Overview: TESTING COMPUTER SOFTWARE (TCS2000) Conference -- Featured Speakers

           17th International Conference and Exposition on

                     TESTING COMPUTER SOFTWARE
         Theme: Testing Technology vs. Testers' Requirements 

                         June 12-16, 2000
      (Conference: June 14-16; Workshops/Tutorials: June 12-13)
 
          Washington, D.C. * Hyatt Regency (Bethesda) * USA 
  

In cooperation with:
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) SIGSoft American Society for Quality (ASQ) Software Division IEEE Reliability Society
Software Technology Support Center (STSC)

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The general sessions of the Conference on Testing Computer Software will address major issues of concern to the developers and users of software. The theme of the Conference "Testing Technology vs. Testers' Requirements" focuses on providing practical and essential solutions to the software development profession, and the users of computer software at all levels.

Shari Lawrence Pfleeger will give the Conference keynote address: "From Art to Practice: Transferring Testing (and Other) Technology." She will discuss that technology transfer requires a good idea, the generation of evidence, analysis of that evidence, good packaging and support, and careful consideration of the audience for the technology. Pfleeger explores how to learn from other disciplines, so that we can devise a transfer strategy that fits organizational as well as technological needs.

Louise Tamres's lunch address will present "If I Knew Then What I Know Now." She will explain how to improve quality in your organization; how to fight the right battles; and what are the pitfalls to avoid.

Lee Copeland's topic will be "When Helping Doesn't Help: Software Testing as Codependent Behavior." He defines codependent behavior as "a way of getting needs met that doesn't get needs met. We do all the wrong things for the right reasons." This presentation will enable participants to: 1. Understand the various aspects of codependency. 2. Recognize codependent behavior in themselves and others. 3. Evaluate the negative effects of their own codependent behavior. 4. Respond more appropriately through establishing their own boundaries of behavior.

Bob Binder will discuss "Testing Object-Oriented (OO) Systems: Lessons Learned." His talk will cover the lessons learned, best practices and challenges in test design, test automation and test process for object-oriented systems. Best practices available as test design patterns are summarized. The state of the testing practice is explored with practical improvement strategies and examples.

Simon Mills will explore "Is an Ounce of Test-plan Worth a Ton of Tools?" His talk covers the story of his seeking an automated utopia, where it went wrong and where it did not. He will review the history of test automation, and the history of attitudes towards automation -- from pipe dream to panacea -- and have a look at the reality. Mills will explore automation as a portion of an overall testing strategy. Plenty of object lessons from hard-won experience will be shared.

Tom Gilb's topic will be "Powerful and Pitiful Measures of Software." He will summarize the powerful measures needed to help management achieve their purposes as managers of software engineering teams. Gilb will discuss how to identify objectives and appropriate scales of measurements to evaluate whether those objectives have been met. A variety of measures will be discussed. Twelve "tough questions" will be identified to help keep our projects on track towards quality.

The Conference will conclude with the wrap-up session: "Conference Reflections - and a few surprises thrown in!" Marnie Hutcheson will expertly summarize: What we did; Where we've been; Where we're going.

Thirty-two parallel Track Sessions will cover a wide variety of topics on: management, advanced topics, practitioners and automation. The Conference sessions were designed to meet the needs of software professionals, ADP managers and their organizations.

Three 2-day Workshops and six full day Tutorials will present comprehensive technical sessions for software testing practitioners. These sessions will provide detailed training on major software testing technologies, tools and methodologies.

Networking with participants interested in specialized topics will be facilitated by Birds-of-a-Feather Sessions and Lunch Discussion Groups.

Finally, the Testing Tools vendors exhibit will present the latest in products and services to support software and applications testing.

For a continuously updated program check out on the Web:

     http://www.uspdi.org/conference

A printable version of the Conference brochure may be downloaded from:

     http://www.uspdi.org/conference/printbrochure.html

The Conference brochure and other information may also be requested by:

Regular Mail: USPDI, 612 Ethan Allen Avenue, Suite 100; Takoma Park,

              MD 20912-5400 (USA)
Phone:        (+1) 301-270-1033
Fax:          (+1) 301-270-1040 
E-mail:       admin_at_uspdi.org (Subject: TCS2000)

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