Technology Transfer - IT education at the highest level

It’s all about Cloud: Key Concepts, Players, Platforms and Technologies

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:22:00 GMT

Cloud computing has gained a lot of attention in recent years. It has mostly been used for non Business critical applications like email, or for those applications that could be outsourced to a vendor that offers large Business applications in a Software as a Service (SaaS) model. However, it is apparent that the reach of the Cloud is expanding, and many companies are wondering how to plan for more substantial use of Cloud capabilities, such that they won't fall behind their competition.

This seminar will provide an overview of the key Cloud characteristics and capabilities, differentiating between Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), and Platform as a Service (PaaS). These three types of cloud services will be illustrated by offerings of several popular vendors, including Microsoft, salesforce.com, IBM, Amazon, Google, and others.

We will then discuss how the development of Business applications for the Cloud is different from traditional application development and contrast the efficiency of developing and deploying applications in the Cloud vs. traditional application development for on-premise systems. In this context the seminar focuses on the synergy between Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and Cloud Computing. We will explain the difficulties of moving applications that are not Service Oriented to the Cloud, and how the design principles of SOA are much better suited for Cloud Computing. This is key when we want to exploit the economy of scale by building and deploying multi-tenant applications.

The seminar will also address the major challenges for exploiting the Cloud, including the new security threats and how to address them, as well as the need to extend existing IT and SOA governance. Another challenge is the integration of applications within the Cloud with on-premise systems. The seminar will outline typical integration issues and solutions, and discuss whether we need a new kind of Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), sometimes referred to as the “Internet Service Bus”.

by Gerhard Bayer

Mastering Business Analysis

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:23:00 GMT

Business analysis provides the foundation for almost every kind of Business change. The craft of Business Analysis is to investigate the Business, to find its problem hot spots and recommend ways to improve them. Business Analysis is a combination of modelling, systemic thinking, innovating, communicating, root cause analysis, persuasion and several other analytical skills. In short, Business Analysis is about understanding the real Business and providing ways to make it better. The Business analyst is a modeller and a communicator. Models are used to understand the processes, information and behaviours that make up the Business. This understanding is not superficial, but a knowledge of the real, underlying Business policy, and the root cause of any problems within this Business. Further, the analyst must communicate this understanding so that all stakeholders arrive at the same view of their Business. The analyst understands what people do, not what they say they do if he or she is to help bring the Enterprise to its optimal state.
Our Businesses thrive or struggle on the effectiveness of their Business processes, both automated and manual. Businesses with good processes provide better service and are more responsive to their customers. The converse is true. Business analysis is the craft of enlightened improvement to Business systems and processes. Moreover, Business Analysis gives you ways of identifying the areas where improvement projects will yield the highest value. This two-day course in Business Analysis gives you the skills and tools to discover your client's real Business, and to determine and demonstrate the best ways of improving it.

by James Robertson

Mastering the Requirements Process

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:22:00 GMT

People use software, but other people build that software. There's the problem. Solving it means understanding the actual work of the Business users and what they need in order to do it. And then the resulting requirements need to be communicated to system builders, customers and suppliers. Requirements analysts need a process that provides a structure for organizing the requirements. However the requirements process needs to be flexible enough to suit each particular situation. This seminar teaches you that process. Since the first version of the Volere process and template was released, it has been adopted and adapted to improve the requirements of thousands of organizations all over the world.The Volere requirements specification template, links the functional, non-functional and constraint Business requirements to the requirements models and connects them to the design specification. This seminar has indispensable information for Business analysts, requirements engineers, systems mangers, project leaders, consultants, systems analysts and planners.This material applies to all stakeholders: users and customers will benefit from learning how to participate in this multi-disciplinary approach. It is for anybody who has a responsibility to deliver the right products-the ones that get used.The seminar focuses on:

A process for gathering the correct requirements
Methods of eliciting requirements from all the stakeholders
Ways of knowing when your solution precisely matches what the user needs
The ability to write a complete and unambiguous requirements specification
Improved relationships between developers, customers and suppliers.

