CAI and the IT Metrics & Productivity Institute are proud to present

The 2009
Software Best Practices
Webinar Series

2009 Program

Estimating Projects Before Requirements are Complete

August 11, 2009
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

User requirements are a main source of development problems for software and systems projects - even when the supplier is a high maturity software developer. Contributing to the problem is that customer organizations increasingly want solid estimates even before requirements, and use convincing arguments such as "next year's budget" to justify such demands. What's a software engineer or cost estimator to do? This webinar with Carol Dekkers outlines solid approaches to alleviate these issues and provide the software practitioner with sources of shortcuts to size measurement and requirements management that will ease their burdens at the beginning of a project. 

Lean Six Sigma, CMMI, and Agile Methods: Can They Co-Exist?

August 12, 2009
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

Many organizations are facing the challenge of integrating and leveraging various industry standards and best practices, including Lean Six Sigma, Agile methods, PMI's PMBoKò, ITILò, and SEI's CMMIò. Our featured presenter brings a deep understanding of all of these best practices and in this session clearly explains connections and synergies between Lean Six Sigma, Agile Methods, and the SEI CMMI.

In this webinar with Gary Gack, each of the process areas will be reviewed and connections between Lean Six Sigma and CMMI Goals and Practices - both generic and specific - will be examined. A case study illustrating a "low calorie" approach to process improvement that leveraged both LSS and CMMI will be presented.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify synergies between Agile, CMMI, and Lean Six Sigma
• Illustrate the benefits of an integrated approach
• Demonstrate how to achieve great results on a tight budget

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Appraisals and CMMI Gotchas - Lessons in CMMI Use and Appraisal Preparation

August 13, 2009
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

So you're thinking about using CMMI or conducting a CMMI-based appraisal and arriving at Maturity Level X soon? In this webinar, Neil Potter and Mary Sakry will share some lessons learned that can help you spend your efforts well and avoid some of the common hazards on your journey. This talk is for those are using the CMMI, burned out from CMMI, or facing an appraisal soon.

Learning Objectives:

• Basic CMMI premise
• Common blind spots / hazards
  • Configuration Management - physical audits
  • Measurement & Analysis - overdoing measurement/goal definitions or ignoring all of it
  • Project Planning - size estimation, risk at the team level
  • Project Monitoring & Control - tracking actual effort and size
  • Integrated Project Management - triggers for corrective action
  • Supplier Agreement Management - avoiding sticky issues
• Level 4
  • Is one metric enough?
  • Stable processes
  • Can a metrics guy "Do Level 4?" alone?
• Level 5
  • The need for statistically stable processes, reducing variation, shifting the mean
• Overly focusing on every practice and PA
• Appraisal Preparation (SCAMPI)
  • Appraisal evidence
  • Mock interviews vs. running the business?

Intended Audience:

• Manages and engineers using the CMMI
• Process and QA engineers facing an appraisal soon

Click Here to Register!

Selling Agile: How to Get Buy-in from Your Teams, Customers, and Managers

August 17, 2009
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

Are you excited by the potential of agile software development, but find that your colleagues are a bit reticent? Is your whole team ready to dive in, but your business partner is only interested in dipping in a toe—if that? Are you struggling as a project manager, wishing for the right way to help your management see that agile is the way to go? Are you a manager, wishing for the words that will help your teams feel more confident about trying agile? Or maybe you're wishing you could find a way to convince your clients that there's a better way to contract for a software development job—without having to do a full-blown detailed design spec up front. In this webinar, Michele Sliger, agile consultant and co-author of The Software Project Manager's Bridge to Agility, will look at all of these questions surrounding how to best promote agile in your organization. We'll focus first on the general idea of a sales pitch, including what to do and what not to do. Then we'll look at selling agile to the team, to management, to the customer, and to others in your organization. We'll wrap up with a pointed look at not selling, and instead focus on finding other ways to promote and share agile practices.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the importance of phrasing and using a shared lexicon
• Be prepared with answers to the most common objections
• Look for and identify the real reasons behind the objections
• Learn how to persuade team members, customers, and management
• See other ways to sell without overtly making a pitch

Intended audience:

• Software project managers
• Team leads, and team members
• Account/engagement managers

Click Here to Register!

An Agile Developer's Guide to Lean Software Development

August 25, 2009
12:00 pm - 1:30 pm Eastern Time

As Agile methods expand to larger organizations more and more are discovering that Agile is "goodness but not enoughness." As an industry thought leader in both Agile and Lean methods, Alan Shalloway has found it to be very useful to extend common Agile practices by using Lean Principles. In this webinar, Alan explains what Lean is from the perspective of Agile development. In this way, Agile developers can take advantage of what they already know about Agile and learn how Lean helps Agile work better. Attendees will learn the seven principles of Lean Software Development: Respect people; Eliminate waste; Defer commitment; Create knowledge; Deliver fast; Build quality in; Optimize the whole

Learning Objectives:

• Understand how Lean's principles form the basis for Agile methods, thereby enabling them to enhance their Agile practice
• Learn how to help coordinate multiple teams
• Learn how to make decisions at the right time
• Learn how and why to minimize delays
• Understand the new role of QA to reduce the production of errors, not just the discovery and fixing of them

Intended Audience:

• Anyone familiar with Agile methods or anyone who wants to learn how Lean Thinking can improve any process.

Click Here to Register!

We Need it By October: What's Your Estimate?

August 26, 2009
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

It is a cardinal sin of management to let good estimates, made by informed people, be overwhelmed by the strong desires of powerful people. Accurate estimates are the foundation of all critical decisions regarding staffing, functionality, delivery date, and budget.

How do we properly estimate in a world where tradition declares that the deadline is set before requirements are even known? In this webinar, Tim Lister will offer practical advice on dealing with this thorny issue. He will present strategies and tactics for project estimating and will describe his favorite estimating metric, the Estimating Quality Factor (EQF).

Click Here to Register!

What Are You Getting For Your Software Maintenance Dollars?

