SPaMCAST 260 - Dr Richard Sykes, TMMi, Testing

Welcome to the Software Process and Measurement Cast 260 The Software Process and Measurement Cast 260 features my interview with Dr Richard Sykes.  Dr Sykes is the chair of the Board of Directors of the TMMi Foundation. The TMMi is the Testing Maturity Model Integration. When it comes to testing the TMMI is more than just a model! Dr Richard Sykes is a businessman with a breadth of involvement & experience that spans the chemical industry, the IT industry and the world of arts. He has held senior executive roles in a major global multinational and non-executive chairmanships in a number of smaller ventures - and has lived and operated internationally. Today Richard has a personal practice ('Dr Richard Sykes') as a board-level trusted advisor, assurer, strategic coach & facilitator. He works with senior management in the practical shaping of effective business information & communications technology (ICT) strategies & their implementation, sourcing & governance. He has a particular expertise in the workings of the ICT Services and Business Process, sourcing & outsourcing market place - including through the agency of 'the Cloud'. His focus here is in coaching the development and practical implementation of business strategies that will deliver quality, sustainable stakeholder returns in these very competitive markets. He works with both the Vendor and the Enteprise/Public Sector user aspects of the market place. In delivering his role as a strategic advisor, Richard particularly collaborates with Gavin Bowden-Hall, the Director and Managing Consultant of Strategic Sourcing and Procurement Services Ltd, and with Sue Tompkins and Jessica Long, joint Directors of EQ Partnering. He also acts as an experienced non-executive chairman of the boards of small young ventures in both the IT industries and in the arts world. And importantly for this interview Richard is Chairman of the TMMi Foundation, dedicated to improving test processes and practice. It is a non-profit making organization and the focus of the Foundation's activities is the development of a common, robust model of test process assessment and improvement in IT organisations. www.TMMiFoundation.org 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. 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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! 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 261 will be all about distributed agile.  Distributed agile takes effort but can pay HUGE benefits.