January 2012 Member Meeting Date/Time:  January 19, 2012 / 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM Location:  Information Control Corp. (ICC), 2500 Corporate Exchange Dr. Suite 300, Columbus, OH 43231 Speaker:  Mark Harris from Grange Insurance Presentation:  QA or the Highway QA or the Highway From computers to cars and everything in between, our lives depend on the quality of the software we use in everyday life.  Software QA teams operate as a key member of the software development team by inserting and operating feedback loops in every phase of the development lifecycle.  The feedback loops help the developers and analysts adjust their activities so they can produce the highest-quality software.  While many in the field advocate for feedback in the form of automated tests or manual tests alone, it is only in combination that the full benefits of testing can be realized.  We present the Grange QA group’s approach to software QA through a combination of acceptance test driven design and manual test techniques with a back-of-the-envelope cost/benefit analysis. Bio Mark first caught the bug for agile testing and software development as an engineer on the Windows team at Microsoft in 1995.  Over the next 15 years, he moved through the company in positions from Software Design Engineer in Test to Lead Program Manager on some of Microsoft’s most hated and feared products: Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 R2, and IE7.  In 2010 he joined Grange Insurance, where he serves as Enterprise QA Manager. In this role, he has created the Software QA organization and continues to advocate for agile testing and test automation.  Mark holds degrees in computer science from The Ohio State University and the University of Washington, and he currently lives in Lewis Center with his family.   Register November 2011 Member Meeting Date/Time:  November 17, 2011 / 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM Location:  CareWorks Technologies, 5555 Glendon Ct. Dublin, OH 43016 Speaker:  Dave Ungar, CSTE, CSQA, PMP Presentation:  Assuring Agile Quality - beyond testing Assuring Agile Quality - beyond testing. You've read the books, you've been through training.  Your team may even be practicing and having success with agile methods.  The mechanics of agile are straightforward enough.  So why are we still frustrated by communication, quality of code, speed of delivery, integration with other teams & components .. And why does management still not get it?!     YOU are the QA professionals!  While many people think that means "tester", we know that quality is a system that runs much deeper than defect detection.     In this interactive session we'll talk about why and how QA professionals should take a lead role in implementing agile methods.  We'll take a look at some of the real challenges that COQAA members are facing and ways to approach those problems.  And in true agile spirit, participants will prioritize the discussion topics to get maximum value out of the time spent.         Bio: Dave Ungar is a QA professional and has been a practitioner and evangelist of agile for 10 years.    Dave draws on experience in QA, business operations, project management, business analysis and development, as well as experience leading and building global, collaborative teams.   His current role at OCLC is to manage the operations and execution of product strategy for cloud-based library management services.   Dave holds CSTE, CSQA and PMP certifications and is a past president of COQAA. "I had a great time! What a great crowd last night with lots of energy. Here are some of the references I mentioned last night: http://www.slideshare.net/dave225/assuring-agile-quality And here are the notes that I used to structure my talk: http://www.slideshare.net/dave225/coqaa-epics-10175192 I was glad to reconnect with old colleagues & COQAA members too ... " Posted by Dave

September 2011 Annual Dinner Meeting  There is now no charge for this dinner meeting!  Because we had to cancel our meeting last May, we've decided to pick up the entire tab for this year's Annual Dinner Meeting.  Consider it our way of saying thanks for your continued support.  (If you already registered for the meeting, your $20 payment will be refunded via PayPal; there's no need to register again.)  However, we have a limited number of plates available for the meeting, so you'll want to be one of the first 40 registrants!  We'll remove the registration link and update the web site once we've reached capacity.  This year's dinner meeting will offer a dinner buffet with three entrees (including vegetarian), 2 sides, salad, rolls, dessert, and choice of soft drinks, coffee, water, and iced tea.  Cost for the meeting is $FREE! Date/Time:  September 15, 2011 / 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM Location:  Arlington Banquets, 1973 W. Henderson Rd., Columbus, OH 43220 Phone: 614-538-8400 Speaker:  Sheilah Harrison, BSISE, PMP Presentation:  Quality Improvement in Health Care  The health care industry is embarking upon a massive effort to understand quality improvement strategies and tools that have been in place for decades in many settings, such as the manufacturing and airline industries.  In health care, quality becomes evident in the service provided to patients and their families, as well as, and more importantly, to the quality of life in which patients are positioned. Bio:  Sheilah Harrison joined Nationwide Children's Hospital in January of this year in a role new to the hospital.  Administratively, she reports into Quality Improvement Services, however she is the dedicated QI resource for its nationally recognized Heart Center.  Sheilah brings 15 years of experience in process improvement and project management in both private industries and public sector.  She is professionally certified in Project Management and has a BS in Industrial and Systems Engineering from OSU, providing her the expertise needed to analyze and present data, as well as determine root causes and develop and manage interventions to prevent negative outcomes. Through her education at OSU and her experience with IHI, she has expertise in developing, managing, and responding to meaningful quality measures.  She is familiar with baseline data collection, control charts, pareto charts, risk analyses, intervention management, and plan-do-study-act (PDSA) cycles. Update:  Thank you very much for attending the COQAA Annual dinner meeting.  Here is the presentation from the meeting provided from our speaker Sheilah: click here to download file

