Bob Aiello - Editor in Chief, CM Journal
Date: May 20 - 11:00 AM EST (duration: 1 hour)

In this Roundtable discussion Bob Aiello, Editor in Chief of the Configuration Management Journal, will be joined by a panel of industry thought leaders to talk about how workflow and process fit, or don’t fit into Application Lifecycle Management.
 
This live broadcast will address some of the tough questions many organizations face when considering the implementation of individual ALM tools or and entire suite. You will have the opportunity to address your questions directly to the panelists and hear them debate some of the hottest topics.

Speakers:

Chris Farrell - Application Engineer, MKS
Date: May 20 - 1:00 PM  EST (duration: 1 hour)

Session Abstract:  As the pace of change in IT and software organizations continues to increase, the challenge of how to keep up with evolving and expanding business needs also increases. How do you keep pace when no sooner is a project underway than the requirements change?

Changes to requirements can cause many challenges if not properly communicated, assessed and managed, often leading to schedule and budget overruns. When looking at your current requirements management practices, how do you answer the following questions?

Speakers:

Steve Solomon - Senior Product Marketing Manager, CA
Prajval Parthasarathy - Vice President Software Change Management, CA
Date: Tuesday May 20 - 12:00 PM  EST (duration: 1 hour)

Session Abstract:  Once upon a time Application Development and IT Operations had little or no communication with each other. As the complexity of both applications and infrastructure increased—initially as a result of client-server computing and later by the emergence of service-oriented architecture (SOA)—the wall between these silos had to be demolished in order to accommodate growing dependencies between them. Over the last 10 years, IT project management has evolved to a level where most organizations have implemented a formal Project Management Office (PMO), whose charter is to track progress, contain costs, and keep projects moving forward.

Over the same period, ERP companies such as SAP, Oracle and Lawson have evolved business thinking about the interaction of operational data and related processes. The notions of universal processes and standards for business policy enforcement are now the norm. IT itself is ripe for a similar type of epiphany and transformation. Rather than focusing on software that only automates specific teams, we need to think in terms of universal software and process that unify all of IT. In short, IT is ready for the universal process concept that created the major ERP packages.

In the same way that a change doesn’t start with code check-out, a problem doesn’t start when it is reported to the Help Desk. The challenge is to determine what systems should be part of a universal process for all of IT to manage change and problems from beginning to end. This presentation describes a solution for a unified software-and-process infrastructure in a fully integrated IT environment.

Anders Wallgren - Chief Technical Officer, Electric Cloud
Date: May 20 - 2:00 PM EST (duration: 1 hour)

Session Abstract:  Application development teams are increasingly moving to Agile development techniques such as Continuous Integration in order to deliver more quickly and with higher quality. At the same time, there is pressure to reduce costs without hurting competitiveness. Leading organizations are implementing the concept of a Self-Service Infrastructure to provide Agile build-test-deploy services to developers while reducing costs through centralization and virtualization. This Self-Service model provides the benefits of agility (faster iterations, earlier testing) and the benefits of centralization (cost reduction, standardization, traceability).

Liz Barnett  - Editor in Chief - Agile Journal   
Date: May 24 - 11:00 AM  - KEYNOTE PRESENTATION
Track: Agile Business
[Jump to this session]

Session Abstract:  Development organizations today are faced with what seems to be an incredible paradox: they must be able to quickly respond to business needs and deliver value to the business, yet at the same time work within a structured program that supports mandated compliance requirements. In essence, they must be agile, yet disciplined. And, developers are continually threatened by cheaper or more efficient solutions that can come from anywhere in the world. This presentation will discuss all of these challenges and how leading organizations are using a mix of agile processes, open source tools and techniques, globally distributed development teams, and technologies such as service-oriented architectures (SOA) and integrated tool platforms to tackle them.

This Keynote presentation sponsored by Rally Development
[www.rallydev.com]

Mario Moreira 
Date: May 24 - 12:00 PM
Track: Road to Quality
[Jump to this session]

Session Abstract: Requirements Engineering plays a fundamental role in the establishment and success of a project release.  Poor requirements engineering can lead to cancelled projects, significant project cost overruns, and inadequate release deliverables.  Often times, in the requirements engineering space, there is a focus on only requirements management. However, in order to manage requirements, requirements must be elicited, documented, and approved. These steps will lead to a more effective process of managing change to requirements and will enable the ability to trace to and from requirements.  

Ross E. Markley, Melissa Borza 

Date: May 24 - 12:00 PM

Track: Tools and Technology
[Jump to this session]

Session Abstract: “Accept and Accomplish Your Mission with CA’s Enterprise Change Management” -- Attend this valuable on-demand Webcast and get a user experience of how CA Enterprise Change Management Solutions enable IT to rapidly introduce change for the benefit of the business, without compromising ongoing service quality.

