SPaMCAST 254 - Matt Heusser, Agile Testing, Test Professionalism

Welcome to the Software Process and Measurement Cast 254 The Software Process and Measurement Cast 254 features my interview with Matt Heusser.  We discussed agile and testing.  It was a great interview full of thought provoking discussion and controversial ideas.   Matthew Heusser is the managing consultant at Excelon Development, where he focuses on software project delivery and risk management. A board member for the Association for Software Testing, lead editor of "How to Reduce the Cost of Software Testing" (Taylor & Francis 2011), Matt recently served as co-chair of the test and quality track of the Agile Conference. You can learn more about Matt at www.xndev.com or follow him on twitter @mheusser. The Software Process and Measurement Cast has a sponsor . . . As many you know I do at least one webinar for the IT Metrics and Productivtity Intstiute (ITMPI) every year. The ITMPI provides a great service to the IT profession. ITMPI's mission is to pull together the expertise and educational efforts of the world's leading IT thought leaders and to create a single online destination where IT practitioners and executives can meet all of their educational and professional development needs. THe ITMPI offers a premium membership that gives members unlimited free access to 400 PDU accredited webinar recordings, and waives the PDU processing fees on all live and recorded webinars.  The Software Process and Measurement Cast recieves a fee if you sign up using the URL in the show notes.   http://mbsy.co/fGdw  All revenue our sponsors goes for bandwidth, hosting and new cool equipment to create more and better content for you!  Support the SPaMCAST and learn from the ITMPI! THe Software Process and Measurement Cast is a proud member of the Tech Podcast Network.  If it is tech it is on the Tech Podcast Network.  Check out the Software Process and Measurement and other great podcasts on the TPN!   TPN:  www.techpodcast.com Do you have a Facebook account?  If you do please visit and like the Software Process and Measurement Cast page on Facebook.  http://ow.ly/mWAgU  The Daily Process Thoughts is my project designed to deliver a quick daily idea, thought or simple smile to help you become a better change agent. Each day you will get piece of thought provoking text and a picture or hand drawn chart to illustrate the idea being presented. The goal is to deliver every day; rain or shine, in sickness or in health or for better or worse! Check it out at .  Shameless Ad for my book!   co-authored by Murali Chematuri and myself and published by J. Ross Publishing. We have received unsolicited reviews like the following: "This book will prove that software projects should not be a tedious process, neither for you or your team." NOW AVAILABLE IN CHINESE!  Have you bought your copy? It is conference season! ISMA8 ISMA Rio will be an opportunity for all members of the Software Measurement Community to meet in beautiful Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in the week of September 30th, 2013. The eighth edition of the IFPUG International Software Measurement & Analysis Conference will be co-located with the 1st edition of the ISBSG IT Confidence Conference. That will bring together many international consultants, practitioners, and researchers from the Software Measurement arena. You can’t afford to miss it! The New York Times has nominated Rio the #1 tourist destination in the world. See you in Rio! http://www.ifpug.org/?page_id=980 Agile Phily - AgileTour 2013http://www.ifpug.org/?page_id=980Time: October 7, 2013 from 12:30pm to 4:30pmLocation: EbayEnterprise (previously known as GSI Commerce) in King of PrussiaStreet: First AvenueCity/Town: King of Prussiahttp://www.agilephilly.com/events/agiletour-2013 AgileDC - Agile, it's not just for big complex projects anymore.Date: October 8, 2013 http://agiledc.org/ Testrek 2013October 28-30, 2013 to the Eaton Chelsea Downtown Toronto!http://www.qaitestrek.org/2013Toronto/ Agile Practical Techniques WorkshopMonday, October 28, 2013: 8:30 AM - 4:30 PMFormat: Full-day Class Agile Practical Techniques Workshop helps developers, testers, business analysts, scrum masters and project managers to develop an understanding of Agile development techniques focusing on concepts such as test driven development that integrate testing into the Agile process. The workshop combines concepts from Agile (e.g. Scrum, xP and Test Driven Development) and Learning Organizations, providing participants with the tools to both participate on Agile projects and to develop and deploy related processes. Lean Software Development WorkshopTuesday, October 29, 2013: 8:30 AM - 12:00 PMFormat: Half-day TutorialLean Software Development Workshop (e.g. Kanban, Flow and Kaizen) uses a lean-agile focus to help everyone involved in developing, enhancing and maintaining software employ the Principles of Lean to enhance the delivery of value-added work. This workshop is hands-on and “things” will be thrown! Presentation: Agile Underperforming? Keys to Improving DeliveryWednesday, October 30, 2013: 9:45 AM - 10:45 AMJust because you have implemented Agile techniques does not mean you are performing to the level which your organization is capable. Is your implementation of Agile underperforming? Agile has been promoted as delivering higher customer satisfaction, better quality, faster time to market, increased productivity and — in some cases — to deliver world peace. The question is do you know and if you think you know, is your knowledge more than anecdotal? The only way to know truly is to measure. Measurement is only the first step in finding issues and taking action. Measurement provides focus. Being aware of problems and not spending the time and effort to study performance is a waste. W. Edwards Deming admonished us to have “constancy of purpose.” I would use the term “attention-span” in an attempt to make the same argument. Once we understand we have a problem, our next step is to take action and to perhaps make a difference in the value we deliver. Is your Agile underperforming? It doesn’t matter if you’re not going to fix it. Contact information for the Software Process and Measurement Cast Email:  spamcastinfo@gmail.comVoicemail:  +1-206-888-6111Website: www.spamcast.netTwitter: www.twitter.com/tcagleyFacebook:  http://bit.ly/16fBWVContact information for the Software Process and Measurement Cast One more thing!  Help support the SPaMCAST by reviewing and rating the Software Process and Measurement Cast on ITunes! It helps people find the cast.  Next: The Software Process and Measurement Cast 255 features my essay on self-management. The title of the essay is "Project Management Is Dead, Long Live Project Management." Self-management and agile go together like chocolate and peanut butter but . . . the concept is not well understood and rarely implemented well.