September 2, 2009
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

Do you have difficulty in maintaining your legacy software systems? Are your systems large and integrated with other large systems, but not well-documented? Have you been discouraged by the difficulty in transitioning to new technologies, languages and platforms? Would you rather devote time and energy in developing new software that is critical to new business opportunities? In this webinar, David Garmus will discuss some issues in maintaining legacy systems and identify those systems that have the greatest potential for outsourcing or replacement. He will provide data on typical industry support rates for legacy systems.

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Lessons Learned in Motivating Software Engineering Process Groups to Focus on Achieving Business Goals, Not Just Maturity Levels

September 3, 2009
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

In this webinar, Girish Seshagiri will share a real life example of the combined use of Goal/Questions/Metrics (GQM) and Balanced Scorecard (BSC) to link Software Process Improvement (SPI) goals with business objectives. He will show how an organization's Software Engineering Process Group (SEPG) was motivated to focus on achieving business goals and not just achieving a maturity level. Additionally, Girish will demonstrate a practical method for implementing the systematic collection and reporting of project and organization data concerning profitability of projects, employee morale/satisfaction, and customer feedback (for quality, value, and timeliness of services rendered). He will also discuss the challenges faced in connecting top level business objectives for revenue to SPI goals, and in connecting new products and services innovation to SPI goals.

Intended Audience:

• Senior managers who sponsor process improvement initiatives
• Process improvement managers
• Process improvement specialists
• Members of the SEPG
• Program Managers
• Project Managers

Click Here to Register!

How to Effectively Lead an Offshore Team

September 8th, 2009
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

Over the past several years global delivery of IT application services has become commonplace. To deliver these services successfully, however, firms need to implement consistent methodologies and processes that have been adapted to handle geographically dispersed teams. While these defined approaches and disciplines help manage work between diverse locations, the best firms also have strong leadership principles to guide them through the challenges of a multi-cultural team.

In this Webinar, David Broderick, Director of Offshore Delivery for CAI, will share some facts, experiences, and insights on how to lead IT teams dispersed across different countries.

Click Here to Register!

Staying Agile in a Global World - Distributed Agile Software Development

September 9, 2009
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

Today, there are not many projects left that are developed "at home" without outsourcing or offshoring. Outsourcing and offshoring, both imply that there is a distance between the project members. In an offshoring project you will often find that there is not only one kind of distance but rather a combination of these distances.

Another trend that has currently gained momentum is agile software development. More and more projects regard agility as a critical success factor for software development. Agile development puts a strong emphasis on face to-face communication and close collaboration between all project members.

Despite the seeming incompatibility of global software development and agile methods, several projects have tried to combine them. After all, the agile manifesto and its underlying principles do not argue against the feasibility of agility in a global setting. It's true that when conducting global agile software development you might not find a specific agile methodology that can be used out of the box. Still, agile principles can help you to keep the necessary focus in your development approach in order to stay agile.

In this webinar, Jutta Eckstein will report from her experiences in bringing global and agile development together and will show which practices help and which hinder the success of such a project.

Learning Objectives:

• How to harness the efficiency and adaptability of agile software development as well for globally distributed teams
• How to ensure frequent delivery with distributed teams
• How to focus on delivering the highest business across the globe
• How to achieve efficient communication and frequent synchronization over a distance

Intended Audience:

• Change agents and promoters of agile methods
• Executives
• Project managers
• Product managers
• Development team managers

Click Here to Register!

A Practical Guide to Catastrophe Disentanglement: Getting Software Projects Back on Track

September 10, 2009
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

If you are responsible for a late and over-budget software project you are by no means alone; software project overruns are all too common. But if serious problems have existed for quite a while and the situation is getting worse, not better, you may have a project catastrophe on your hands. At this point, there is no PMI, IEEE, SEI, or ISO rescue process to follow, because these organizations essentially offer preventive, rather than corrective solutions. This webinar with Elli Bennatan presents a ten-step process to disentangle a software project catastrophe and get it back on track. The webinar includes the material from the first Catastrophe Disentanglement webinar without the background and theory, but with additional practical guidelines and tips for implementation.

Learning Objectives:

• Determine whether your project is in serious trouble (a catastrophe)
• Ensure that there is value in rescuing your project
• Define the minimum acceptable project goals that are achievable
• Put in place an achievable plan and align your development team, management, and customers
• Identify risks in your revised project and create effective contingency plans
• Install an "early warning system" to keep your project from slipping back towards catastrophe

Intended Audience:

• Software developers
• Project managers
• Members of senior management
• Software project stakeholders (anyone with a significant interest in a software project).

Click Here to Register!

Process Improvement in a Multi-Model World

September 15, 2009
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

Model based process improvement typically has centered on a single model or framework as the lynch pin to control software process improvement within an organization. The use of a model or framework is an excellent means of reducing random activity unfortunately one model does not cover the whole organization. Process improvement has matured to a point where the span of control needs to be extended which suggests the use of more than one model (e.g. CMMI and ISO, ITIL, Business Process Re-engineering and CMMI). This webinar with Tom Cagley will discuss how to manage process improvement in a complex, multi-model environment.

Learning Objectives:

• Why embrace a multi-model environment
• How managing a multi-model process improvement initiative is different
• How control change in an environment being changed by many groups with different points of view.

Intended Audience:

• IT Managers
• Process Improvement Evangelists
• Engineering Process Group Members and Leaders
• Anyone Managing or Thinking About Change

Click Here to Register!

General Principles of Cost Estimation

September 16, 2009
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

Estimating the number of people and the amount of time it will take to develop software is an integral piece of effective project planning. This webinar presentation with Dr. Brad Clark discusses approaches to estimation, from the simple to the complex, with examples. Brad will then delve into the Achilles' heel of any estimation method: sizing the work to be done. Finally he will discuss the impact that speeding up a project has on staffing requirements. By the end of the webinar, you will understand all of the challenges in creating a credible estimate.

Learning Objectives:

• Discuss the three approaches to software project cost estimation
• Discuss the impact that product quality has on estimation
• Discuss analyzing the feasibility of the estimation results
• Discuss approaches to sizing the work to be done (the most challenging task!)
• Explain the impact of compressing a project's schedule.

Intended Audience:

• IT Program Managers
• Software project managers
• Software engineers
• Process improvement groups

Click Here to Register!