The delegates will also receive a copy of the book "Mastering the Requirements Process" by Suzanne and James Robertson (Addison Wesley, 2004).

by Suzanne Robertson

DASHBOARDS: Is it the new face of Business Intelligence?

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:26:00 GMT

In order to stay competitive, organizations need to consider Business Intelligence today more than ever. Whether in Banking, Financial Services, Healthcare, Insurance, Retail, Manufacturing, Telecommunications or Government knowing your customers, employees, partners, vendors, and competitors is crucial to your success. That is Intelligence about your Business! The main goal of Business Intelligence is: Better decision making at each level of an organization and improving performance at each level resulting into better value for the share holders of the organization. Casualties of organizations for not managing the performance are a plenty. A Dashboard can be a powerful tool for, analysis, reporting and even forecasting – but the main use of a Dashboard should be Performance Management based on the strategic goals set for the organization; selecting, watching and acting based on the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) .
We all are inundated with data. We are not only inundated with data but also with tens if not hundreds of reports every day! An effective use of Dashboards will reduce these zillion financial and operational reports! No one is asking for more data or for more reports. For anyone who has to make decisions & either take action or delegate action for better performance for the Business it is imperative that the volumes of data and the number of reports that are thrown at them have to be synthesized into actionable information. It has to be presented in an easy to comprehend, attractive and user-friendly format. “A picture is worth 1000 words becomes an understatement”. Enter “Dashboards: The new face of Business Intelligence!”
This seminar is a complete "how-to" instructional guide for planning, designing, implementing, using, and maintaining performance Dashboards. It shows with ample examples various Dashboard types, shows how a spreadsheet is sometimes used as a Dashboard. It discusses the various nuances of Scorecards, Balanced Scorecards, measures, and metrics and goes in details about Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). It demonstrates performance Dashboard implementation process and displays the characteristics of well-designed Dashboards. It clarifies the various Dos and Don’ts of implementing Dashboards with numerous examples. It warns the attendees where a Dashboard implementation can go wrong. It finally explains how to identify Dashboard opportunities in your organization and where to place the Dashboards.

by Shaku Atre

Extreme Project Management

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:26:00 GMT

Historically, all software projects have involved risk and pressure — but many of the projects in today's chaotic Business environment involve such intense pressure that they require non-standard, radical management techniques. This seminar is a survival guide for managers and project team members who are about to embark upon a "mission impossible" effort.

The seminar is not about the things we would all like to do, to "do it right" and it is not a conventional sermon about the benefits of rapid prototyping and iterative development life-cycles. While we all believe in rigorous software methodologies and the "Boy Scout" virtues that lead to high levels of software quality and easily maintainable systems, they can be counter-productive and even fatal in high-pressure "do-or-die" projects.

Death-March Project Management is concerned with five key aspects of a project: politics, people, process, project-management, and tools. Death-March doesn't pull any punches, and does not beat around the bush when it comes to hard-hitting advice. Don't come to this seminar if you want to know what "nice" people do in "nice" projects; come instead if you've been thrown into a nasty, ugly project where everyone has come to the conclusion that the "standard way of doing business" will lead to a guaranteed failure.

by Ed Yourdon

Risk Management for Software

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 09:09:00 GMT

Building and maintaining software is a risky Business. Since software permeates and controls so much of the present-day Enterprise (and its products), lateness, cost excess and failure to perform can have far-reaching consequences. A common response to such risk is to ignore it entirely. We justify this as "positive attitude," the heart and soul of a Can-Do management philosophy. But when real risks turn into real problems and send our projects down in flames, we can see that our past "positive attitude" was little more than Denial. There must be a better way.

The purpose of this seminar is to prepare participants to apply the budding discipline of Risk Management to software efforts. They will learn to identify and quantify the specific uncertainties that threaten success. For each uncertainty so identified, participants will learn to contain, mitigate or eliminate its impact.

by Tim Lister

SOA:
Architecture, Standards, Technologies and the Cloud

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:28:00 GMT

There has been a lot of talk about unsuccessful SOA projects during the last couple of years. Some analysts have gone as far as pronouncing SOA dead. The truth is there is nothing wrong with SOA, but it has often been the victim of “identity theft”: Web Services technologies and Middleware products pretend to be the architectural blueprint for your SOA. However, SOA’s true identity lies in the Best Practices for Service Orientation, a well defined architecture blueprint, and Service Oriented development processes that we can rely on to achieve predictable results.