Mark Wesker- CEO, Artifact 
Date: May 24 - 1:00 PM
Track - Agile Business
[Jump to this session]

Session Abstract: The best way to capture metrics is to derive them from all the data that is produced as the software project is executed.  Only by extracting the data from the source, such as Requirements, Change Requests, Project Plans, Defects, Test Cases etc., at the time of creation and then cross correlating these data sets, can timely, accurate, actionable metrics be produced.  Having metrics at the right time to take corrective action is half the battle. 

Once metrics have been captured, they must be delivered to the right person, in the right time, such that appropriate action can be taken.  Because of the inherent collaborative nature of the software development process, every person involved in a software project – executives, project managers, customers, developers, and testers – need to have role specific data and metrics delivered to them in a manner which enables them to take appropriate action.   The actions one might take could range from drilling into the metrics to get to the source data for further analysis, to taking corrective action to refine a project, refocus testing activity, or reevaluating certain personnel. 

John Graham-Cumming, John Ousterhout

Date: May 24 - 1:00 PM

Track: Tools and Technology
[Jump to this session]

Session Abstract: Expand your software build repertoire. Join us for this 2-part of a series in discussions of practical techniques for enhancing and optimizing your GNU Make Makefiles. During the ALM Expo, as John Graham-Cumming presents the next three “recipes” for improving your Make-based builds. Recipe 4 shows how to determine the version of GNU Make in a Makefile, or if a specific GNU Make feature is available. Recipe 5 is performing a recursive $(wildcard), and Recipe 6 will demonstrate tricks for tracing rule execution.

Eric Newcomer- CTO, IONA 
Date: May 24 - 2:00 PM
Track - Agile Business
[Jump to this session]

Session Abstract:  When looking at services and SOA, it is often said that there is a need to achieve a better return on existing IT investments. In order for SOA to be successfully deployed, existing applications and systems need to be able to participate as equal citizens. 

Doug Akers, Tactical and Solutions Product Manager,  MKS Inc.
Date: May 24 - 2:00 PM
Track: Tools and Technology
[Jump to this session]

Session Abstract: All organizations measure some aspect of their performance, with the goal of managing and improving their processes and products. Unfortunately many IT organizations get bogged down in the measurement process – developing too many measures (or too few), overly complex implementations, or failing to link metrics with top-level strategies or actual work processes of the employees. Very often success is hindered by a burdensome amount of manual data entry and a lack of clear visibility into progress.

Bob Aiello - Senior Editor, Crossroads News 
Date: May 24 - 3:00 PM
Track - Best Practices
[Jump to this session]

Session Abstract: Overcoming resistance to change is a critical success factor in any large scale effort to improve Software Configuration and Release Management processes. Most CM experts have strong technical skills and exposure to many process models. Understanding the people part of the process is often overlooked and essential to any large scale technology effort. In this presentation we will examine strategies for handling the behavioral issues that help or hinder the implementation of large scale (Global) Software Configuration and Release Management process improvement efforts.

August Battoclette, Solutions Consultant, Seapine Software, Inc.
Date: May 24 - 3:00 PM
Track: Tools and Technology
[Jump to this session]

Session Abstract: The Capability Maturity Model can help put your organization on the path to process improvement. Attend this session to learn the basics of the model and how change management tools can help you build effective software engineering practices.

Kirk Knoernschild - Author 
Date: May 24, 2006 - 4:00
Track: Best Practices
[Jump to this session]

Session Abstract: Why is software so difficult to change? When you establish your initial vision for the software’s design and architecture, you imagine a system that is easy to modify, extend, and maintain. Unfortunately, as time passes, changes trickle in that exercise your design in unexpected ways. Unlike what you had anticipated, each change begins to resemble nothing more than another hack, until finally the system becomes a tangled web of code that few developers care to venture through. Eventually, modifications to the software intended to improve the system have the opposite affect of breaking other parts of the system. The software is beginning to rot. The most common cause of rotting software is tightly coupled code with a heavy dependency graph. In this session, we’ll explore the most common  symptoms of rotting design, examine their root cause, and present techniques and patterns that have been used on a number of real world projects to help manage dependencies across classes, packages, and the binary units of deployment.

Jon Gettinger
Date: May 24 - 4:00 PM
Track: Tools and Technology
[Jump to this session]

Session Abstract: Enterprises that undertake efforts to improve build operational performance can look forward to significantly improved software quality, reduced delivery time and most importantly, decreased stress on the build and CM team. This is because of the simple fact that nearly every single member of the software development organization at one or more points during their day relies on a software build to perform their job. This translates into an enormous leverage point for any organization looking to get further, faster.