Seven Habits of Highly Successful Software Teams

September 17, 2009
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

Regardless of specific techniques used, there are attitudes and habits that are common to every successful software team. In this webinar by Kurt Bittner, reflecting decades of collected experience, seven of the most important habits are examined. These habits include a singular focus on delivering the right working solution, active (even aggressive) mitigation of risk, a focus on measurable results, advancing the solution in deliberate steps, a lack of fear of failure, continuous adaptive planning and honesty about status, progress, risks and issues.

Learning Objectives:

• Attendees will come away with insights about successful habits and attitudes that they can apply to their software projects.

Intended Audience:

• Anyone working on, or responsible for, software development projects.

Click Here to Register!

Live from the Hyatt Regency in Chicago - The Software Best Practices Conference - Half Day Webinar! Click Here to Register for Free! 3 PDU Credits Available!

September 22, 2009
9:00 am - 1:00 pm Eastern Time                                 

Program: 

Keeping Software Projects from Failing - Bob Charette

Why do software projects fail? It is simple, really. They're unaffordable. Why aren't they affordable? Because the projects becomes overwhelmed by unplanned work and rework? Why does that happen? Because of a myriad of known by 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 organizational fails.  In this talk, Dr. Robert Charette, a pioneer in enterprise and IT risk management, will talk about why software projects fails, and what can be done from both a project and organizational perspective to minimize failure, beginning with the risk management principle: Trust, but verify.

Bio: 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.

Building and Using Corporate Intellectual Property in the Software Domain - Vic Basili

Software development is often viewed as a research and development activity rather than a competence area that needs to be nurtured, packaged, and evolved as part of an organization's intellectual property. Such a mind set requires a different paradigm, one in which we can capture, analyze and synthesize experiences and then provide project support based upon what the organization has learned to date. In this presentation, Dr. Vic Basili discusses how this approach is reflected in the Goal/Question/Metric Paradigm, the Quality Improvement Paradigm and the Experience Factory Organization. These models are based on the need for measurement and feedback loops, from product to process and project to project. The end goal is the creation of a learning organization for building software competencies.

Bio: Victor R. Basili is currently Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland and Chief Scientist at the Fraunhofer Center-Maryland, where he was founding director and was also one of the Founders and Principals in the NASA Goddard Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL). He has worked on measuring, evaluating, and improving the software development process and product and developed methods such as the Goal Question Metric Approach (GQM), the Quality Improvement paradigm (QIP), and the Experience Factory organization (EF) to help bring a sense of order to the ad-hoc development so prevalent in the software engineering field. Dr. Basili has developed, tailored, evaluated and evolved these techniques for many organizations and government agencies, including AT&T Bell Labs, Boeing, Coopers and Lybrand, Daimler, DoD, Ericsson, FAA, Fujitsu, GE, GTE, Hughes, IBM, Lucent, MCC, Motorola, Mutsuhito Panasonic, NASA, NEC, Nokia, Ricoh, and Sogei.

Ensuring Project Success Through Automated Project Governance - Bob Lawhorn

According to the Standish Group, more than half of all IT projects come in over budget, over schedule, or fail outright. Why is IT continually plagued by such dismal success rates? In this webinar, Bob Lawhorn proposes a solution to this problem. He will discuss an innovative new approach for automating and institutionalizing project governance best practices at both the executive and operational level.

Bio: 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.

Click Here to Register!

Ensuring Project Success through Automated Project Governance

September 23, 2009
3:30 pm - 5:00 pm Eastern Time

According to the Standish Group, more than half of all IT projects come in over budget, over schedule, or fail outright. Why is IT continually plagued by such dismal success rates? In this webinar, Chuck Keeler proposes a solution to this problem. He will discuss an innovative new approach for automating and institutionalizing project governance best practices at both the executive and operational level.

Click Here to Register!

Enabling Trust in your Measurement Systems

September 24, 2009
11:00 am - 12:30 pmEastern Time

Problems in Systems and Software Measurement Systems contributes to flawed decision making and missed market opportunities, wasted investments and disappointed customers. In this webinar, Michael Evanoo will look at the sources of these problems and how they can be identified and avoided through the application of an appropriate measurement system calibration program using the proven principles of Measurement Systems Analyses, specifically tailored to systems and software development, in order to identify, correct and improve the sources of measurement errors.

Learning Objectives:

• Ability to begin to better understand if the measurement systems in your organization are capable to enable the decisions their intended for
• Ability to begin to identify a calibration plan to conduct Measurement Systems Analysis on a regular basis to ensure your measurement systems remain capable
• Ability to begin to identify the different types of measurement errors and the effects that each may have
• Ability to begin to use comprehensive Measurement Systems Analysis to identify the measurement errors and eliminate them.

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Proactive Testing Puts Agile Test-Driven (and Other) Development on Steroids

September 25, 2009
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

Agile eXtreme Programming (XP) test-driven development methods can speed delivery, cut costs and improve quality; but they unknowingly often miss out on far greater benefits possible from using the full range of more powerful approaches described within the Proactive Testing™ methodology. In this eye-opening webinar, Robin Goldsmith shows how practical low-overhead Proactive Testing techniques reveal many important test conditions that developers, users and even professional testers typically overlook. By not only catching but also preventing more of the important issues earlier, Proactive Testing can help you enhance the advantages of XP or whatever development methodology you're currently using to deliver better software quicker, cheaper and with less aggravation.

Learning Objectives:

• Explain Agile test-driven strengths and (often unrecognized) limitations
• Describe the practical powerful Proactive Testing™ risk-based methodology
• Show how it reveals and prevents numerous ordinarily overlooked defects

Intended Audience:

• Software managers
• Project managers
• Software engineers and developers
• Software Quality Assurance and Testing professionals
• Business and Systems Analysts
• Software Process Improvement specialists

Click Here to Register!

Agile Projects - Beginning with the End in Mind

September 30, 2009
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

Quite often teams simply dive into Agile projects—allowing the iterative and emergent nature of agility to guide the project. In some contexts, those in the agile sweet spot, this works incredibly well. However in those that extend beyond Agile's comfort zone it can fail miserably. In this session, Bob Galen will explore how to consistently get your Agile projects off to a proper beginning. We'll examine when architectural definition and requirements need more early development; how to create a charter to guide your projects goals; the keys to forming a solid agile team; and how to create a plan that allows your stakeholders to understand where you're going—then update them with information that makes sense to them. How you begin often dictates how you end, so let's do it well.

