Introducing Agility into an Organization or: How to Become Agile

September 8, 2010
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

Many teams are uncertain about how to start with agile. And transitioning to agile often has an impact in ways that are difficult to foresee. In this webinar, Jutta Eckstein provides insights in how to get started with agile,  what pitfalls to watch out for in the transition phase as well how to  ensure that the agile mindset will be preserved.

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Live from Baltimore - The Software Best Practices Conference - Full Day Webinar! Click Here to Register Now!

September 14, 2010
9:00 am - 3:00 pm Eastern Time

Using Metrics to Become Excellent at Maintenance

Larry Dribin

Today, software maintenance activities often make up well over 50% of an IT organization's budget. Yet, many organizations do not effectively measure their maintenance activities. Ineffective measurement prevents many IT organizations from maximizing the value of the maintenance dollar. In this presentation, Larry Dribin will discuss a variety of maintenance measures. He will then show how IT organization's can use these measures to better manage their maintenance activities, improve maintenance productivity and provide more value to the business for their maintenance dollars.

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).

Geriatric Care for Aging Software

Capers Jones

As of 2010 there are almost twice as many software engineers and programmers working on updates to legacy applications as working on new development. Although there are significant financial and technical differences between enhancements (adding new features) and maintenance (fixing defects) many companies lump these two disparate kinds of work together. Legacy applications tend to decay over time as entropy increases. This means that every year complexity will increase. It also means that repairs and updates become more difficult and expensive as time passes. In addition, many legacy applications have troublesome areas with very high defect rates. These are known as "error-prone modules." Adding to the hazards of software maintenance, about 7% of all changes to existing software introduce a new bug or defect. This presentation with Capers Jones discusses the history and future of software maintenance. Because specialists can outperform generalists in maintenance tasks, maintenance has been one of the most successful areas for outsource contracts.

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 Truth About Transition Management

Carl Pritchard

In this presentation, Carl Pritchard drives to the heart of risk in maintenance effort - the tenuous moments of transition. Carl examines the surge in transition management practices and how they can be coupled with risk management practice to minimize the level of concern associated with the inevitable handoffs during the maintenance life cycle. Carl will challenge IT groups to create some level of consistent practice in transition to minimize the probability and impact of failure during these crucial moments of truth.

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.

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.

Bob Lawhorn has over 40 years of experience in software development, measurement, and 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 invented 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.

12 Myths of Software Maintenance

Don Reifer

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.

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Social Networking and Corporate Productivity

September 15, 2010
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

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 Webinar 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.

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Functional Metrics and Agile Estimation, Revisited - CMMI Compliance

September  23, 2010
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

Estimation is a lightening rod for conflicts between agile and process driven methodologies. However, times are changing, and agile is maturing.  Part of the process of maturing is the incorporation of best practices from other methods and frameworks.  In this webinar, Tom Cagley will explain how functional metrics allow you to incorporate additional process discipline into the estimation processes typically used by agile teams.

Learning Objectives:

• Current approaches to agile estimation
• An approach to incorporate functional metrics into agile estimation
• Why process discipline in estimation is important to gauge improvement
• How estimation influences customer satisfaction

Intended Audience:

• Project managers, measurement personnel, PMO personnel, SEPG Personnel  

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Webinar Series: Transforming IT Management to Achieve Dramatic Business Success - 25% More Work or Less Cost! (Part #1 - Managing Application Support to Yield Your Desired Business Outcomes)

September 24, 2010
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

This webinar is the first in a series:  Transforming IT Management to Achieve Dramatic Business Success - 25% more work or less cost!  During this webinar, we will explore why it makes real business sense to start your improvement process with application support. We will discuss application support strategies that yield tangible business outcomes including hard dollar savings, improved business alignment, reduction in risk and increases in capacity. Specific case studies will demonstrate how other organizations achieved their desired business outcomes using this approach.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize that Application Support is the largest single component of organizational IT spending
• Demonstrate that Application Support has significant untapped potential for dramatic savings
• Understand how the adoption of Standardization, Automation and Measurement Process consistently reduces cost by 25%

Intended Audience:

• IT Executives
• Application Maintenance and Support Managers 
• Application Maintenance and Support Practitioners   

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Live from Detroit - The Software Best Practices Conference - Full Day Webinar! Click Here to Register Now!