Many companies have embraced a SOA approach for development and integration projects. Now they are embarking on the next phase – a more systematic adoption of Service-Oriented practices. However, simply buying into Middleware technologies like Enterprise Service Bus and the latest generation of development tools is not sufficient for successful implementation of an Enterprise SOA. It is time to expand our view on SOA: how can we assess the maturity level of our organization and define a roadmap for future projects? How do we navigate the increasing number of standards and overlapping product offerings? Governance and security have to be our top priorities, and we need to prepare our service based applications to run in a Cloud without requiring costly modifications.

by Max Dolgicer

International Summit on Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing 2012

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 14:43:00 GMT

Business Intelligence (BI) and Data Warehousing (DW) have become essential for supporting smart Business decisions, increasing revenues, and remaining competitive. A BI/DW system, however, is not the only component of a decision-making environment, and today’s Business users are frustrated with the poor ease of use and lack of integration between the applications and tools they use to gather the information they need in their jobs. If a company is to truly become a Smart Enterprise and gain value from its decision support investments it must solve this issue and provide Business users with an integrated interface to the information they need for informed decision making. Fortunately, vendors are beginning to recognize this issue and are starting to deliver solutions that integrate many of today’s decision-making technologies.

This Summit examines the convergence of BI and Data Warehousing with related technologies such as Collaborative and Social Computing, search, office systems, Web and content management systems, mobile computing, and so forth. It will help you understand the many different use cases and technology combinations that exist and determine the most appropriate one for your organization, so that it can become a Smart Enterprise.

by MultiSpeaker

Business Process Management

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:29:00 GMT

Almost every organization around the globe is now moving beyond processes as solely a way of synchronizing change and is attempting to transform the way their enterprise plans, manages, monitors and aligns capabilities and motivation using a process-managed baseline. The bad news is that most organizations have little ability to make it happen in a consistent or reliable way and most managers do not really understand what it will take to succeed. This seminar provides a comprehensive examination of the state of the art in Enterprise-level Business Process Management (BPM). It addresses innovations in ways of managing processes as assets of the enterprise. It focuses on maintaining the critical role that processes play in the alignment of the strategic objectives of the organization with what people do every day. It is geared to those with or without process experience seeking to learn a set of pragmatic practices packaged into a reusable BPM way of working strategically and tactically. The facilitated workshop sessions are highly interactive and ensure experience-sharing with other delegates. Built on lessons learnt, both good and bad, from real companies, this seminar provides you practices to deal with the real and tough challenges you will face.

Delegates will benefit from the experience and wisdom of the world leader on the topic. Roger Burlton’s book "Business Process Management: Profiting from Process" will also be provided to all who attend.

by Roger Burlton

ALIGNING BUSINESS AND IT: a Business Architecture Approach

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:31:00 GMT

One of the main challenges IT executives face is how to align IT systems and strategies with the Business. We have struggled for decades with ad-hoc approaches to solving this problem, which more often than not, are barely effective. Finally, Business Architecture provides a formal, proven, and effective way to achieve alignment.
The first step is to effectively describe the Business strategy and goals. Next, we map those strategies to Business activities and processes. Techniques including Business Motivation Models, value chains, value streams, context diagrams, and capability maps are used to formally define the link between high level strategies and the specific IT capabilities that support them. Next, we assign these capabilities to process models and to SOA services. Finally, we create a comprehensive roadmap that manages the dependencies between the different pieces and aligns the Business strategy with transformational initiatives. This tutorial will illustrate the Business architecture approach to alignment, boil it down to the underlying principles, and show how to apply them to align Business and IT in your organization.
The tutorial is structured as a mix of presentation, interactive discussion and group based exercises, so participants get the chance to apply the principles learned to example scenarios during the facilitated exercises.