Learning Objectives:

• Introduce a small but powerful assessment tool for deciding focus factors for starting your Agile project
• Explore the notion of Agile Project Charters; what is important to focus on and how to iterate them
• How to create flexibility in your Agile Planning that connects your stakeholders to intent and progress
• The conditions that warrant an Iteration or Sprint #0 and how to effectively run it
• How to change your chartered context as project conditions change - and they will!

Intended Audience:

• Agile Method practitioners
• Software developers
• Software quality assurance personnel
• Project managers
• Functional managers

Click Here to Register!

Live from the Park Hyatt Hotel in Toronto - The Software Best Practices Conference - Full Day Webinar! Click Here to Register for Free! 5 PDU Credits Available!

October 1, 2009
9:00 am - 3:00 pm Eastern Time                                  

Program: 

IT and the World Wide Manufacturing Revolution - Bob Lawhorn

For 30 years, manufacturing companies have gone through a revolutionary journey that has resulted in dramatically higher productivity, lower costs, and improved quality. In this presentation, Bob Lawhorn will examine this journey and will draw parallels between the manufacturing revolution and current trends in information technology.

Bio: 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.

The Politics of Software Metrics - Ed Yourdon

According to several surveys, only about 10% of all IT metrics initiatives survive for more than a year. In this presentation, Ed Yourdon demonstrates that many of the failures are political in nature. Yourdon's presentation identifies common political problems associated with metrics initiatives, and provides common-sense guidelines and strategies for avoiding them.

Bio: 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. 

Practical Uses of Software Measurement for Business Improvement - Larry Dribin

A well designed practical software measurement program can dramatically increase the effectiveness of software process improvement initiatives and increase the effectiveness of the measurement programs itself. This presentation by Dr. Larry Dribin explores how software measurement programs can be designed to better support process improvement and provide IT management with the information they need for the business.
 
Bio: Dr. Larry Dribin is a consultant with his own consulting firm, the Pearl Street Group, Inc.(PSG). Pearl Street provides process improvement and measurement consulting services to both 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. Dr. Dribin holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Psychology from the Illinois Institute of Technology, an MBA from Loyola University, 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 a past Director with the Chicago Software Process Improvement Network (C-SPIN) and the Chicago Quality Assurance Association (CQAA) and is a member of ACM, IEEE and PMI. 

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

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.

Bio: 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". 

Transforming IT Management for Dramatic Business Success - Bob Lawhorn

In this presentation by Bob Lawhorn, an automated approach to data collection is outlined that can address classic metrics 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 can be analyzed in a meaningful and consistent manner.

Bio: 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.

Click Here to Register!

Live from the Hyatt Regency in Baltimore - The Software Best Practices Conference - Half Day Webinar! Click Here to Register for Free! 

October 6, 2009
9:00 am - 1:00 pm Eastern Time                                  

Program: 

Keeping Software Projects from Failing - Bob Charette

Why do software projects fail? It is simple, really. They're unaffordable. Why aren't they affordable? Because the projects becomes overwhelmed by unplanned work and rework? Why does that happen? Because of a myriad of known by 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 organizational fails.  In this talk, Dr. Robert Charette, a pioneer in enterprise and IT risk management, will talk about why software projects fails, and what can be done from both a project and organizational perspective to minimize failure, beginning with the risk management principle: Trust, but verify.

Bio: 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.

Building and Using Corporate Intellectual Property in the Software Domain - Vic Basili

Software development is often viewed as a research and development activity rather than a competence area that needs to be nurtured, packaged, and evolved as part of an organization's intellectual property. Such a mind set requires a different paradigm, one in which we can capture, analyze and synthesize experiences and then provide project support based upon what the organization has learned to date. In this presentation, Dr. Vic Basili discusses how this approach is reflected in the Goal/Question/Metric Paradigm, the Quality Improvement Paradigm and the Experience Factory Organization. These models are based on the need for measurement and feedback loops, from product to process and project to project. The end goal is the creation of a learning organization for building software competencies.

Bio: Victor R. Basili is currently Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland and Chief Scientist at the Fraunhofer Center-Maryland, where he was founding director and was also one of the Founders and Principals in the NASA Goddard Software Engineering Laboratory (SEL). He has worked on measuring, evaluating, and improving the software development process and product and developed methods such as the Goal Question Metric Approach (GQM), the Quality Improvement paradigm (QIP), and the Experience Factory organization (EF) to help bring a sense of order to the ad-hoc development so prevalent in the software engineering field. Dr. Basili has developed, tailored, evaluated and evolved these techniques for many organizations and government agencies, including AT&T Bell Labs, Boeing, Coopers and Lybrand, Daimler, DoD, Ericsson, FAA, Fujitsu, GE, GTE, Hughes, IBM, Lucent, MCC, Motorola, Mutsuhito Panasonic, NASA, NEC, Nokia, Ricoh, and Sogei.

Ensuring Project Success Through Automated Project Governance - Bob Lawhorn

According to the Standish Group, more than half of all IT projects come in over budget, over schedule, or fail outright. Why is IT continually plagued by such dismal success rates? In this webinar, Bob Lawhorn proposes a solution to this problem. He will discuss an innovative new approach for automating and institutionalizing project governance best practices at both the executive and operational level.

Bio: 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. 

Business Process Architecture Management: Methodologies and Best Practices

October 7, 2009
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

Business process redesign and improvement efforts have traditionally been narrow in scope, focusing primarily on individual, isolated processes, or subsets of related processes within a narrow domain, such as marketing products and services. While these efforts have been largely successful on a small scale, they frequently overlook the larger process context within the organization thereby sub-optimizing upstream, downstream, or related processes and/or failing to recognize redundancies and additional process improvement opportunities. Taking a more holistic system's approach, business process architecture management involves the development and maintenance of enterprise-wide process models, measures, and supporting resources. While some industries, organizations and functional areas are more sophisticated than others in this area, there is a general lack of awareness regarding the creation, use, and potential benefits of enterprise-wide process architectures. This webinar with Dr. Shawn Clark addresses the fundamental business question "What are the potential benefits of business process architecture and how may they be achieved?"