September 28, 2010
9:00 am - 3:00 pm Eastern Time

Practical QA Testing in a Configurable World

Joe Burns

In today's world there are many systems that are being configured to adapt to ever changing business conditions. The solutions include the use of SOA architecture and commercial, off-the-shelf (COTS) software. In this presentation, Joe Burns will walk you through the appropriate techniques and approaches for testing these types of systems. A customer case study 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.

Software Quality in 2010 - The State of the Art

Capers Jones

Software quality is a topic of importance throughout the world. Unfortunately software quality assurance groups are often understaffed for the work at hand, and also undercapitalized and under equipped. This presentation by Capers Jones attempts to cover the known factors which influence software quality results, including methodologies, tools, and staffing levels and provides empirical data on the impact of major quality approaches.

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 ROI of Improving Software Quality

Herb Krasner

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. However, this is not yet become common practice in many IT organizations. In light of an increased focus on quality and customer satisfaction, IT executives and managers have raised the question: What is software quality's ROI? The answer to this question is unique for every organization and is based on two fundamental conditions: quality must be measurable (preferably in dollars) and a cause-and-effect relationship must exist between quality and financial results (e.g. costs, revenue, etc.). 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.

Techniques for Improving Software Quality

Beth Layman

Improved performance in software development can be achieved by investing in continuous and methodical best software development practices. In this presentation, Beth Layman will review proven quality assurance techniques used by project teams throughout the life cycle, including Prototyping, Peer Reviews and Inspections, Testing, and static and dynamic Code Analysis.

Beth Layman has more than 20 years of experience in the software industry as a senior manager and professional consultant. Her work experience encompasses a wide range of markets and industries including commercial, government, aerospace, IT services, and product software organizations. Beth has provided process improvement-related training, assessments and consulting services, using various models including CMMI, and is an SEI SCAMPI Authorized Lead Assessor. Beth is a recognized authority on software measurement and quality management, and is a co-author of Practical Software Measurement: Objective Information for Decision Makers.

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You Need REAL ROI™ to Make Decisions that Pay Off

September 30, 2010
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

Business situations often require formally-determined ROI.  But formality alone may not appreciably improve ROI reliability.  In fact, 10 seldom recognized but very common pitfalls tend to make most ROIs unreliable.  In this webinar, Robin Goldsmith explains how to determine right, responsible, and reliable REAL ROI™ that overcomes these pitfalls while guiding you to decisions that pay off.

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How to Effectively Lead an Offshore Team

October 5, 2010
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

To deliver offshore services successfully, firms need to implement consistent methodologies and processes that have been adapted to handle geographically dispersed teams.  In this Webinar, David Broderick will share some facts, experiences, and insights on how to lead IT teams that are dispersed across different geographies.

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Getting the Most Out of Your Consulting Engagement:  Understanding the Consulting Engagement Life Cycle

October 13, 2010
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

An understanding of the "consulting engagement life cycle" will ensure that the consultants you hire are developing engagement frameworks based on your needs, your objectives and what you want to accomplish.  An understanding of the consultant life cycle will prepare you for the engagement, will clarify when appropriate deliverables are to be provided, and will help you identify when the engagement is complete. This webinar with Jim Ryan will outline the elements of the consulting life cycle so that you can master it and get the most value from your consultant investments.

