging IT initiatives for industry-leading firms and Fortune 500 client companies. He specializes in the design, development, and launch of technology solutions and processes.

Bob Galen

Agile Coach

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Agile Testing: Facing the Challenges Beyond the Easy Contexts

Join Bob Galen as he explores how to handle testing in difficult contexts, including how to attack a total lack of test automation, how to remain agile in highly regulated environments and still serve your PMO or Testing COE, and how to effectively test when your team is spread globally and interactions are nearly impossible. Bob also describes contexts and approaches for blending your traditional testing techniques with their agile counterparts, achieving a sort of effective "balance" between the two—for example in your test planning and quality metrics reporting. If you're in a difficult testing context, expect examples and options, but no silver bullets. Remember—it's HARD!

Bob Galen is an Agile Methodologist, Practitioner & Coach based in Cary, NC. In this role he helps guide companies and teams in their pragmatic adoption and organizational shift towards Scrum and other Agile methods and practices. He is currently the Director of R&D and Agile Coach at iContact, an email marketing SaaS provider. He is also President and Principal Consultant for RGCG, LLC. Bob has held director, manager and contributor level positions in both software development and quality assurance organizations. He has over 25 years of experience working in a wide variety of domains at companies including Bayer, Bowe-Bell & Howell Mail Processing, ChannelAdvisor, EMC, Lucent, Unisys and Thomson.

Nick Spanos

Management Consultant

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Lean Project Management

Lean principles have been used in manufacturing to eliminate waste and achieve corresponding improvements in quality and cost reductions. This presentation discusses how we can apply Lean concepts to project management to reduce costs while improving quality and value to the business. We will also review CAI's Automated Project Office (APO) tool to show how APO is used to evaluate operational metrics and stake holder surveys to identify risks and improve project management.

Nicholas Spanos is a senior manager and management consultant with thirty years of experience in the Information Technology industry. Mr. Spanos analyzes IT organizations and identifies issues that impact effectiveness and productivity. He develops solution strategies for addressing the issues and provides management consulting services to help transform IT organizations to improve their overall effectiveness.

Each event will showcase 3-5 speakers. All speakers subject to change.

The best opportunity this year to learn how to dramatically increase the effectiveness of your ENTIRE software organization.

Fall 2010 Schedule

Baltimore, MD

Tuesday Sept 14, 2010

Renaissance Baltimore Harborplace Hotel
202 East Pratt Street
Baltimore, MD  21202
Tel: 410-547-1200

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The Entire Conference will be Broadcast Online at No Charge.
Click Here to Register for the Online Broadcast!

Detroit, MI

Tuesday Sept 28, 2010

Detroit Marriott at the Renaissance Center
Renaissance Center
Detroit, MI 48243
Tel: 313-568-8000

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The Entire Conference will be Broadcast Online at No Charge.
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Miami, FL

Tuesday Nov 16, 2010

Don Shula's Hotel & Golf Club
6842 Main Street
Hialeah, FL  33014
Tel: 305-821-1150

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The Entire Conference will be Broadcast Online at No Charge.
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Orlando, FL

Wednesday Oct 13, 2010

Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress
One Grand Cypress Blvd.
Orlando, FL 32836
Tel: 407-239-1234

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The Entire Conference will be Broadcast Online at No Charge.
Click Here to Register for the Online Broadcast! 

Philadelphia, PA

Thursday Oct 21, 2010

Philadelphia Marriott Downtown
1201 Market Street
Philadelphia, PA  19107
Tel: 215-625-2900

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The Entire Conference will be Broadcast Online at No Charge.
Click Here to Register for the Online Broadcast! 

Rochester, NY

Wednesday Oct 27, 2010

Genesee Valley Club
421 East Avenue
Rochester, NY 14607
Tel: 585-271-1197

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The Entire Conference will be Broadcast Online at No Charge.
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Spring 2011 Schedule

Baltimore, MD

Wednesday Mar 9, 2011

Detroit, MI

Wednesday Apr 6, 2011

Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Thursday Feb 24, 2011

Orlando, FL

Thursday Apr 14, 2011

Valley Forge, PA

Wednesday May 18, 2011

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Fall 2011 Schedule

Baltimore, MD

Wednesday Sept 28, 2011

Chicago, IL

Thursday Oct 6, 2011

Detroit, MI

Wednesday Oct 19, 2011

Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Thursday Nov 10, 2011

Philadelphia, PA

Wednesday Nov 16, 2011

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Registration

Registration Fee

Register now to ensure a seat in the 2010 Software Best Practices Conference.

The fee for conference is $695.

The conference is free to executives and managers in Federal and State government agencies. Official government identification must be presented at event registration.

Your registration fee covers attendance at all sessions of the Software Best Practices Conference, breakfast, breaks and lunch.

How to Register in the US

Click one of the registration links above or call by phone at: (610) 530-5225

How to Register in the UK

Special Needs

Please notify the IT Metrics and Productivity Institute help desk at (610) 530-5225 or by email at events@itmpi.org at least one week before the event if the registrant has special dietary needs or other requirements.

Contact Us

Additional Information

System Requirements for online broadcast

Please note that all webinars are conducted from the United States. Therefore, anyone trying to access the telephone dial-in phone number will have to use the appropriate country code. For additional information on the Conference or the IT Metrics and Productivity Institute please contact us at:

IT Metrics and Productivity Institute
1390 Ridgeview Drive
Allentown, PA 18104
(610) 530-5225 phone
(610) 530-5293 fax
events@itmpi.org

About the IT Metrics and Productivity Institute

The IT Metrics and Productivity Institute is an organization founded by CAI to improve the practice and management of software development and maintenance. The IT Metrics and Productivity Institute seeks to accomplish its mission through the promotion of best practices in the areas of Process, Metrics, Estimation, and IT Governance. Through the IT Metrics and Productivity Institute, CAI is able to share with the industry the process management insights they have acquired from over 25 years of experience serving Fortune 1000 and public sector clients.

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World Wide Conferences

The 2010 Software Best Practices Conferences are the most important software process improvement events for IT executives in 2010. They provide educational insight and networking opportunities for IT executives and managers who need to continually expand their technology knowledge base while remaining up-to-date on innovative products and services.If you are interested in sponsoring the 2010 Software Best Practices Conference, please contact:

Michael Milutis
Executive Director
IT Metrics and Productivity Institute
1390 Ridgeview Drive
Allentown, PA 18104
(610) 530-5141

Sponsorship Opportunities

If you are interested in sponsoring the 2011 Software Best Practices Conferences, please click here to download our sponsorship package.

Or contact:

Michael Milutis
Executive Director
IT Metrics and Productivity Institute
1390 Ridgeview Drive
Allentown, PA 18104
(610) 530-5141

Our Sponsors