by Mike Rosen

Business Process Modeling, Analysis and Design

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:29:00 GMT

This seminar delivers the foundational skills and techniques required to analyze and improve existing processes. It focuses on identifying opportunities for process change and presents the analysis, modeling and design techniques and tools required to improve performance. Participants will learn to scope specific processes using graphical models to document results. And, they will learn how to define measurement techniques for evaluating outcomes. They will also learn how to model As-Is and To-Be process workflows using industry standard notations. The class is organized around a case study that will be developed by attendees working in teams along with the instructor. The approach is practical and business oriented and attendees will be able to immediately apply what they learn within their own organization. It naturally follows on from the lessons in the preceding class "Business Process Management" to provide a complete methodology.

by Roger Burlton

Designing Modern Application Architectures

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:31:00 GMT

Wikis, chat, webinars, conferencing, content sharing, and social networking have transformed our lives. Interacting with other people has never been easier or more potentially productive. Customers and employees are demanding the integration of ‘consumer’ technologies into new and existing applications. But, at the same time we have to deal with SOA, Cloud, Integration, Geography, Performance, Security, Reliability, and all the other aspects of real Enterprise applications. This session addresses the challenges, opportunities, architecture, design, and implementation of modern Enterprise applications.
Modern Enterprise solutions require new layers and capabilities in application architectures, new services, and new implementation technologies and techniques. This workshop will start with the typical n-tiered application architecture and then show where and how to add new technologies while still addressing traditional Enterprise concerns of availability, reliability, security, and scalability. It’s no surprise that SOA is a key component of these solutions, but we must go well beyond the typical view of SOA services to include Enterprise 2.0 and Cloud capabilities. The tutorial lays out an overall Enterprise application architecture and illustrates the major options for implementation including Java, .Net, and Open Source.
The workshop is structured as a mix of presentation, interactive discussion and group based exercises, so participants get the chance to apply the concepts learned to example scenarios during the facilitated exercises.

by Mike Rosen

Applied TOGAF: Beyond Certification to Practical Application

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:30:00 GMT

Organizations today have discovered the value and benefits of Enterprise Architecture and are now looking for ways to implement it in their organization. TOGAF is the only real option for an industry standard approach, and has seen a significant interest in adoption and certification. But all too often, after achieving a certification, the architect and organization is left wondering: ‘What next?’
One of the most challenging and important parts of TOGAF is tailoring it to your organization. Unfortunately, most TOGAF training is focused on preparing participants for the certification examination. In order to provide a certified TOGAF course, the material is highly regulated by The Open Group, ensuring a consistent level of knowledge and a command of the TOGAF vocabulary, but leaving little time for topics such as implementation examples to be covered in the class.

This course is focused on the practical aspects of how to apply TOGAF within your organization. It stresses two areas: Tailoring TOGAF, and creating an Architectural Vision. Anyone who is involved in implementing TOGAF will find the course invaluable. TOGAF certification is not required for the course, although participants who are certified will find that the course reinforces and builds on their knowledge. Note that this is not a certified TOGAF course and it is not intended for certification exam preparation. Rather, it illustrates the practical implementation of TOGAF through an extensive example.
The tutorial is structured as a mix of presentation, interactive discussion and group based exercises, so participants get the chance to apply the concepts learned to example scenarios during the facilitated exercises.

by Mike Rosen

Enterprise Data Governance
and Master Data Management

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 08:49:00 GMT

This three-day seminar is intended for Compliance Managers, Data Architects, Database Administrators, Data Integration Developers and Master Data Management Professionals, who are responsible for Management of Enterprise Data. The seminar takes an in-depth look at the Business problems caused by poorly managed data, and defines the requirements that need to be met for a company to confidently define, manage and share master, transactional, analytic and unstructured data across operational and analytic applications and processes.
In order to achieving Enterprise Data Management a company needs to invest in a suite of technologies that support end-to-end Data Management activities. These include:

Enterprise Metadata Management
Data Modelling
Data Profiling
Data Cleaning
Data Integration (Batch, on-demand and Event-Driven)
Data Synchronisation
Master Data Management
Enterprise Content Management

During the two days we take an in-depth look at the technologies needed in each of these areas as well as Best Practice approaches and methodologies to Data Integration and Master Data Management.