Learning Objectives:

• Learn the elements of the consulting life cycle
• Understand why they are important
• Understand how to use the life cycle to ensure appropriate activities are executed
• Learn how the life cycle can help ensure a successful engagement 

Intended Audience:

• Both IT and non-IT executives or managers responsible for engaging consultants  

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Live from Orlando - The Software Best Practices Conference - Full Day Webinar! Click Here to Register Now!

October 13, 2010
9:00 am - 3:00 pm Eastern Time

Early Warning Signs of IT Project Failure

Leon Kappelman

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.

I'm Late, I'm Late, for a Very Important Date

David Herron

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!

Why Do Software Projects Fail?

Bob Charette

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, a pioneer in enterprise and IT risk management, will talk about why software projects fail, and what can be done from both a project and organizational perspective to minimize failure, beginning with the risk management principle: Trust, but verify.

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 presentation, 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.

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Software Total Ownership Cost

October 14, 2010
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

This webinar with Daniel Galorath will provide a systematic approach to addressing total cost of ownership across the software lifecycle, including design for maintainability, development of measurement criteria and collection of metrics, along with industry standards, guidelines, and best practice options. Parametric modeling will be discussed.

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Resource Planning and Management: Job One for Software Project Managers

October 19, 2010
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

All around us we see reports of software projects which are over budget, delivered late or flat out cancelled. This webinar with Arlene Minkiewicz discusses bad project planning - why it happens, how it happens, and how it can negatively impact the business.  Arlene will offer techniques, processes and strategies that help project managers turn this trend around.

Learning Objectives:

• The impact of bad project plans on the business and the bottom line
• The reasons for poor project planning and how they are perpetuated
• The value of a good software project plan
• Techniques for improving project planning capability
• Strategy for institutionalizing good project planning in your company starting today 

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Webinar Series: Transforming IT Management to Achieve Dramatic Business Success - 25% More Work or Less Cost! (Part #2 - Standardizing IT with effective Service Level Management)

October 20, 2010
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

Establishing meaningful SLAs is one of the key challenges faced by IT Organizations today.  Meaningful SLAs are a vital first step toward improving IT Management and aligning the IT Organization with the business. This webinar is the second in a series:  Transforming IT Management to Achieve Dramatic Business Success - 25% more work or less cost!  During this webinar, we will review how to develop SLAs that are meaningful to Application Support and how they are a necessary first step toward establishing Visibility within the organization.

Learning Objectives:

• CAI's Service Level Management Process and how it is used to align the Application Support function with the business
• Service Level Management's value to Application Support
• How to establish meaningful Service Level Agreements for the Application Support function
• How to manage and measure service level performance for Application Support 

Intended Audience:

• IT Executives  
• Application Maintenance and Support Managers  
• Application Maintenance and Support Practitioners  

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Live from Philadelphia - The Software Best Practices Conference - Half Day Webinar! Click Here to Register Now!

October 21, 2010
9:00 am - 12:00 pm Eastern Time

What are You Getting for Your Software Maintenance Dollars?

David Garmus

Do you have difficulty in maintaining your legacy software systems? Have you been discouraged by the difficulty in transitioning to new technologies, languages and platforms? In this presentation, David Garmus will discuss current issues in maintaining legacy systems and identify those systems that have the greatest potential for outsourcing or replacement.

David Garmus is a Founder of The David Consulting Group (DCG), an SEI CMMI® Approved Transition Partner and a PSM Transition Organization that supports software development organizations in achieving software excellence with a metric-centered approach. David is an acknowledged authority in the sizing, measurement and estimation of software application development and maintenance. He serves as a Past President of the International Function Point Users Group (IFPUG) and as a member of the IFPUG Counting Practices Committee. He is also a member of QAI, PMI (and their Information Systems Specific Interest Group) SEI and the IEEE Computer Society (and their Standards Association). David is the author, along with David Herron, of Measuring The Software Process: A Practical Guide To Functional Measurements and Function Point Analysis: Measurement Practices for Successful Software Projects.

