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Links to People, Conferences, What to Read, Boston-area resources, FAQs
Boston-area resources, FAQs
People
- Jerry Weinberg was my mentor before I met him! He's now my mentor, teacher, and friend. Read any and all of his books. If you are ready to learn more about how to be a more effective manager or product developer, take his "Problem Solving Leadership" Workshop.
- Naomi Karten specializes in customer satisfaction issues. In addition to her consulting, she's a great speaker.
- Cem Kaner specializes in legal aspects of software quality. In addition, Cem wrote a great book about Bad Software.
- Elisabeth Hendrickson is a great writer and testing consultant.
- Brian Lawrence is a consultant specializing in the problems of setting and getting requirements.
- Brian Marick is a product testing consultant. He has wonderful ideas about how to test products. He's doing a bunch of pattern work these days.
- Karl Wiegers has lots of suggestions for getting more out of your product development efforts.
- When James Bach and I talk about software quality, we almost invariably start off from different places and end up somewhere closer.
- Esther Derby is a very talented project manager and observer of software development environments.
- Sue Petersen is not only a talented manager, she's a talented writer.
- Bob King, specializes in architecting software which meets the demands of the user unobtrusively. He's great at working with project managers to begin projects successfully.
- Stever Robbins, is a good friend and a fascinating guy. He's now coaching managers, especially those in startup situations.
- Brendan Hemingway is an IS consultant who has really thought about the issues of developing software for the internal users.
- James Ward is a project management consultant, specializing in turning troubled projects around.
- John Pustaver is a Boston area software quality consultant. He is also the ASQC region 1 Software Quality Division councilor.
- Steve Rakitin is a Boston-area software quality consultant, and is one of ASQ Boston's software quality instructors.
- Rick Brenner focuses on how teams work together
- Brett Pettichord, now an independent consultant focused on test automation, maintains a software quality hotlist, and some of his publications
- Rex Black thinks clearly about how to manage testing on and make test planning work on different kinds of projects
- Doug Hoffman has a very pragmatic approach to software quality
- Payson Hall, is a no-nonsense software project management consultant. I enjoy his articles.
- Denise Robitaille is a talented ISO auditor, making sure the people aren't left out of the ISO equation. She and I also coauthored a book about corrective action for the software industry.
- Carol Dekkers of Quality Plus Technologies, Inc. is a function points guru. She's a frequent speaker about software measurement.
- Idea to Business, a consulting firm based in Belgium, have a holistic approach to software quality.
- Hung Nguyen and the other folks at LogiGear have some useful, practical, and pragmatic approaches to testing for the web that actually work.
- Andy Kaufman understands how to make work happen in the real world. He's a pragmatic consultant, focused on leadership, project management, and coaching.
- Michael Mah has a great approach to project estimation and measurement. He's also integrated negotiation skills into his measurement work.
- I enjoy Kathy Iberle's clear thinking and writing. I especially like her article on the developer-tester ratio.
- Jonathan Ostrowsky is a talented writer, editor, and manager of writers. He's now consulting to organizations helping them more clearly communicate. I'm proud to say that Jonathan was one of my early writing mentors - "A verb, JR, a verb."
- Larry Chait knows everything there is to know about knowledge management -- and even more importantly -- how to apply KM to your organization.
- Luke Hohmann articulates and helps organization understand how to manage their architecture and products in the face of market needs.
- Erik Petersen has a lovely list of links for the entire software project lifecycle.
- Nuno Andrade was one of my editors when he was at Dorset House. Now he's self-employed, doing SEO copywriting and print copywriting.
Conferences I find Useful
- Amplify Your Effectiveness, a different kind of conference -- the sessions are experiential half-day tutorials. The conference is in early November every year.
- I served twice as the program chair for the Software Management conference, next offered in June 2003 in San Jose.
Good Stuff to Read and Informational Sites
- I write bimonthly columns for StickyMinds.com and Software Development Magazine. I really like the community aspect of StickyMinds. I receive comments on my columns very quickly.
- I also write for STQE Magazine.
- Dave Farthing has tons of project management links
- Columbia University has different tons of project management links
- Software Management Network If you have any interest in software maintenance or software management, check this site out.
- Software Testing Institute Susan Archer has put together an extensive list of software testing resources.
- Software Program Manager's Network has many useful articles and links. I especially like the software project control panel.
- Tons of links about software enginering: http://www.tantara.ab.ca/info.htm
- Learning-Organization mailing list is a very active email list of people discussing issues in systems thinking, and how organizations can learn from what happens.
- John Sterman has written a variety of fascinating papers about the dynamics of management. I especially like his paper abount sustainable quality improvement programs.
- The Society of Concurrent Product Development is a good place to start with the "faster" part of product development.
Boston-Area Networking Opportunities
- Boston SPIN I've been a member of Boston SPIN since 1993, worked on the SEPG '95 conference, and served on the steering committee for 4 years.
- MassBay PMI has local and national speakers, all focused on making your projects work.
- Boston Section, ASQ. I've been active in the Boston section since 1994, and find the dinner meetings quite valuable.
- John Pustaver's Software Quality Group of New England, has monthly meetings.
FAQs
- comp.software.testing or at rtfm.mit.edu
- comp.software-engineering or at rtfm.mit.edu
- Testing Tools FAQ
Fun
- Take a look at Mike Harding Roberts' project management proverbs
- A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... (sorry, wrong script) I'm a Symbolics alum. The web site is an on-line museum of people and some products we created.
- During the ('96-'97) school year, I helped a third grade at the Brackett School in Arlington, MA. build a web page. See Mrs. Robinson's web page for the children's work.