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Requirements by Collaboration: Defining Product Needs on Large Agile Projects

October 9, 2009
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

Understanding product requirements is essential for successful development. On large, complex agile projects, teams struggle with grasping just enough of the product requirements to ease the myriad problems that can arise. These issues include the need to define which slice of the product to build (and when) and how to recognize architectural dependences before they result in the need for extensive rework. Teams also need to establish viable release strategies to support business planning, and they need to define how to achieve adequate customer involvement, ensuring that the right level of customer is involved at the right time. All these issues call for careful development of product requirements.

In this webinar, Ellen Gottesdiener will explain how a series of agile requirements workshops - where you develop a product roadmap, release plan, and iteration plan - can provide just enough requirements-related information at the right time, and for the right stakeholder community, on large agile projects. Join us to learn how agile teams tackling large products can collaborate around product requirements to deliver a framework for deciding when and what to build.

Intended Audience:

• Business managers, product managers, and product owners
• Project managers and scrum masters
• Subject matter experts and business analysts
• Agile coaches

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Sources of Project Failure: Leaders and Managers

October 13, 2009
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

There is no better time to introduce new practices then when a project realizes it is failing. In that moment, when there is undeniable proof that the status quo can't be the way forward, when the only thing worse than failing is being the reason for failure, that an otherwise change resistant organization willingly passes the necessary authority to an agent of change. During this webinar, Stephen Cohen will dive into the role leadership and management play in causing and resolving failing projects. Mr. Cohen will include examples of practices applied during some of the most difficult real world circumstances and drill into why they were more successful than prior, less Agile, efforts.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the classes and types of project failure patterns
• Describe the various counter-measures used in response to various class and types of project failures
• Correlate specific leadership and management activities with various class and types of project failures.

Intended Audience:

• Project managers
• Program Managers
• Software engineers

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IFPUG and COSMIC Function Points - Similarities and Differences

October 14, 2009
5:00 pm - 6:30 pm Eastern Time

While the IFPUG Function Point Analysis (FPA) (ISO/IEC 20976) method for sizing software is the most commonly used, many people are beginning to ask about one of the newer ISO Functional Size Methods - COSMIC-FFP (ISO/IEC 19761). In the last 3 years COSMIC has started gaining market share in the functional size measurement arena particularly in Europe and in the telecommunications and real time systems control applications. This webinar with Pam Morris discusses the similarities and differences between the two sizing methods and provides guidance on the factors you need to consider when deciding which method would be suitable for your software environment.

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Live from the Park Hyatt in Philadelphia - The Software Best Practices Conference - Half Day Webinar!
Click Here to Register for Free! 

October 20, 2009
9:00 am - 12:00 pm Eastern Time                                  

Program: 

Keeping Software Projects from Failing - Bob Charette

Why do software projects fail? It is simple, really. They're unaffordable. Why aren't they affordable? Because the projects becomes overwhelmed by unplanned work and rework? Why does that happen? Because of a myriad of known by 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 organizational fails.  In this talk, Dr. Robert Charette, a pioneer in enterprise and IT risk management, will talk about why software projects fails, and what can be done from both a project and organizational perspective to minimize failure, beginning with the risk management principle: Trust, but verify.

Bio: 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.

Ensuring Project Success Through Automated Project Governance - Bob Lawhorn

According to the Standish Group, more than half of all IT projects come in over budget, over schedule, or fail outright. Why is IT continually plagued by such dismal success rates? In this webinar, Bob Lawhorn proposes a solution to this problem. He will discuss an innovative new approach for automating and institutionalizing project governance best practices at both the executive and operational level.

Bio: 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. 

Making Risk Based Testing a Reality

October 21, 2009
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

Software testers know that there is never enough time or money to test everything. Managers want testing to cost less.

Many organizations have embraced the concept of risk-based testing as a way to contain the costs of testing, and focus test efforts on the system areas where undetected defects could do the most harm. But too often, there is no substance behind the buzz-phrase, as the testers are left to assess the risks without management and business support. Most testers are not trained to do this, and they may not have the detailed domain knowledge to know the true cost of a defect in the field.

To be an effective strategy, risk-based testing requires accurate assessment of system risks and stakeholder buy-in.

This webinar by Fiona Charles describes a systematic process that has worked in many leading organizations for conducting a system risk assessment, asking questions that will help to identify and assess the relative priority of risks, and ensuring stakeholder ownership of the result—which will both drive the test strategy and act as important information for many project decisions.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the many dimensions of software risk
• Explain the varied approaches to risk assessment required for different types of software projects
• Describe a process for conducting a system risk assessment workshop, including the kinds of business-oriented questions to ask
• Explain how to use the risk assessment in projects.

Intended Audience:

• Information systems executives and managers
• Software test and quality assurance personnel
• Project managers
• Solution architects

Click Here to Register!

Becoming a Pragmatic Project Manager: Lessons Learned in Project Management

October 22, 2009
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

You've managed projects but they're never easy. They don't fit into the nice definitions found in project management books. Your schedules are generally off. There are always unkind surprises. Although you're not failing, you feel you could be more successful.

There is a solution— actually several possibilities. You can take a more pragmatic approach. Employ mini-projects and iterations to explore alternatives technologies. Use incremental steps to finish features one-at-a-time when you don't know how far along you are. Make sure stakeholders agree on what "done" really means. Learn how to escape the dreaded trap of "multi-tasking," a management style that drains energy from everyone whenever there is a task switch. One final secret every project manager must discover: There is no "one right way" to manage a project. Everything depends on context—the company and its products, the technology employed, the people on your team, and you. If you can learn to keep everything in balance, you will have a successful project. Let something get out of whack and you can kiss all your hard work goodbye.

Learning Objectives:

• How to choose among different lifecycles to organize your project successfully
• Plan how and when to re-plan
• How to help the project team provide you more information about the project's actual progress
• How to avoid multi-tasking

Intended Audience:

• Functional managers
• Technical leads who perform some management work
• Project managers, program managers, and managers who manage project managers

Click Here to Register!

Silver bullets - Do They Hit the Mark?