How to Answer 5 Key Software Maintenance Questions

Ian Brown

In this presentation, Ian Brown will explore some of the key questions that organizations will want to answer about maintenance delivery. He will take a look at several measures that can be used to help answer those questions, as well as how to use multiple measures to help avoid unintended consequences. This presentation will emphasize practical application of these measures and provide examples from actual projects.

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.

IT Best Practices for Application Support

Jim Ryan

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.

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.

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Software Maintenance, Support and Enhancements - How Much? How Many? How Often?

October 26, 2010
4:00 pm - 5:30 pm Eastern Time

The ISBSG has been building a historical repository of data about Software Maintenance and Support activities since its inception.  In this webinar, Peter Hill, Executive Director of the ISBSG, will examine the ISBSG data to discover where maintenance money is spent, what maintenance, support, and enhancement activities consume the most time, and which resources are being consumed.

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Live from Rochester- The Software Best Practices Conference - Full Day Webinar! Click Here to Register Now!

October 27, 2010
9:00 am - 3:00 pm Eastern Time

The Ten Most Important Software Engineering Ideas

Ed Yourdon

This talk by Ed Yourdon summarizes the ten most software engineering ideas that we have learned over the past 30-40 years, in the areas of peopleware, software processes, and technologies, so that today's IT executives can ensure that the 'basics' don't get overshadowed by the 'glitz' of new technology.

Using Metrics to Become Excellent at Maintenance

Larry Dribin

Today, software maintenance activities often make up well over 50% of an IT organization's budget. Yet, many organizations do not effectively measure their maintenance activities. Ineffective measurement prevents many IT organizations from maximizing the value of the maintenance dollar. In this presentation, Larry Dribin will discuss a variety of maintenance measures. He will then show how IT organization's can use these measures to better manage their maintenance activities, improve maintenance productivity and provide more value to the business for their maintenance dollars.

Five Key Maintenance Questions

Ian Brown

In this presentation, Ian Brown will explore some of the key questions that organizations will want to answer about maintenance delivery. He will take a look at several measures that can be used to help answer those questions, as well as how to use multiple measures to help avoid unintended consequences. This presentation will emphasize practical application of these measures and provide examples from actual projects.

Risk and Maintenance

Robert Charette

Failing to manage operational risks can lead to unhappy customers, loss of revenue, and possibly business failure. Nevertheless, a major source of operational risk - that stemming from information systems maintenance - is neither routinely assessed nor actively managed. In this presentation, Bob Charette explains why organizations need to make managing maintenance risk a priority.

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.

Click Here to Register

Practical QA Testing in a Configurable World

October 28, 2010
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

In today's world there are many systems that are being configured to adapt to ever changing business conditions. The solutions include the use of SOA architecture and commercial, off-the-shelf (COTS) software. In this webinar, Joe Burns will walk you through the appropriate techniques and approaches for testing these types of systems.  A customer case study will be included.

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Training Your Help Desk Analysts Requires a Balanced Approach

November 2, 2010
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

When it comes to training new Help Desk analysts, there is often a great deal of emphasis on technical skills, while call handling skills are often assumed or only covered briefly. In world-class Help Desks, this is not true. To become world-class, there needs to be a balance between the technical skills and the professional skills. In this Webinar, you will learn how to ensure that your training program finds that balance.

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Straightforward Risk Management for Projects That You Can Do Now

November 3, 2010
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

Risk management is comparable to preventive health care or insurance for your project. It involves identifying potential problems (risks), analyzing those risks, planning to manage them, and reviewing them. This webinar with Neil Potter and Mary Sakry will step you through a straightforward risk process for assessing and managing risks that you can perform immediately with your team.

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Webinar Series: Transforming IT Management to Achieve Dramatic Business Success - 25% More Work or Less Cost! (Part #3 - Automating IT Management with Standard Work Processes)

November 4, 2010
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

This webinar is the third in a series:  Transforming IT Management to Achieve Dramatic Business Success - 25% more work or less cost!  During this webinar, we will review how work processes that are standardized can improve your organization.  Specifically, we will examine how effective Incident and Problem Management processes can be used to reduce business interruptions and costs associated with Application Incidents.

