Date: Sat, 13 Feb 1999 10:54:46 -0500 From: Daniel Forrest Allen Subject: Boston SPIN - February Meeting Announcement Software Process Improvement Network (SPIN) February Meeting Announcement Topic: Good Enough Testing: Heuristic Models for Assessing Your Test Process Speaker: James Bach When: THURSDAY, February 25, 1998. 5:30pm-8:30pm 5:30 PM - Socializing & networking 6:30 PM - Dinner 7:30 PM - Speaker COST: $25.00 (Includes dinner and speaker) DINNER RESERVATIONS: Call 781-942-8421 before February 21, if you intend to have dinner. Meeting only: Please do not RSVP for dinner if you are not planning to have dinner. If you intend to arrive at about 7:30pm just to hear James Bach, please email Johanna at jr@jrothman.com or call 781-641-4046. We need this notification to make sure we have enough chairs. Who: Everyone (Academia, Government, Industry) Location: Wyndham Garden Hotel, Waltham (Joint meeting with ASQ, Boston section) exit 27 off Rte. 128 (420 Totten Pond Rd). The Wyndham Garden is east of Rte. 128. (Wheelchair accessible) Info: See our web page, http://www.cs.uml.edu/Boston-SPIN For SPIN info, contact Johanna Rothman, 781-641-4046, or jr@jrothman.com Abstract: In intellectual enterprises, "Good Enough" is an abstract concept and a challenging goal-- at least for those of us who want to be *absolutely certain* we are doing a good enough job. One thing we do to evaluate the goodness of software is to test it. But how do we know that our testing is itself good enough? We need methods of evaluating the goodness of testing. In this talk I will present several heuristic models for evaluating a test process. They are part of a work in progress at Reliable Software Technologies to produce a comprehensive heuristic testing methodology. About the Speaker: James Bach is a Principal SQA Practitioner at Reliable Software Technologies, in Sterling, VA. In his fifteen years in Silicon Valley-style software companies, including nine years at Apple Computer, Borland International, and Aurigin Systems, he's been a programmer, tester, QA manager, and roving problem-solver. For three years, James was Chief Scientist at ST Labs, an independent software testing company in Seattle that performs substantial testing and tester training for Microsoft. James is a frequent speaker and writer on the subject of software quality assurance and development processes. James writes and edits the "Software Realities" column in IEEE Computer magazine, is a former section chair of the American Society for Quality and the Silicon Valley Software Quality Association, and was part of the ASQ committee that created the Certified Software Quality Engineer program. He is best known, however, as a pioneer in the emerging discipline of Good Enough software. Monthly Round Table Announcement There will be no formal roundtables this month, because this is a dinner meeting. For March, If you'd like to volunteer to facilitate a round table, please contact Caroline J. Starita, 978-442-4004 or staritac@amp.com. Facilitators for the monthly sessions will be notified no later than noon the third Monday in order to ensure appropriate coverage of the selected sessions. Directions: The Windham Gardens is at 420 Totten Pond Rd, Waltham - Exit 27 off Rt. 128. Snow cancellations: We will notify the membership via email to the SPIN distribution list, post the notice on the SPIN web page, and announce the cancellation on Channel 7 TV and radio, WRKO AM 680. SPIN Sponsors: GTE Government Systems, Needham, MA We thank the Computer Science department of UMass-Lowell for providing support and hosting our web page.