ASQ Software Division Region 14 Report for 4Q2007
by David Peercy
This column provides members with information on relevant association meetings, conferences and other events in Region 14 – Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas and to some extent Mexico. If you have information that you would like to share with fellow ASQ Software Division members, or you would like to get involved with the Division, contact: depeerc@sandia.gov or 505-844-7965.
TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION
In last quarter’s report I promoted the topic of Probabilistic Technology and the International Conference on Software Quality (ICSQ). I did not receive much response on the Probabilistic Technology area. The ICSQ was held October 16–17, 2007 — plus a few days for additional training courses and tutorials.
ICSQ Conference: This conference title focus was on “Delivering High Performance Through Software”. There were approximately 120 persons in attendance – 14 from Region 14 (12 from TX and 2 from NM – out of 280 total). The Conference Committee did a great job of advertising this conference and I think they were somewhat disappointed with the attendance. Probably the Congressional Continuing Resolution did not help much. As I mentioned in last quarter’s report – the perception is that ASQ has a lack of focus on software; perhaps that is only part of the problem. Clearly the ASQ Software Division is doing their part.
Conference: I attended several sessions, participated on the Agile Methods panel, visited with most of the vendors, and networked with many of the participants. I felt it was worthwhile for my time. The keynote speakers were interesting and presentations I attended were pretty well done – although not revolutionary in new concepts. One very interesting double session I’d like to mention was the one conducted by Taz Daughtrey, and involving panel members Joe Jarzombek (Homeland Security), Mark Paulk (Carnegie Mellon University), Watts Humphrey (SEI), and Shinji Fukui (Omron Corp, Japan). This double session was targeted on Challenges for Software Quality (Status Report and Workshop) – particularly related to what might be done by or presented at the upcoming World Congress for Software Quality (WCSQ) that is scheduled for September 15–18, 2008 in Bethesda, MD. Next year’s ICSQ will be integrated with the WCSQ. Watts presented a set of Software Quality Principles that should guide our SQA practices. Joe provided insight into the problems facing Homeland Security in the Cyber-Security requirements for Information Systems and the most important attributes of such systems. Mark provided insight into Quality and Process Frameworks and the problem of practitioners not understanding WHY such frameworks are important and HOW to use such frameworks. Shinji reviewed a SQuBOK (yep – you can guess this one) that Japan is developing with publication targeted for the end of this year (unfortunately for us English-speakers it is only in Japanese for now). The Workshop session focused on audience suggestions for improvement of the principles and questions (and some discussion) concerning the quality challenges.
Watts Suggested Principles: Software Quality: (1) should reduce total costs, increase business value, and shorten development times; (2) must be demanded by the customer; (3) depends on developers being personally responsible for their products; (4) requires development teams to plan, measure, and control their work; and (5) must be managed by those who recognize and reward quality work.
Software Quality Challenges: (1) devise and implement incentives for applying quality principles; (2) professionalize software quality, especially organizationally; (3) develop a true engineering discipline for defect prevention; (4) move beyond testing as a primary quality management method; and (5) conduct and report rigorous quantitative research.
I specifically challenged Watts’ principles on the (once again) almost total attention to “development” rather than “development and support” concepts. My experience (quite extensive) has been that the support characteristics – including logistic delivery, installation, acceptance - aspects are critical to consider. Support includes more than maintenance – and is not just an extension of the development process. I believe my point was made. Anyone who would like more information on software supportability – contact me (or, check out the SAE publications: JA1002 through JA1006 published within my SAE G-11 Software Committee). Very interesting discussion on the software quality principles and challenges.
Agile Methods Panel: discussion was somewhat lively – my contribution was based on a recently published report I was a part of on the “Application of Agile Methods to Weapon/Weapon-Related Software”. The report and/or my brief slides are available to anyone who would like them – contact me. Note that the general attention to Agile Methods seems to be somewhat in conflict with the Software Quality Challenge?
Probabilistic Technology: ASQ Probabilistic Technology Community (PTC) first Technical Executive Committee (TEC) meeting was held September 18–20, 2007 in Huntsville, Alabama. As chair of the System Reliability, Maintainability, Supportability, Logistics (RMSL) Committee – we have a focus on the application of PT to systems, hardware, and software. The main project we worked on was application of PT to a Predictive Capability Maturity Model (PCMM) for scientific computing software verification and validation. The PCMM has just recently been published by Sandia National Laboratories. Anyone interested in the PTC or in obtaining a copy of the PCMM report – let me know.
Other Thoughts: Our Region 14 software division membership was 280 as of April 2007 (234 in TX – so not many in the other parts of Region 14). See membership report at: http://asqgroups.asq.org/divisions/soft/newsletter/
I asked last time for any guesses out there as to what our Region 14 membership will be by December 2007? What should it be to indicate a healthy Region 14? Haven’t received any guesses yet – anyone out there?
As always – if you or your section has something you’d like to include in this short quarterly report, please let me know. If you have a website that I can promote – please let me know. The 1QFY08 information is due by the end of December 2007.
EVENTS OF INTEREST
September 15–18, 2007: World Congress for Software Quality (WCSQ) in Bethesda, Maryland http://www.asq.org/conferences/wcsq
ASQ Dallas Section 1402 Fall Conference: 26-Oct-07 08:00 to 26-Oct-07 04:15
Conference Focus: How business results are linked to quality. http://asqgroups.asq.org/SectionVolunteerCommunity/Region14/Section1402/Conferences/
fall%20conference%20promo_2007.doc
Fort Worth ASQ Section 1416 Meeting, Thursday, November 1, 2007
Program Topic: “Metrics for Performance… Leading & Lagging Indicators” (topic is pertinent to the Software Quality Principles and Challenges discussed during the ICSQ) http://www.asqfortworth.org/(this is a great web site for other sections to mimic)
Albuquerque ASQ Section 1400 Activities
CSQE Courses: Section 1400 is conducting CSQE courses through the local Central New Mexico College. Section 1400 website http://www.asq1400-abqnm.org/
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