Learning Objectives:

• How using standard processes can be used to reduce costs and improve the IT environment
• CAI's Incident Management Process and how it is used to minimize disruptions to the business' software applications
• CAI's Problem Management Process and how it is used to reduce Application Software Incidents
• How to reduce the costs associated with Application Software Incidents
• How to know when you have successfully reduced Application Software Incidents  

Intended Audience:

• IT Executives  
• Application Maintenance and Support Managers  
• Application Maintenance and Support Practitioners  

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How to Effectively Transition an Offshore Team - A Case Study

November 9, 2010
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

Once you have defined your strategy to move work to an offshore location, you must begin transitioning the work and making sure proper service expectations are set with your new team.  In this Webinar, David Broderick will walk you through a case study of a successful offshore transition to China and share in the learnings that were uncovered along the way.

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Five Hard-Won Lessons in Performance, Load, and Reliability Testing

November 11, 2010
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

Performance, load, and reliability tests are hard to design, hard to run, and essential in today's complex IT environments.  In this webinar with Rex Black, you'll learn when to start performance, load, and reliability testing, how to build your tests, what to do and what not to do, and how models and simulations can validate your testing.

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Live from Miami - The Software Best Practices Conference - Full Day Webinar!

November 16, 2010
9:00 am - 3:00 pm Eastern Time

10 Most Important Software Engineering Ideas

Ed Yourdon

This talk by Ed Yourdon summarizes the ten most software engineering ideas that we have learned over the past 30-40 years, in the areas of peopleware, software processes, and technologies, so that today's IT executives can ensure that the 'basics' don't get overshadowed by the 'glitz' of new technology.

I'm Late, I'm Late, for a Very Important Date

David Herron

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!

Why Do Software Projects Fail?

Bob Charette

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, a pioneer in enterprise and IT risk management, will talk about why software projects fail, and what can be done from both a project and organizational perspective to minimize failure, beginning with the risk management principle: Trust, but verify.

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 presentation, 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.

Click Here to Register

Agile Lessons Learned

November 17, 2010
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

Has your organization been intrigued by the promises of Agile software development but hesitant to make the necessary organizational and cultural changes?  Have you tried Agile on a project but been disappointed by the results?  In this webinar, Jim Dempsey will present valuable lessons learned on several large and small-scale Agile development projects that may help you avoid common hazards.

Learning Objectives:

• Background of the Scrum process - the most common Agile approach to software development
• Planning and estimating - critical activities in any Agile project
• Up front requirements gathering - breadth vs. depth
• Team member roles and responsibilities
• The importance of solid engineering practices  

Intended Audience:

• Software project managers  
• Software developers  
• Executives
• Business stakeholders  
• Product managers    

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Webinar Series: Transforming IT Management to Achieve Dramatic Business Success - 25% More Work or Less Cost! (Part #4 - Optimizing IT with Continual Service Improvement)

November 18, 2010
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

This webinar is the fourth in a series:  Transforming IT Management to Achieve Dramatic Business Success - 25% more work or less cost!  Demonstrating value and managing the business' perception of Application Support as a strategic function are key challenges faced by IT Organizations today. In this webinar, we will review how CAI's Continual Service Improvement practices can be used to meet these Application Support challenges.

Learning Objectives:

• How the consistent use of standard work processes is necessary to collect accurate Application Support performance data
• How to use resource performance and work data to achieve visibility into the Application Support Function
• How to identify and implement improvements to the Application Support Function How improvement initiatives within the Application Support Function can be used to achieve 20 - 30% more work or less cost

Intended Audience:

• IT Executives  
• Application Maintenance and Support Managers  
• Application Maintenance and Support Practitioners 

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Apply QA Testing in an Agile Development Methodology

December 1, 2010
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

The growing popularity of utilizing the Agile Development methodology to develop systems has changed the way software is tested. In this webinar, 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.

