ASQ Software Division Region 4 Report for 1Q2007
by Chris FitzGibbon

This column provides members with information on relevant association meetings, conferences and other events in Canada (ASQ Region 4).  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 kicked-off the fall season with a nostalgic look back at software development practices used in the 1970s and how many are still being used today!  More recent topics have included new Agile practices, SMART project management, and exploratory testing.  January and February topics are posted on the group’s website (www.software-quality.ab.ca). The group meets every two weeks at the Calgary campus of the DeVry Institute. All sessions are free and advance registration is not required.

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.  Recent meeting topics have included: “Software Lifecycle QA Solutions”, “Attacking Code Quality Issues”, and “Patterns of Introducing New Ideas”.

Eastern Canada

The Toronto Association of Systems and Software Quality (TASSQ) has dinner meetings during the last Tuesday of each month at the Sheraton Centre Toronto Hotel.  Recent presentations have discussed "The Metrics Minefield" and "Software Testing as a Social Science". The TASSQ has several workshops scheduled in coming months in Toronto.  On January 9 – 11, 2007, James Bachs' “Rapid Software Testing” is scheduled and a two-day "Certified Software Tester (CSTE) Study Course" is offered later that month. A "Just in Time (JIT) Testing" three-day Workshop is scheduled for February 21 - 23, 2007.  Additional information on upcoming events is available at www.tassq.org.

The most recent event sponsored by the Toronto Software Process Improvement Network (SPIN) discussed strategies for better testing.  More information is available from their website at www.torontospin.com.

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). The website for upcoming events is http://www.isaca-ottawa.ca/.

The Ottawa Software Quality Association (OSQA) recently announced that it was joining forces with the Ottawa SPIN to hold joint monthly meetings. Morning meetings are now held monthly 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.