ASQ Software Division Region 1 Report for 3Q2007
by Peter Schulz

The Software Quality Group of New England (SQGNE), supported by the ASQ Software Division and Sun Microsystems, has completed its 13th season.  Meetings are held monthly, typically on the second Wednesday, from September through July at Sun Microsystems in Burlington Massachusetts.  Topics cover concepts and techniques related to software quality engineering and the software engineering process.

In April, Derek Kozikowski from SAP presented  “ Software Test Cases: Who, What, Where, When, How and Why.”  In May, SQGNE held its yearly combined meeting with the Boston SPIN, where a panel consisting of Joe Jarzombek - Director of Software Assurance, US Dept of Homeland Security, National Cyber Security Division, Robert Martin from Mitre, and Scott Matsumoto from Cigital discussed “Exploitable Software: New Security Concerns in a Post-9/11 World”.  Linda McInnis returned in June with “Project Scheduling for Techies (or why your significant other doesn't believe you when you say 1 more minute on the computer)”.  The 2007 session concluded with the annual July “Hot Topics Night”, where John Pustaver facilitated an open discussion forum lead by topics chosen real time from the audience. John Pustaver and Steve Rakitin are soliciting feedback on this past year’s program and plans for the future. Their contact information is available at: http://www.swqual.com/SQGNE/contacts.html

The upcoming 2008 schedule and past presentations are posted on the website, which is: http://www.swqual.com/SQGNE/main.html. SQGNE also maintains a listing of area jobs at: http://www.swquality.com/users/pustaver/jobs/

The Boston Software Process Improvement Network (SPIN) typically meets on the third Tuesday of the month, from September through June, at Mitre in Burlington, Massachusetts.  In May, SPIN collaboratively met with SQNE as described above.  The June meeting started with elections for the 2007-2008 programs year. For the June meeting, Rick Brenner presented a timely “Managing Virtual Teams for Real Results”.  Also included in the June meeting was a pizza dinner courtesy of new sponsor “Sticky Minds”.  The first meeting of the New Year will be held Tuesday September 18.

SPIN also sponsors working “roundtable” sessions prior to the speaker at the monthly meetings.  Roundtables are focused group or "birds-of-a-feather" discussions, with a Facilitator to stimulate and moderate discussion.

The full calendar, newsletter, past presentations, and job postings can be found at http://www.boston-spin.org/index.html.

The Annual BOSCON Conference http://www.asqboston.org/BOSCON/boscon.htm  was held Thursday May 17 at Merrimack College in North Andover, MA. The theme for BOSCON 2007 was “A New World of Quality -“Achieving Corporate Goals Through Innovative Collaboration”…the full program is still available at: http://www.asqboston.org/BOSCON/boscon_program.htm.