The 2012 North America Quality Engineered Software and Testing Conference (QUEST) is returning to Chicago Benefits of QUEST to COQAA Members The benefits and opportunities to our COQAA members are tremendous. COQAA members are eligible for a 10% registration discount.  There is plenty of free parking at the Westin Lombard Yorktown Center Hotel, the site of QUEST 2012. And there are opportunities to share your knowledge and support your profession by being a speaker, sponsor and/or EXPO exhibitor. Planning QUEST in Your 2012 Training Budget Remember to include the QUEST Conference in your 2012 training budget for the best return on investment for your training dollars. QUEST provides a full range of classes, tutorials, keynotes, presentations, and workshops on essential topics for software quality and testing. You can view past QUEST programs and pricing at the QUEST Conference Website.   Interested in Speaking, Sponsoring, or Exhibiting?  It's not too early to start planning your participation in QUEST 2012. If you are thinking about speaking, sponsoring or exhibiting at QUEST please be sure to let us know, so we can help you get the information that you need.

March 2011 Member Meeting Date/Time:  March 24, 2011 / 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM Location:  Dawson Columbus Talent Scouts, 3650 Olentangy River Rd., Columbus, OH 43214;  Phone: 614-255-1340 Speaker:  Rita Stapleton Presentation:  Quality is not an act, it's a habit.  Quality has been viewed important since Aristotle's time.  We will explore the value that Quality Assurance now brings to IT Projects and the challenge of managing the PM to QA relationship so we can all  jump out of our ingrained patterns and not sabotage our own success.  The presentation will include a short 15-20 minute activity to demonstrate the relationship between a QA and PM and the rest of the team in action.

2011 12 Week CSTE Study Group (Registration Closed)   Dates:  Wednesdays beginning February 23, 2011 through May 11, 2011 Time:  6 PM to 8 PM  Location:  Sogeti USA, 8425 Pulsar Place, Suite 300, Columbus, OH 43240   COQAA is hosting a 12 week CSTE Study Group scheduled to begin on February 23, 2011.  The Study Group will cover the Introduction, Skill Categories, and Final Exam modules from the CSTE BOK (Body Of Knowledge).  There is no cost to participate and all study materials will be provided.  This would be an excellent precursor to the QAI 3-Day CSTE Prep Course (which we'll be hosting in May), or simply a great way to sharpen your knowledge and interface with other QA professionals.    For those unable to attend in person, we will utilize Microsoft LiveMeeting to enable a remote “webinar” option.  The URL and additional details will be distributed to participants prior to the first session.    *Please note: due to overwhelming response, we've had to limit the number of participants for this session!  We appreciate the strong response, but it's caused us a capacity issue. ;-)  We're working on alternate options to accommodate the large number of interested parties.  Please stay tuned.  We'll send a broadcast email with further details, so if you're interested, please make sure you're on our mailing list.

January 2011 Member Meeting Date/Time:  January 18, 2011 / 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM Location:  CareWorks Technologies, 5555 Glendon Ct. Dublin, OH 43016 Speaker:  Anne Hungate, Director/Software Quality Assurance, Nationwide Insurance Presentation:  Static Testing: Getting Started, Getting Results, Getting Support Cost soars when defects are not discovered until system testing, or worse, production. Inspections can drive down delivery timelines, drive out defects, and align business and IT expectations. The benefits of static testing are known and documented, so why is this the first activity dropped when project teams feel pressed to meet schedule and cost constraints? In this presentation, Anne will share the story of one project team that embraced static testing, stayed with it, and realized the results. She will share their dramatic outcome, evidence of static testing value. Their success marked the beginning of a quality journey to institutionalize inspections through project and production support work. Anne will offer practical steps to overcoming organizational and cultural barriers that keep teams from realizing the benefits of inspections. She will identify common pitfalls and give suggestions on how to go from isolated implementation to expected practice. Bio:  Anne Hungate has been in information technology for over twenty years. With a solid foundation in application development, Anne has held a variety of leadership roles in both program delivery and production. She has worked at several major companies including KeyBank, National City Bank (now PNC), Progressive Insurance, and Nationwide. Most recently, Anne established the quality function for Nationwide Direct's IT business solution area. In this role, Anne led the implementation of static testing to help prevent defects in both waterfall and agile delivery environments. Anne earned her MBA at Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead School of Management. She holds both CSQA and PMP certifications.

