S/W Quality Conf: Highlights, part 1 of 2

10 days ago I attended a software quality conference in Germany. It was a good show and I left with two highlights and one lowlight on which I’d like to comment. The two highlights were:

1. Sitting down for a chat with Theresa Lanowitz of voke, inc.
2. Attending the keynote presentation of Dr. Sachar Paulus, CSO of SAP

While she was an analyst for Gartner, I always found Theresa Lanowitz insightful and informed; however, she now complements that with a vigor and energy that made me walk away feeling that she is genuinely passionate about the space and the clients for whom she toils. I encourage readers to check out her new endeavor at voke and give it a try — you won’t be disappointed … and no, I am not getting a commission ;-). 

A couple of areas of Theresa’s keynote that I found interesting were her views on the Global Quality Lifecycle. She views a quality lifecycle that operates in a virtualized environment as one that can deliver far more predictable quality with fewer resources. And she sees the skill set of the QA professional evolving to deliver more strategic value vs. being tactically focused.

Of course, my favorite part of her presentation is where she identifies Application Security and Risk Analysis as having strategic value to the enterprise and helping organizations move to more predictable software quality. I truly hope she’s right, but I am slightly jaded and skeptical (see my “Lowlights” entry on this same thread).