Our test teams often struggle for so long ... to do so much ... with so little, and they usually manage to just squeak by. In the next cycle when asked to do even more with even less, they are likely to fail. Working harder and smarter isn't enough-the rules of the game must change. Innovation is the currency of success. Using his experiences from several years of success (and a few months of failure) in driving innovation, Heath Newburn will show you how-through innovation-you can drastically increase your team's value and your contributions to your organization. Uncover the secrets to managing change and learn: how to systematically create innovation and foster creativity, how to generate ideas and use your whole team to identify and build on the best of those ideas, how to implement a plan for success, and how to overcome the inevitable obstacles with the six secrets "they" don't want you to know.

Identifying risk is important-but managing risk is vital. Good project managers speak the language of risk, and their understanding of risk guides important decisions. Testers can contribute to an organization's decision making ability by speaking that same language. Learn from Julie Gardiner how to evaluate risk in both quantitative and qualitative ways. Julie will discuss how to deal with some of the misconceptions managers have about risk-based testing including: Testing is always risk-based. Risk-based testing is nothing more than prioritizing tests. Risk-based testing is a one-time-only activity. Risk-based testing is a waste of time. And risk-based testing will delay the project.

Technical managers often find that their time is taken up by tasks that have the greatest urgency and those that seem to offer the most benefit. All too often our time is focused on project details to the detriment of building and retaining an excellent development team. Martin King's presentation illustrates people- and project-centered styles of management and the consequences of each. Learn the benefits of people-centered leadership and how to shift your style in this direction. Martin explores the issues of honest feedback, conflict resolution, recognition, rewards, performance appraisals, and life balance. By meeting the needs of the people on your team, you will likely be rewarded with hard working, loyal, and productive employees who want to achieve the goals of your current project-and who will be around for the next one.

In most organizations, the project game is not going particularly well-we continue high stakes wagers on business projects, but lose more often than we win. Sometimes the losses are staggering. Risk management practices have received increasing attention recently as a way to improve the odds, but there are limits to what risk management can do for an organization in the absence of committed executive sponsors. This session explores strategies for overcoming resistance to risk management and encourages thoughtful engagement between project managers and sponsoring executives as they consider hedging their bets with more effective approaches to risk.