5 IT Roles That Drive Cost Reduction...Plus One.

I just got this e-mail promoting a slide show from Forrester Research about 5 IT Roles That Drive Cost Reduction. Being an inquiring mind, I was curious as to what they had. I was disappointed but not surprised to see that no relationship between quality and cost was there. For example, no mention of QA or testing, process improvement, etc.

When you consider the billions of dollars ($59.5 billion to be in the ballpark, based on a NIST study), that are spent on software defects, it would make sense that this is one gap to be closed.

This also shows me how far the business case for quality has fallen. Back in the last recession (early nineties), Deming was king and U.S. industry was clammoring for anything about quality. Unfortunately, here in the USA we fell victim to the marketing (TQM) and forgot the discipline involved. So, a few years later we had regressed to the same attitudes that had prevailed earlier.

Here's my point. If you want to cut costs AND increase profits, learn from those defects we all experience. Take those learnings and improve the processes, or at least learn how to catch the defects while they are small and less expensive to fix.

I won't list the other 5, you can read the slide show here:

http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Bottom-Line/5-IT-Roles-That-Drive-Cost-Reduction/?kc=CIOMINUTE03232009CIO1

Just don't forget my nomination of #6 - Software Quality

Have a great day!

Randy

New Service Offering - Live Online Training in Software Testing and QA

Good Thursday everyone!

I just finished speaking at the Oklahoma City Red Earth QA SIG at lunch today. Thanks to everyone that attended. I spoke on the same topic I'll be presenting as a keynote at StarEast (May 4 - 8). I hope you can make it to Orlando in May. It will be a great conference!

I've been very busy lately. First, we have a totally redesigned web site - same URL - www.riceconsulting.com. If you haven't seen it, please drop by and let me know what you think.

Part of this effort is a new service offering for me. Sure, web seminars are nothing new. However, I haven't used this medium as a standard training offering - until now.

Because the current economy has forced many companies to cut training budgets, travel budgets, etc. Since 2001, I have been working to deliver online training in effective ways.

So far, we have a great line-up of pre-recorded training courses, which many people have found a great way to balance time, money and content.

However, some people just like live training - and that's fine. The problem is that it's not always feasible to have me live at your location.

Imagine having your team of any size in any number of locations linked together, being taught live! You can ask questions, make comments and work on exercises - just like if I was at your site.

We've been doing this type of training on a limited basis for several years. Now we are offering it to you and your team at very affordable prices. You pick the course and we work together to set the outline and schedule.

The possibilities are many. You can have:

• a 3-hour morning session and a 3-hour afternoon session
• a 3-hour morning session or a 3-hour afternoon session, conducted for as many days as needed to complete the course. You can train half the day and still work on your projects.
• a weekly session of 3-hours on the day of your choice

(the 3-hour sessions have a 15 minute break at the 1.5 hour point)

Example: Your team can take our Basic Training in Software Testing course (a 2-day class) in four 3-hour sessions! All-day Monday and Tuesday, or just in the mornings or afternoons four days out of the week.

Here's the best part - the pricing!

Because of the current economic conditions, I am going all out to help. Each 3-hour training segment is priced at $500! Course books can be printed and shipped to your site for roughly $30 per book in the USA. For international pricing, please contact me for options.

So, you could have your entire team trained live online in a 2-day class (4 sessions) for $2,000 plus books. No travel expenses, even if your team is located in multiple locations. A one-day (2 session) class would be $1,000, plus books.

There are some logistical details that have to be planned, such as getting a training room with projector, computer with Internet access, and having someone you can designate as an on-site facilitator.

If you want to learn more, contact me by e-mail or call 405-691-8075. Let's keep building those skills so you can do more with less!

Today's Webcast on Charting For Root Cause Analysis

Help me test a new platform for web seminar delivery!

Today, March 13, 2009, 12:00 Noon Eastern Daylight Time I will be conducting a live web tutorial at:

http://webmeeting.dimdim.com:80/portal/JoinForm.action?confKey=rrice

The topic will be Charting Events for Root Cause Analysis. In this session you will learn how to diagram a timeline of events, identify contributing causes, and hopefully, identify the root cause of a problem.

You can download the notes here:

http://www.riceconsulting.com/public_pdf/charting_for_root_cause_analysis.pdf

This is a free session and is limited to 24 people, so please arrive a little early to get a spot. The session will last one hour or less.

Also, please understand that this is also a test. We may experience some problems, so please be patient in that regard. The audio should play over your computer speakers.

I hope you can be there!

To hear this session, click here:
http://recordings.dimdim.com/view/dimdim/da27f404-6136-102c-9991-003048944478

To download the session, click here:

http://recordings.dimdim.com/saveflv/dimdim/da27f404-6136-102c-9991-003048944478

Randy

Getting Started in Root Cause Analysis

Today's podcast will be on the topic of "Getting Started in Root Cause Analysis". This is a topic that many people are interested in, and another one of the ways you can do "more with less" in software testing and QA.

To listen live toady at 12 Noon, EST, just go to:

http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/27009

You can call in or type in your questions. After the live session, you can visit the same link and listen to the recorded call.

Here are the notes for today's call:

http://www.softwaretestingtrainingonline.com/public_pdf/getting-started-in-root-cause-analysis.pdf

I hope to see you in the podcast today!

Thanks,

Randy