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Six Surprising Findings from Test Assessments

December 2, 2010
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

Assessments of test teams, test processes, and organizational quality outcomes often surprise the assessed organization. In this webinar, Rex Black will sample six surprising test assessment findings that span the critical testing processes, from organizations around the world. Case studies will be included.

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Speaking the Language of Risk

December 7, 2010
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

It's challenging to get individuals together when it comes to risk management, since people have so many different interpretations of what it means. Parties to the process will have a much higher probability of success if they can establish a common language and a common understanding. In this webinar, Carl Pritchard will explain how to create a shared risk management vocabulary.

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Introduction to Project Estimation

December 8, 2010
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

Are your projects on time and within budget? Is your estimating process providing you with accurate and reliable estimates? If you are like most software organizations your response to these questions is 'no'.  Fortunately, the principles, practices and techniques for proper estimating are well defined and easy to learn.

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Lean Project Management

February 1, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

This webinar with Nick Spanos discusses how we can apply Lean concepts to project management to reduce costs while improving quality and value to the business.

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The Race to the South Pole: Lessons in Risk Management for Leaders

February 2, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

In 1911, Roald Amundsen reached the South Pole. 35 days later, Robert Scott  followed. Amundsen's party returned to base but Scott's party perished. In this webinar, Rick Brenner uses the history of this event to explore important lessons about managing risk.

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Using Benchmarking to Drive Improvement Initiatives

February 3, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

In this webinar, Hans Sassenburg will present a set of 16 Key Performance Indicators that can be used to assess an organization's software capability while allowing for benchmarking against industry values.

Welcome to the Land (and Brand!) of Risk

February 8, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

In this webinar, Carl  Pritchard talks about steps that you can take to integrate your day-to-day risk management practices with your overall project brand.

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How to Put Your Best Project Manager on Every IT Project

February 9, 2011
1:00 pm - 1:30 pm Eastern Time

In this webinar, Ken Rigby will explain how Automated Project Office (APO) can  strengthen governance, increase visibility, and provide greater insight and control.  

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Achieving Best in Class Productivity

February 10, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

"Best in class" software teams are at least 2-3x more productive than "worst in class". In this webinar, Gary Gack will show how to gauge where you are using an "agile assessment" and how to lay out an improvement plan.

Agile is from Venus and PMOs from Mars

February 15, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

This webinar with Tom Cagley will provide a proven roadmap on how PMOs can operate in an agile environment based on the principals of the Agile Manifesto.

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Straightforward Risk Management for Projects You Can Do Now

February 16, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

This webinar with Neil Potter and Mary Sakry will step you through a straightforward risk process that you can perform immediately with your team to assess and manage risks.

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Navigating the Minefield: Estimating Before Requirements

February 17, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

In this webinar, Carol Dekkers explores what happens when project estimating moves back a phase - before requirements - and you are forced to develop estimates based on unknown requirements.

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Why I Don't Care that You Had a CMMI Level 5 Rating!

February 22, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

In this webinar, Todd Schrubb explains the two representations of CMMI levels and what the ratings mean - and do not mean - about vendors and their capabilities.

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How to Put Your Best Project Manager on Every IT Project

February 23, 2011
1:00 pm - 1:30 pm Eastern Time

In this webinar, Ken Rigby will explain how Automated Project Office (APO) can  strengthen governance, increase visibility, and provide greater insight and control.

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

February 24, 2011
12:00 pm - 1:30 pm Eastern Time

In this webinar, Dan Galorath will show how to properly estimate and plan costs, schedules, risks, and resources. A complete method for developing project estimates and plans will be provided.

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Requirements: Building a Solid Foundation for a Successful Project

March 1, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

In this webinar, Janet Russac will teach you how to write requirements in order to more accurately estimate size, effort and schedule; and to deliver a higher quality product on time and within budget.