by Mike Ferguson

Architecture Skills for it Professionals

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:30:00 GMT

Many organizations have adopted Enterprise or IT architecture, created architecture organizations, and given people the job title of ‘architect’. Unfortunately, just having the title architect doesn’t mean that you have the proper skills or know the industry Best Practices associated with the job.
Luckily, there is help. This tutorial focuses on the skills needed to be an effective architect. Whether you’re an Enterprise architect, solution architect, IT architect, or software architect, this course will provide practical principles, skills, and techniques for improving your job.
The course is structured to complement a project lifecycle and explores the skills involved in carrying a project from ideation and conception through design and implementation and the engagement models and interactions with different stakeholders (both architectural project and solution project).
The tutorial is structured as a mix of presentation, interactive discussion and group based exercises, so participants get the chance to apply the concepts learned to example scenarios during the facilitated exercises.

by Mike Rosen

Data Management and Business Intelligence in a Cloud Computing Environment

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 08:50:00 GMT

Increasingly, organizations are taking advantage of the cloud, to build infrastructure and deliver new applications, services and business models, many of which are also tied to mobile applications. The consequences of this trend are that more and more data is starting to be created and stored in the cloud making the cloud a place where new data sources are emerging that offer additional business value over and above the data held in on-premise systems. This seminar looks at the shift towards the hybrid enterprise and offers practical advice on how to manage data across an on-premise and cloud computing environment. It also looks at SaaS BI systems on the public cloud, and looks at what is needed to keep these systems integrated with on-premise applications. It also looks at Data Management on the cloud and options for integrating Cloud and on-premise data for Business use.

by Mike Ferguson

User Interface Design for the Mobile Platform

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:45:00 GMT

The world is going mobile! As the mobile user experience evolves into a highly visual rather than audible experience developers will learn new techniques to create a seamless user interface between traditional phone interactions and the new visual interactions made possible on the latest smart phones and tablets. This class will explore new task interaction models and evaluate the latest findings with design Best Practices for smart phone and tablet based devices. The session will also cover how to successfully deploy existing applications on multiple mobile platforms (Mobile Web, Android, iPhone and Blackberry) within the Enterprise.

by Jim Hobart

VISUALIZING REQUIREMENTS
Proven techniques for using software visualization to drive requirements and usability

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:45:00 GMT

Learn how to build visualizations to quickly communicate Business requirements and set realistic user expectations. You will learn a proven process for planning, creating and communicating digital wireframes to validate Business requirements and gain consensus on the proposed solution design. These are the same techniques being used successfully on real projects for many of our Global 2000 clients and large government organizations. Implementing a successful prototyping process can mean the difference between success and failure in the coming years. Learn from the experts who have been delivering success in this field for over a decade! We will show you how to apply a proven process for identifying key Business user requirements, developing and validating user conceptual models, and creating visualizations that communicate the vision and help gain focus to large-scale projects. We will show you how to plan and implement a visualization process to quickly define user requirements and allow product visualization to transform the way your organization designs and builds software.

by Jim Hobart

Secure Coding: major Web attacks and how to defeat them

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:46:00 GMT

This course teaches the students how to develop secure web applications in today’s complex internetworked environment. Students will receive a deep and thorough understanding of the most prevalent and dangerous security defects in today’s applications. Additionally, they will learn practical and actionable guidelines on how to remediate against these common defects in Java/J2EE and how to test for them in their own applications.

This class starts with a description of the security problems faced by today's software developer, as well as a detailed description of the Open Web Application Security Project’s (OWASP) “Top 10” security defects. These defects are studied in instructor-lead sessions as well as in hands-on lab exercises in which each student learns how to actually exploit the defects to “break into” a real Web application. (The labs are performed in safe test environments.)