November 2010 Member Meeting Date/Time:  November 18, 2010 / 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM Location:  Quick Solutions, 440 Polaris Parkway, Suite 500, Westerville, OH 43082 Speaker:  Russell Cotter, Practice Director for Enterprise Architecture, Sogeti, Columbus Presentation:  The Hitchhiker's Guide to Enterprise Architecture Enterprise Architecture is beginning to take a hold in organizations that for a long time have focused more on tactical technology instead of strategic solutions. This brief presentation will show the core elements, intentions, value and relevance of Enterprise Architecture and its use in transforming business and managing strategic solutions change. Bio: Russell Cotter is the Practice Director for Enterprise Architecture at Sogeti, Columbus. Russell, who is originally from Australia, has worked in IT for 27 years on IT projects spanning the globe and across several industry verticals. Enterprise Architecture is his passion in that it blends technology domain knowledge, business analysis, communications, planning and quality controls into a form that can be applied to develop transformational business technology solutions. Russell has participated in thought leadership events including Tech Columbus and the CIO Solutions Gallery at the OSU Fischer College of Business.

October 2010 Member Meeting   Date/Time:  October 21, 2010 / 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM Location:  Grange Insurance, 671 S. High St., Columbus, OH 43206 Speaker:  Rick Neighbarger, Director Software Quality Assurance, Nationwide Insurance Presentation:  Quality Assurance and Quality Control Skillsets: What I Look For   The terms “Quality Assurance” and “Quality Control” are often used interchangeably in the industry, even within quality organizations. While both share a focus on quality, there are important differences in the two functions that are reflected in the skillsets required to execute the appropriate role.   Bio:  Rick Neighbarger is a Director of Software Quality at Nationwide Insurance and has over 20 years of experience in IT. He has held multiple roles in the industry, including competency center director, software methodology advisor, requirements lead, quality assurance & testing manager, ISO 9001 lead auditor, network engineer and technical writer. In his quality management role he hires for both quality control (testing) and quality assurance positions, and leads the analyst subcommittee for Nationwide’s IT professions oversight team. Rick’s certifications include QAI Certified Software Quality Analyst,  ASQ Certified Software Quality Engineer and ASQ Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence.   Click here to download the presentation (ppt)

September 2010 Member Meeting   Date/Time:  September 23, 2010 / 6:30 PM to 8 PM Location:  Information Control Corp. (ICC), 2400 Corporate Exchange Dr. Suite 300, Columbus, OH 43231 Speaker:  Dan Clausing, CBAP, CSM from Nationwide Insurance Presentation:  Breaking Agile   Agile is often sold as the cure for all ills. However, many times the cure only hides the symptoms. In this presentation we will discuss many of the unique benefits and constraints Agile holds, as well as delve into how to make Agile work for you and your organization. We will examine the impact that environments, business needs and relationships have on Agile success. Come prepared to learn and share how to bring agility into Agile while curing your ills.   Bio:  Dan Clausing, CBAP, CSM, has spent over 15 years working to bring business and IT together for a common goal – the success of the customer. His career has ranged from corporate team builder to leading analysis efforts on multi-million dollar software development projects. Currently, Dan is employed by Nationwide Insurance.  He is the Lead Analyst on an Agile line in the Application Development Center, an innovative effort to build an Agile environment in a traditional waterfall organization. In addition to his analysis work, he has been instrumental in building a thriving requirements Community of Practice along with a robust analyst newsletter, and achieved certification in Nationwide’s internal waterfall methodology.   click here to download the presentation (ppt)

May 2010 Member Meeting   Date/Time:  Thursday May 13, 2010 / 6:30 PM to 8:30 PM Location:  Grange Insurance, 671 S. High St., Columbus, OH 43206 Speaker:  Butch Knowlton, CPCU Presentation:  Grange and Speed 2 Value: How the right amount of Agile helped us succeed   Butch Knowlton, CPCU, currently manages the Claims Project Portfolio for Grange Insurance where he has championed the introduction of a new prioritization and resource management process.  He and his team have introduced a new software development life cycle (SDLC) for Grange that is founded in business analysis, quality assurance & development validation, team participation, and agile project delivery methods.  Butch gained his ten years project management knowledge while working for nineteen years in the Property and Casualty Insurance industry.  He has worked and managed in the areas of product development, underwriting and operations.   Bio:  Butch is a proud graduate of West Virginia University, holds his Chartered Property Casualty Underwriter (CPCU) designation, is a Certified Scrum Master and is a member of the Project Management Institute. Click here to download the presentation (PDF)