risk

The road to the financial ruin experienced on Wall Street during the past two years was paved with ineffective risk management strategies. While risk management theory continues to evolve, implementation of that theory often fails, especially when it comes to software. Though most executives readily acknowledge risk management is an essential practice for software projects, few can point to accomplishments and sustainability of their organization’s software risk efforts. Why is it so difficult to build and sustain effective software risk management? Do risk management’s intellectual demands exceed human capability? Are hidden forces thwarting our efforts to build and sustain good practices? Payson Hall describes the human challenges inherent in developing and sustaining an effective risk management program and why many risk management efforts become paradoxical victims of their own success.

Is your organization releasing applications that target multiple mobile devices, platforms, or browsers? If so, you have faced-or soon will face-the challenge of choosing and setting up a test environment for these devices and platforms. Nat Couture shows how to develop a cost-effective application test environment to mitigate the risks associated with deploying mobile applications. He shares his latest research on mobile devices, mobile platforms, and mobile browser usage, and explains in detail what you need to consider when choosing a test environment. Learn how to select a winning combination of device-specific simulation, platform-specific simulation, and browser-specific simulation-coupled with tests on the actual devices. Build a mobile device testing program that reduces cost, increases coverage, and helps achieve the level of confidence you need to release mobile applications into production.

In this presentation Michael Harris describes the findings of a quality assurance audit (PPQA) of the offshore outsourcing arm of a major U.S. software development company in late 2005. As the executive in charge of much of the development and as a member of the PPQA audit team, the Michael has a singular perspective on the expectations and the reality of the project. This presentation explores one particular aspect of the audit findings-the manifestations of the different CMMI® maturity levels of the onshore and offshore organizations. Take away suggestions for taking advantage of this mismatch situation instead of suffering from it.

• Review a quality assurance audit (PPQA)
• Explore the different CMMI® maturity levels of onshore and offshore organizations
• Take advantage of mismatched outsourcing situations

We all know that testing should be based on business risks. In practice, test managers often go from those risks to test coverage in an ad-hoc, intuitive way. Instead, by taking a step-by-step approach, you can improve coverage and better prioritize your tests. After translating business risks into product risks and establishing the required test coverage, you select the appropriate techniques and estimate test effort. Ruud Teunissen explains that the right test design technique is based on the required coverage, type of functionality, test level, quality characteristics to be tested, available documentation, available resources, and resource skill sets. This risk-based test planning approach enables the test manager to report progress and defects found in terms of the business risks so that stakeholders can make informed decisions about releasing the software into production.