Remediation techniques and strategies are then studied for each defect. Practical guidelines on how to integrate secure development practices into the software development process are then presented and discussed.

by Ken van Wyk

BI² (Business Integrated Insight)
from Business Intelligence to Enterprise IT Integration

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:46:00 GMT

The original Data Warehouse architecture of the 1980s separated “decision support” from day-to-day business operations. This supported Decision-Making needs at the time and was easily implemented on then emerging technologies, such as relational databases. However, today’s Business needs fully integrated processes, closely linking information and activities from all areas of the Enterprise. Decision-Making and Action-Taking are tightly bound. Business cycles are dramatically shorter and span company boundaries. So far, Enterprise IT, including Business Intelligence, has responded slowly and incoherently.
Business Integrated Insight (BI²) is a new architecture that reintegrates all Decision-Making and Action-Taking into the overall processes of the Business. Starting from the Data Warehouse, it incorporates a variety of technological advances, such as SOA, distributed access, Web technologies, Content Management and specialised relational databases. BI² thus provides a comprehensive structure for the full Enterprise IT integration demanded by modern Businesses. In addition, it directly addresses the current Data Warehousing issues, such as operational BI, executive Decision-Support, comprehensive information discovery and innovation, and Enterprise-Wide Decision Management. And, although novel, BI² is designed as an evolution from current Data Warehouse, operational and collaborative technologies.

by Barry Devlin

The Corporate Strategy for IT:
How to create value from technology

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:47:00 GMT

Why a Corporate Strategy for IT – What’s in it for You?

Developments in IT and the world economy have changed the paradigm for corporate IT people and the strategies they lead. Consumers and Business managers are increasingly confident at exploiting technology in ways that they value. Meanwhile, executives remain determined to constrain IT spending, not always certain of what they get in return. The economic climate makes it even more important to understand the links between value creation and IT costs.
The Corporate Strategy for IT harnesses the energy of Business-led strategies for exploiting IT, to create maximum total value. It also makes transparent the linkages between Business decisions and IT costs - often with some very surprising results.

What This Seminar Will Give You

This seminar provides a proven framework for deeply integrating IT with corporate and Business strategies, exploring the impact on investments, operating costs, Enterprise architecture, organisation, and sourcing.
Taking a strategic Business perspective of IT, the seminar reviews where the IT market currently stands. What does this mean for existing and new investments in IT, for IT organisations and the people they work with?
Many delegates who have already attended this seminar find that it permanently changes their understanding of what Corporate Strategies for IT are all about.

by Chris Potts

Improving Return On Investment with your Web Systems

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:27:00 GMT

Information is one of the most value commodities an organization may possess. However, organizations consistently waste money through the poor management, retention, and findability of that information. These issues are even more evident on externally facing Websites and eCommerce sites, where findability problems translate to lost opportunities for revenue. This presentation will take lessons learned from over 200 Web information management deployments and offer the Best Practices to design, manage, and operate your internal and external Web systems and the information within them. Topics covered will include usability design, end-user focused requirements gathering and design, taxonomy design, governance, content management and tagging, search, and governance. The presentation will use a number of Case Studies in order to illustrate what it takes for you to understand and improve the return on investment of you intranet and internet sites.

by Zach Wahl

Ten Steps to Data Quality

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:49:00 GMT

Simply put, information quality is providing the correct set of accurate information, at the correct time and place, to the correct people. However, ensuring quality information is far from simple.
Those attending this course learn a practical approach to improving and creating the quality of data and information critical to their organization, satisfying customers, and achieving company goals.
Both foundational Data Quality concepts and practical instruction are included. Attendees should come prepared to participate as discussion and individual and group exercises are an integral part of the course, along with lecture and presentation.
Attendees will receive course materials, templates, and handouts for future reference. They have the opportunity to apply what they have learned in the course to a situation relevant to their organization.

The delegates will also receive a copy of the book “Executing Data Quality Projects: Ten Steps to Quality Data and Trusted Information™” by Danette McGilvray.

by Danette McGilvray

Testing complex and undocumented Legacy systems

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:48:00 GMT

Dirty Systems are those that are complex, undocumented and have unknown defect levels and architecture. These are challenging systems to maintain and test because over time they grow old and fragile.
In this course, based on the book by Randall W. Rice and William E. Perry of the same title, you will learn a process for how to gain understanding of a Dirty System, plan and design effective tests, and ultimately improve or clean the system based on what is learned in testing.
Testing Dirty Systems is based on a six-step process that takes from software discovery through test planning and design, test execution, test analysis and reporting, and finally, clean-up. You will leave with knowledge of how tools can help you understand and test Dirty Systems and how to deal with special testing challenges in Dirty Systems.