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Getting Performance from Process Improvement

March 8, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

This webinar with Michael West addresses connections between process improvement and performance improvement. You will learn how to leverage process improvement efforts to optimize organizational performance.

Enterprise Architecture 102: Modeling Organizations

March 10, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

In this webinar, Leon Kappelman explains how Enterprise Architecture (EA) can provide management with an on-line, real-time repository of everything of relevance about the enterprise.

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The Decision Model: the Missing Model for Business Analysts and the Business

March 15, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

This webinar with Barbara von Halle and Larry Goldberg reveals the dangerous state of decisions today and why decision-making is becoming the focus of systematic analysis.

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How to Effectively Lead an Offshore Team - Part 1

March 16, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

In this Webinar, David Broderick will share some facts, experiences, and insights on how to lead IT teams dispersed across different countries.  This is Part 1 of a 2 Part series.

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The High Probability of Extremely Low-Probability Events

March 17, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

In this webinar, Riley Rice will explain the mathematical realities behind highly probable low-probability events.

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Using Decision Tables and Decision Trees for Quantitative Risk Analysis

March 22, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

In this webinar with Scott Fabel, you will learn how to create Decision Tables and Decision Trees to assess the true impact of risks on your projects. You will also be able to determine how to best respond to these risks.

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How to Put Your Best Project Manager on Every IT Project

March 23, 2011
1:00 pm - 1:30 pm Eastern Time

In this webinar, Ken Rigby will explain how Automated Project Office (APO) can  strengthen governance, increase visibility, and provide greater insight and control.

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Getting the Most Out of Your Consulting Engagement:  Understanding the Consulting Engagement Life Cycle

March 24, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

This webinar with Jim Ryan will outline the elements of the consulting life cycle so that you can master it and get the most value from your consultant investments.

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Practical QA Testing in a Configurable World

March 30, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

In this webinar, Joe Burns will walk you through the techniques and strategies for testing systems that make use of SOA architecture and commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software.

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Planning and Managing your Maintenance & Support Budget

March 31, 2011
4:00 pm - 5:30 pm Eastern Time

In this webinar Peter Hill will explain how to improve application support management using industry data.

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Agile Requirements: Not an Oxymoron

April 7, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

In this webinar, Ellen Gottesdiener will share with you how "agile requirements"  combine to form a sound and sensible union that drives successful delivery of business value.

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Governing Your ITSM Implementation

April 12, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

In this webinar, Dave Howard will discuss best practices for governing ITSM implementations.   

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How to Put Your Best Project Manager on Every IT Project

April 13, 2011
1:00 pm - 1:30 pm Eastern Time

In this webinar, Ken Rigby will explain how Automated Project Office (APO) can  strengthen governance, increase visibility, and provide greater insight and control.

Data Collection for Risk Identification

April 19, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

In this webinar, Matt Peters covers methods for collecting risk-oriented data and introduces technologies to support your data collection and analysis effort.

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Improve Quality by Improving Trust

April 20, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

This webinar with Stephen Cohen explores trust building practices and processes from both Formal and Agile methodologies.

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Assessing Your Readiness for Agile Development

April 23, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

In this webinar, Beth Layman describes an approach for assessing your "Agile Readiness". You will learn what your organization's current process, culture, and management can tell you about your readiness to make the transition.

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Ethics in IT Outsourcing: Best Practices and Definition of a Working Model

April 26, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

This webinar with Tandy Gold will define a model of applied ethics in the context of offshore outsourcing, and explore the current best practices as represented by certifications and other sources.

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How to Put Your Best Project Manager on Every IT Project

April 27, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

In this webinar, Ken Rigby will explain how Automated Project Office (APO) can  strengthen governance, increase visibility, and provide greater insight and control.

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If You Build It, Will They Come?