October 26, 2009
4:00 pm - 5:30 pm Eastern Time

What works in IT Management and what doesn't? Are there really any silver bullets?

A "Silver Bullet" is something that magically transforms the performance of IT projects. But do such things exist?

The ISBSG has performed extensive analysis that looks at the use of project development tools and techniques that were used in the projects in its repository. In this webinar with Peter Hill, Executive Director of the ISBSG, we will look at the impact of these tools & techniques on software development productivity. We will look at the impact of using a methodology, of being CMM(I) or ISO compliant as well as the techniques of Modelling, prototyping, Rapid Application Development and Object Oriented Analysis and Design. The tools that we will review include CASE, Project Management, User Requirements & Specification, plus testing and debugging.

Learning Objectives:

• This webinar will help people who have to plan, estimate and manage projects as well as giving IT managers an insight into what is worth investing in and what is not.

Click Here to Register!

Live from the Marriott Hotel in Tyson's Corner - The Software Best Practices Conference - Half Day Webinar!
Click Here to Register for Free! 

October 27, 2009
9:00 am - 1:00 pm Eastern Time                                  

Program: 

IT and the World Wide Manufacturing Revolution - Jim P. Ryan

For 30 years, manufacturing companies have gone through a revolutionary journey that has resulted in dramatically higher productivity, lower costs, and improved quality. In this presentation, Jim Ryan will examine this journey and will draws parallels between the manufacturing revolution and current trends in information technology.

Bio: James Ryan is the Director of the CAI Consulring 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 with a wide variety of clients. 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.

Prior to his position at CAI, Mr. Ryan had been a senior management consultant with the IBM Consulting Group. During his career with IBM, Mr. Ryan had held a variety of technical marketing, and general management positions.  His field assignments have given Mr. Ryan broad experiences in the diverse problems associated with Information systems across a wide range of businesses. His information technology assignments included CIO and general management responsibilities for the operation of a large IBM Information Technology center.  He was instrumental in the implementation of redesigned process and metrics that significantly improved the quality and efficiency of the center.  

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

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.

Bio: 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". 

A Comprehensive System for IT & Software Project Management - Bob Lawhorn

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.

Bio: 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.

Boosting Performance in Small Organizations with the CMMI

October 28, 2009
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

If you don't think the CMMI can scale to small organizations, then you must attend this webinar. David Walker will lead you through an analysis of the important environmental parameters, innovative and proven strategies, and lessons learned in applying the CMMI in small software development organizations.

Learning Objectives:

• Know what to do differently when using CMMI in small organizations
• Know what pitfalls and mistakes do avoid
• Know what obstacles and challenges to expect and risks to manage
• Know what strategies to keep at the forefront throughout the improvement initiative

Intended Audience:

• EPG Leads, Managers, QA Engineers with interest in CMMI based improvement in small organizations.

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Maintain Your Success By Using the Best: Using CMMI & ITIL to Become Excellent at Maintenance and Support

November 3, 2009
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

IT process improvement projects often focus on the new application development area and not on the maintenance and support areas. Yet maintenance and support often account for 80% of the cost of an application over the life of the application.

There is a wide acceptance for ITIL in the IT Infrastructure area. However, many of these efforts focus on individual ITIL certification and do not focus on implementing organization wide IT improvement programs.

IT process improvement using best practices such as CMMI and ITIL have proven to be an excellent way for IT organizations to achieve IT Excellence in the development area. This Webinar focuses on how to use CMMI and ITIL together to improve maintenance and support activities.

In this webinar with Dr. Larry Dribin, you will learn how the integration of the CMMI and ITIL can provide an excellent process foundation to guide the maintenance and support organizations to improve their performance and achieve IT Excellence.

Learning Objectives:

• What is IT Excellence
• How an IT Excellence process improvement program can improve IT and business performance
• How to use CMMI and ITIL to design maintenance and support processes
• How an IT process models can guide the process improvement effort

Intended Audience:

• CIOs
• Infrastructure and Operations directors, managers and practitioners
• IT process improvement analysts and consultants
• Business users of IT maintenance and support services
• Applications development practitioners, managers and directors

Click Here to Register!

Taming the Turbulence: Changing How You Communicate During Change

November 4, 2009
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

If your job entails introducing and managing change, you're likely to encounter resistance, objections, pushback and grumbling. For better or worse, this turbulence is a fundamental part of the change experience. But astute managers can minimize the duration and intensity of the turbulence, and thereby implement the change more smoothly. The key to taming the turbulence is to understand how people experience change and to communicate with them in accordance with that understanding. This webinar by Naomi Karten will help you successfully introduce change, manage change efforts, and cope with change when you're on the receiving end. We'll examine models that explain both the cerebral and visceral experience of change. Drawing from these models, we'll look at communication strategies for minimizing the turbulence of change and attain positive outcomes.

Learning Objectives:

• Gain insight into the psychological experience of change
• Become more astute at introducing and managing change
• Learn strategies for taming the turbulence of change
• Become skilled at helping others cope with change

Intended Audience:

• Managers, project managers and others who introduce or manage change
• Everyone who has experienced the turbulence of change
• Employees in organizations undergoing significant change

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A Holistic Approach to Understanding IT Costs

November 9, 2009
10:00 am - 11:30 am Eastern Time

When we talk to Information Technology (IT) leaders about better defining, selecting and managing their IT projects, the are quick to inform us that the projects represent less than 1/3 of their budget. Most of the IT budget goes toward paying existing people and supporting existing datacenters. What's needed is an approach that uses activity based models of the current state of an IT operation combined with an activity based analysis of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). This will facilitate a determination of cost savings and additional costs associated with new projects and emerging technologies. High performing IT organizations take a "holistic approach" to understand and model IT costs. They optimize their portfolios based on ROI, where the "I" (investment) is TCO, including hardware, software implementation, software maintenance and operations costs. This webinar by Arlene F. Minkiewicz will discuss methods to assess as-is and future state IT operations to facilitate business case analyses for technology adoption and new projects.

Learning Objectives:

• Composition of the IT budget in organizations
• Methodology for assessing the current state of an IT operation
• Methodology for assessing the TCO associated with the introduction of a new project or emerging technology into the current state.
• Example business case analysis utilizing these methodologies

Click Here to Register!

