ASQ Software Division Region 4 Report for 2Q2007
by Chris Fitz Gibbon

It has been a busy quarter in Region 4 (Canada). This column provides members with information on relevant association meetings, conferences and other events in Canada. 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 me at chris@orioncanada.com or (613) 563-9000.

Western Canada
The Calgary-based IEEE/ASQ Discussion Group for Software Quality meets every two weeks at the Calgary campus of the DeVry Institute. All sessions are free and advance registration is not required. A list of upcoming topics is available on their website is www.software-quality.ab.ca. Recent topics have examined the challenges related to software maintainability.

The Software Quality Assurance Vancouver User Group (VanQ) meetings are held at the Burnaby campus of the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). The schedule of events is available from their website: www.vanq.org. The March 29, 2007 presentation was on software safety and presented by a senior systems analyst for a multi-national manufacturer of software intensive medical devices.

Eastern Canada
The Toronto Association of Systems and Software Quality (TASSQ) has dinner meetings during the last Tuesday of each month, typically at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel. The TASSQ was established in 1993 as an organization for Quality Assurance professionals. It is comprised of members with an interest in software quality, whether they work for a large corporation, a small software house, or whether they are independent consultants. The March 27, 2007 topic was on improving tester skills and productivity. Additional information on upcoming events is available at www.tassq.org.

Also in Toronto is the Toronto Software Process Improvement Network (SPIN).  More information is available from their website at www.torontospin.com.
The Ottawa SPIN recently joined forces with the Ottawa Software Quality Association (OSQA). They now hold joint monthly meetings at the Travelodge Hotel & Convention Centre. Additional information is available on their website, www.osqa.org, or at the Ottawa SPIN website, www.spin.org.

The Information Systems Audit and Control Association’s (ISACA) Ottawa Valley Chapter recently presented an overview of CobiT 4.0, the Control Objectives for Information Related Technology and related best practices such as the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL). Additional information is available through their website: www.isaca-ottawa.ca.