Naomi
Karten
Consultant, Coach and Seminar Leader, Karten Associates
Tales of Whoa and the Psychology of Customer Satisfaction
September 11, 2006, Monday, 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
What do your customers really want? Obviously, they want software that meets their specs and is delivered on time and within budget. But just doing that is no guarantee that you'll have happy customers. Why? Because how customers perceive they've been treated affects whether their satisfaction level is at the top of the chart - or slithering towards the bottom. Happily, the smallest measures - those that cost little or nothing in time and dollars - can have a huge positive impact. In this keynote address, Naomi Karten will offer insight into the customer perspective, drawn from her psychology and IT background, research, user feedback and extensive experience with numerous organizations. If customer satisfaction matters to your company, you'll find the principles, tools and examples she presents valuable.
Rodney
Brooks
Director, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
Having Fun and Changing the Future Through Technology
September 11, 2006, Monday, 5:30 PM - 6:30 PM
To the general public, Brooks is best known for his popular book, Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us and for his role in the underground movie classic, Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control (the movie's title derives from Brooks' iconoclastic advice to NASA concerning the kinds of robots to develop for use in outer space). Join us as Dr. Brooks skillfully addresses, from the perspective of an engaged scientist, the big questions that have traditionally been the domain of fiction writers and fantasists: "Can robots 'think' and 'feel' and be 'alive' ?" , "When does artificial intelligence stop being artificial?", and "What's the distinction between conscious and unconscious?"
Murray
Cantor, PhD
IBM Distinguished Engineer, IBM Rational Software
Agility, Governance and Productivity
September 12, 2006, Tuesday, 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
Today organizations are faced with the mandate to be agile and responsive, yet deliver consistent, predictable results. Murray will discuss new ways that organizations and projects can manage risk "in context" rather than applying unilateral risk management techniques to projects which can stifle innovation. Learn how to applying the principles of governance to development results in the clarity needed for teams to be more productive. Murray will share the key factors that impact software team productivity and the practical steps that can be taken to reduce complexity, accelerate learning and communications and automate key processes.
Tom
DeMarco
Principal, The Atlantic Systems Guild
Quick or Dead: Organizational Velocity for an Impatient Age
September 13, 2006, Wednesday, 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
Tom DeMarco offers a new and chilling look at the way slow organizations work and often fail to work, as well as a practical prescription to turn them around and make them hum. He confronts major complaints of this impatient age: late projects, work forever in catch-up mode, the paradox that in an era of "Hurry Up," companies are slowing down, sometimes almost grinding to a stop. Most of all, he points toward a unique approach to achieving true organizational velocity.
Gary
McGraw
Cigital CTO, Author and World Authority on Software and Application Security
Software Security: Building Security In
September 13, 2006, Wednesday, 6:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Software security has come a long way in the last few years, but we've really only just begun. Cigital CTO and security expert Gary McGraw will present a detailed approach to getting past theory and putting software security into practice. The three pillars of software security are applied risk management, software security best practices (which McGraw calls touchpoints) and knowledge. By describing a manageably small set of touchpoints based around the software artifacts that you already produce, McGraw avoids religious warfare over process and gets on with the business of software security. That means you can adopt the touchpoints without radically changing the way you work. The touchpoints include code review using static analysis tools, architectural risk analysis, penetration testing, security testing, abuse case development and security requirements.
Ian Knox
Group Product Manager, Microsoft
Advancing your Business with IT Solutions
September 14, Thursday, 12:30 PM - 1:30 PM
Microsoft is focused on best-of-breed application platform technologies, enabling IT Professionals and Developers to design, develop, deploy, and manage connected, flexible solutions. In this Strategic Briefing, Ian Knox outlines Microsoft's vision for the Application Platform including our technology roadmap and core focus areas: SQL Server 2005, Visual Studio 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006. Together these products provide industry-leading solutions for mapping business processes, connecting back-end systems, and integrating application development across the IT lifecycle.