April 28, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

In this webinar with Jorge Boria you will learn to recognize the four variables that are germane to planning a process improvement transition, and how they work.

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Value Engineering for Requirements Engineers

May 3, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

In this webinar, Phillip LaPlante examines value engineering activities for requirements engineers and includes concepts from requirements engineering, project management, and systems engineering.

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Effective Project Estimating; Tips, Tools and Techniques

May 4, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

In this webinar, David Herron will present estimating tips, tools and techniques you need to produce realistic and actionable estimates.

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The Evolution of a Project Manager into a Project Leader

May 5, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

The makeup of projects today are changing and therefore the skills needed by Project Managers must also evolve. This webinar by Kerry Wills explores these trends and suggests techniques for evolving from a Project Manager to a Project Leader.

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10 Considerations for Planning and Organizing IT Projects

May 10, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

In this webinar, Dick Fairley presents 10 considerations for planning and organizing plan-driven and agile software projects. Topics to be covered include continuous risk management and organizing projects for distributed teams.

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How to Put Your Best Project Manager on Every IT Project

May 11, 2011
1:00 pm - 1:30 pm Eastern Time

In this webinar, Ken Rigby will explain how Automated Project Office (APO) can  strengthen governance, increase visibility, and provide greater insight and control.

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Starting the Decision Making Process before the Business Case

May 12, 2011
4:00 pm - 5:30 pm Eastern Time

This webinar with Pam Morris provides techniques for demonstrating the value of IT to the business and for prioritizing IT investment so that it is aligned with changes in organizational strategic direction.

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Agile Lessons Learned

May 17, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

In this webinar, Jim Dempsey will present valuable lessons learned on several large and small-scale Agile development projects that may help you avoid common hazards.

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Understanding Process Data Enough to Improve It

May 19, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

If you are tasked with improving part of your IT process, you need to have a good understanding of the data which is available to you. This webinar with Bill Bentley will talk about what you need to know about data to pull this off.

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Lean Development: Potentials, Principles and Practices

May 24, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

This webinar with Dr. Christof Ebert provides an overview of lean principles and practices.  Concrete guidelines and a step-by-step case study will be provided.

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How to Put Your Best Project Manager on Every IT Project

May 25, 2011
1:00 pm - 1:30 pm Eastern Time

In this webinar, Ken Rigby will explain how Automated Project Office (APO) can  strengthen governance, increase visibility, and provide greater insight and control.

Registration Currently Unavailable

Sharing the Secret Sauce: Lessons from a Business Analysis Mentor

May 26, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

Well-defined requirements are crucial to the success of business analysts. In this webinar, Mary Gorman shares her lessons learned from 20 years of helping business analysts become proficient in their trade.

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Developing Career Enhancing Persuasion Skills

June 1, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

In this webinar, Naomi Karten will explain how to persuade others of the merits of your perspective. She will  look at credibility-building tips and will review guidelines for presenting your ideas.

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Setting Up a Testing Center of Excellence: Making it Work

June 2, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

In this webinar, Joe Burns will demonstrate how to implement a Testing Center of Excellence (TCOE) so that it is practical and productive within an organization.  The presentation will cover: quality assurance process flows; pragmatic implementation approaches; a customer case study (Implementing a TCOE); and lessons learned.

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Metrics that Motivate Behavior

June 7, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

This webinar with Pat O'toole uses a case study to discuss behavioral expectations of organizations that achieve high maturity.

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Performance Improvement for Excellence and Improvement

June 8, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

In this webinar, Dr. Larry Dribin will describe an agile lean approach to process improvement that improves the organization's performance and provides an excellent foundation for innovation.

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IT Project Management - How Green is Your Valley?

June 14, 2011
11:00 am - 12:30 pm Eastern Time

In this webinar, Rich Maltzman and Dave Shirley will discuss techniques to help IT project managers "green up", We will also examine companies that are at the top of their game when it comes to green IT.

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