Live from the Marriott Hotel and Conference Center at Forrestal in Princeton, NJ - The Software Best Practices Conference - Half Day Webinar! Click Here to Register for Free! 

November 10, 2009
9:00 am - 12:00 pm Eastern Time                                  

Program: 

Keeping Software Projects from Failing - Bob Charette

Why do software projects fail? It is simple, really. They're unaffordable. Why aren't they affordable? Because the projects becomes overwhelmed by unplanned work and rework? Why does that happen? Because of a myriad of known by 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 organizational fails.  In this talk, Dr. Robert Charette, a pioneer in enterprise and IT risk management, will talk about why software projects fails, and what can be done from both a project and organizational perspective to minimize failure, beginning with the risk management principle: Trust, but verify.

Bio: 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.

Ensuring Project Success Through Automated Project Governance - Bob Lawhorn

According to the Standish Group, more than half of all IT projects come in over budget, over schedule, or fail outright. Why is IT continually plagued by such dismal success rates? In this webinar, Bob Lawhorn proposes a solution to this problem. He will discuss an innovative new approach for automating and institutionalizing project governance best practices at both the executive and operational level.

Bio: 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. 

Short-Cycle Development during Test: Case Study for a Legacy Enterprise IT System

November 11, 2009
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

This webinar with Bob Stults presents a case study of enhancements to the existing health records system (VistA) of the Veterans Health Administration. The enhancements extended from existing to new functionality, and from legacy to new solution architecture. The enhancements were prototyped and validated in a waterfall SDLC, and were then substantially improved during the testing phase. The improvements were realized in an orderly process of design-during-test, with systematic guidance from business owners and users in multiple, short cycles of design/develop/test/assess. By performing design-during-test, the project captured experience with user acceptance of functionality and at the same time captured technical integration of the new architecture with legacy.

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Breaking the Mystique of Coaching in IT

November 12, 2009
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

Like the athletic coach committed to taking athletes to higher levels of performance, the business or leadership coach empowers individuals and teams to achieve their best. Coaching is increasingly being used by organizations as part of their leadership and management development strategy—as a tool to help leaders enhance their skills and as a powerful means for people to learn and achieve their potential. Organizations that promote coaching cultures have been noted to have better business results. Yet, there remains a mystique about coaching and its contribution to organizations. This webinar, presented by IT Leadership Coach, Marilyn Edelson, will focus on three organizational components that coaching can impact: executive leaders, project teams and mid-level managers. Also discussed will be types of problems or issues that coaching can address for each of these groups and how coaching can help organizations maximize IT Value by helping maintain focus on the most important priorities.

Learning Objectives:

• Gain understanding of the challenges to organizations from the perspective of executive leaders, project teams and mid-level managers.
• Learn how coaching can be used to build cohesion, increase motivation and lead to improved performance.
• Be introduced to a variety of coaching interventions.
• Understand how coaching can help promote IT Value within organizations.

Intended Audience:

• Middle and upper management
• Corporate executives
• Technology industry entrepreneurs
• Human Resource and Training managers, Learning officers.

Click Here to Register!

Live from the Harbor Beach Marriott in Ft. Lauderdale - The Software Best Practices Conference - Full Day Webinar!
Click Here to Register for Free! 

November 17, 2009
9:00 am - 3:00 pm Eastern Time                                  

Program: 

Dos and Don'ts of Process improvement - Pat O'toole

This highly interactive presentation by Pat O'Toole, Lead CMM Assessor, provides practical advice that will help attendees jump-start or re-invigorate their process improvement program and avoid the pitfalls that have bogged down many that have gone before. Blending real world examples, practical advice, and humorous analogies, Mr. O'Toole's pragmatic approach will help participants think more robustly about their own process improvement program while giving them proven approaches that they can implement immediately upon their return to work.

Bio:  Pat O'Toole is the Principal Consultant at Process Assessment, Consulting & Training (PACT) where he provides a full range of services to his process improvement clients. Pat is one of the most active CMMI lead appraisers, and has led appraisals spanning all maturity levels, including one of the largest and most complex CMM Level 5 assessment conducted to date. He is an SEI authorized instructor for the "Intro to CMMI" course who has taught this course more than 40 times in 6 countries. Pat is a Visiting Scientist at the SEI, and teaches the "Intermediate Concepts of CMMI" course on their behalf.

Measurement, Metrics, and Industry Leadership - Capers Jones

All organizations measure, but successful organizations tend to have sophisticated measurement programs that are more extensive than average.  This presentation by Capers Jones is based on empirical observations of the measurement programs found in the organizations that are U.S. leaders for software productivity, quality, schedules, and innovation. 

Bio: 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."

The Politics of Software Metrics - Ed Yourdon

According to several surveys, only about 10% of all IT metrics initiatives survive for more than a year. In this presentation, Ed Yourdon demonstrates that many of the failures are political in nature. Yourdon's presentation identifies common political problems associated with metrics initiatives, and provides common-sense guidelines and strategies for avoiding them.

Bio: 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.

Transforming IT Management for Business Success - Bob Lawhorn

In this presentation by Bob Lawhorn, an automated approach to data collection is outlined that can address classic metrics 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 can be analyzed in a meaningful and consistent manner.

Bio: 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. 

Ensuring Project Success through Automated Project Governance

November 19, 2009
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

According to the Standish Group, more than half of all IT projects come in over budget, over schedule, or fail outright. Why is IT continually plagued by such dismal success rates? In this webinar, Chuck Keeler proposes a solution to this problem. He will discuss an innovative new approach for automating and institutionalizing project governance best practices at both the executive and operational level.

Click Here to Register!

Best Practices Integration - Lean Six Sigma and the CMMI

November 24, 2009
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

Many organizations are facing the challenge of integrating and leveraging various industry standards and best practices, including Lean Six Sigma, PMI's PMBoKò, ITILò, and SEI's CMMIò. Our featured presenter brings a deep understanding of all of these best practices and in this session clearly explains connections and synergies between Lean Six Sigma and the SEI CMMI.

In this webinar with Gary Gack, each of the process areas will be reviewed and Connections between Lean Six Sigma and CMMI Goals and Practices - both generic and specific - will be examined. A case study illustrating a "low calorie" approach to process improvement that leveraged both LSS and CMMI will be presented.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify synergies between CMMIò and Lean Six Sigma
• Illustrate the benefits of an integrated approach
• Demonstrate how to achieve great results on a tight budget

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Deception and Estimation: How We Fool Ourselves

December 1, 2009
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

Cognitive scientists tell us that we are hardwired for deception. It seems we are overly optimistic, and, in fact, we wouldn't have survived without this trait. With this built-in bias as a starting point, it's almost impossible for us to estimate accurately. That doesn't mean all is lost. We must simply accept that our estimates are best guesses and continually re-evaluate as we go, which is, of course, the agile approach to managing change. Linda Rising has been part of many plan-driven development projects where sincere, honest people with integrity wanted to make the best estimates possible and used many "scientific" approaches to make it happen—all for naught. Re-estimation was regarded as an admission of failure to do the best up-front estimate and resulted in a lot of overhead and meetings to try to "get it right." Offering examples from ordinary life — especially from the way people eat and drink — Linda demonstrates in this webinar how hard it is for us to see our poor estimating skills. She will help you learn to avoid the self-deception that is hardwired in all of us.

Learning Objectives:

• Explain the latest information from cognitive science about our hardwired behavior and how it affects our estimation biases
• Explain the problems with current estimation approaches
• Explain how agile development approaches address the hardwiring behavior in the face of current estimation pressures.

Intended Audience:

• Developers
• Managers
• Others interested in hardwired behavior and estimation

Click Here to Register!

The Business Case for Software Process Improvement

December 2, 2009
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) maturity models are now twenty years old. There are many examples of the cost benefits of implementing the best practices in the maturity models. This webinar with Allen Bennett will examine the costs and benefits of several specific best practices. The data for this presentation comes from the experiences of ITT Corporation and what is available in the public domain from the Software Engineering Institute and the Data and Analysis Center for Software (www.thedacs.com).

Benefit models for implementing software inspections, Personal Software Process, Agile Development, and software reuse will be presented. In addition to financial benefits such as increased productivity and reduced rework an examination of secondary benefits such as better staff retention and improved customer satisfaction will be provided.

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Using Function Points For Economic Analysis of Software Methodologies

December 3, 2009
11:00 - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

This webinar with Capers Jones shows how standard "test beds" using function points can be used to evaluate a selection of software methods. This webinar uses a standard analytic approach for evaluating the effectiveness of new and emerging technologies on software development productivity, software maintenance productivity, and software quality. This presentation uses recent data to analyze Agile development, extreme programming, the ITIL library, SCRUM sessions, Watts Humphrey's Team Software Process (TSP) and Personal Software Process (PSP), Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA), and Six-Sigma for Software. These technologies are evaluated on the basis of the 12 known ways that software projects can be improved. Capers will also discuss expanded uses of function point metrics for portfolio analysis, backlog analysis, mergers and acquisitions, and outsource agreements.

Learning Objectives:

• Show how function points provide a method for evaluating new technologies
• Demonstrate the evaluation method against new technologies such as TSP/PSP
• Discuss the pros and cons of new software technologies
• Provide latest productivity and quality data based on new technologies

Intended Audience:

• Software executives
• CIO's
• Software managers
• Software developers
• Software Function point personnel
• Quality assurance personnel
• Software test personnel

Click Here to Register!

Application Knowledge Capture: A Method for Preventing the Loss of Critical IT Knowledge

December 8th, 2009
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

If IT professionals do not do something quickly, critical application support knowledge will go the way of the Dodo Bird - EXTINCT!

The baby boomers are retiring at an ever increasing rate, critical IT application knowledge is moving off-shore at an ever increasing rate, and the work force is more mobile now than it has ever been.

The IT industry is experiencing an unprecedented "Brain Drain" particularly within the application support environment.

Who is going to be left behind to mind the store? Where will all the application support knowledge go that has been accumulated over many years?

This webinar by Nick Spanos, Senior Consultant at CAI, will outline a methodology for capturing such knowledge before it is too late.

Learning Objectives:

• What is the business risk of application knowledge loss
• What is Application Knowledge
• What is the process for capturing critical application knowledge
• What are the major components of a knowledge capture process
• What does application knowledge look like

Intended Audience:

• IT Executives
• Application Support Managers
• Application Support Technical Personnel

Click Here to Register!

Incremental Value-Focused Optimization for Your Configuration Management Database

December 9, 2009
11 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

For medium to large size corporations, a configuration management database (CMDB) can easily contain millions of CI (Configuration Item) records. A mature CMDB should contain up-to-date asset information along with the relationships. Optimizing CMDB can be an expensive proposition. In fact, if CMDB optimization is carried out in a haphazard non-targeted manner, it will become harder to justify the investments made to optimize CMDB and improve the data quality. We need to appreciate that CIs are not equally important; some are more important than others. To maximize return on investment, CMDB optimization needs to planned and executed in an incremental and value-focused manner. This webinar by Ahmad K. Shuja presents the Incremental CMDB Optimization process, which will ensure that CMDB optimizations are carried out in a controlled and targeted manner.

Learning Objectives:

• Existing approaches to optimizing CMDB
• Challenges and risks associated with existing approaches
• Which CMDB optimization method is right for my corporation?
• What is Incremental Value-Focused CMDB Optimization method?
• Benefits of the proposed method
• Key steps involved

Intended Audience:

• Members of senior management
• Configuration Management Process Owners
• IT Service Management team members
• IT Managers
• IT Project Managers / IT Operations Managers

Click Here to Register!

Ensuring Project Success through Automated Project Governance

December 15, 2009
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

According to the Standish Group, more than half of all IT projects come in over budget, over schedule, or fail outright. Why is IT continually plagued by such dismal success rates? In this webinar, Chuck Keeler proposes a solution to this problem. He will discuss an innovative new approach for automating and institutionalizing project governance best practices at both the executive and operational level.

Click Here to Register!

Contact Us

Additional Information

System Requirements

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 2009 Software Best Practices Conferences are the most important software process improvement events for IT executives in 2009. 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 2009 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 2009 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