The delegates will also receive a copy of the book “Testing Dirty Systems” by randy Rice.

by Randy Rice

Enterprise Architecture

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:50:00 GMT

Enterprise Architecture is fundamental for enabling an Enterprise to assimilate internal changes in response to the external dynamics and uncertainties of the information age environment.
It not only constitutes a baseline for managing change, but also provides the mechanism by which the reality of the Enterprise and its systems can be aligned with management intentions.
The objective of this seminar is to build an understanding of the concepts of Enterprise Architecture and develop a sense of urgency for implementing those concepts in a modern Enterprise.

by John Zachman

Practical Software Test Automation

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:48:00 GMT

This course focuses on the basics of Software Test Automation and expands on those topics to learn some of the deeper issues of Test Automation. This course is not specific to any particular tool set but does include hands-on exercises using free and cheap test tools. The main objective of this course is to help you understand the landscape of Software Test Automation and how to make Test Automation a reality in your organization. You will learn the top challenges of Test Automation and which approaches are the best ones for your situation, how to establish your own Test Automation organization, and how to design software with Test Automation in mind. You will also learn many of the lessons of Test Automation by performing exercises using sample Test Automation tools on sample applications. You will leave the course with your own Test Automation strategy and plan for implementing it.

by Randy Rice

Cloud Computing, Social Software Platform and Mobile Workforce Conference 2012

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 10:33:00 GMT

Cloud Computing, Mobile Devices, and Social Software are all important new initiatives that Enterprise IT has to deal with (or will face in the near future), but they should not be managed in isolation, or we will create the new legacy silos. Our IT environment is becoming more complex by an order of magnitude. Not just in terms of the technologies we employ, but also in terms of the roles and responsibilities (user, developer, central IT, cloud provider), and the operational models (shared multi-tenant systems, elastic metered usage). It is therefore more important than ever to develop a blueprint for the extended Enterprise. Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) can provide the glue fabric that unifies these new initiatives and brings order to an IT environment that is at the brink of chaos. This will be one of the key value contributions of Enterprise IT.

This Conference will provide answers to the following key questions:

Why do we need Enterprise IT if we can run our applications in the Cloud and let the Cloud service provider manage our virtual datacenter? Why Enterprise IT leadership is required more than ever, contrary to what some Cloud providers claim?
End users are accustomed to the availability of any personal application they want on their Mobile devices – why can they not get access to their corporate applications as well?
Most people use some form of Social Software in their personal lives and are used to take advantage of the collaboration functions that these systems provide

by MultiSpeaker

What_Is_Big_Data_and_Why_Do_We_Need_It_

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 11:00:00 GMT

[CDATA[

Global digital content created will increase some 30 times over the next ten years – to 35 zettabytes

by Colin White]]

Business_Capabilities_–_The_Rosetta_Stone_of_Business_/_IT_Alignment

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 11:00:00 GMT

[CDATA[

Businesses are faced with ever increasing complexity, competition, and cost pressures. New products and ‘silver bullet’ solutions are espoused by vendors, but more often than not, they fall short of expectations, and worse, add to the complexity of their information technology (IT) challenge. Yet, there is hope for getting a handle on the complexity and finally addressing the challenge of Business / IT alignment.

by Mike Rosen ]]

Leveraging_Taxonomies_to_Improve_Findability

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 11:00:00 GMT

[CDATA[

Organizations today struggle with an increasingly challenging need to manage the mass of content they need to do their job. Only a decade ago, a relatively small set of business users were generating online content and even fewer were responsible for managing that content. With the democratization of content management, and more recently the ever-expanding social computing trends, anyone is a potential content publisher or manager.

by Zach Wahl]]

Is_an_Enterprise_Data_Warehouse_Still_Required_for_Business_Intelligence_

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 07:11:00 GMT

[CDATA[

The number of business intelligence (BI) solutions appearing in the marketplace continues to grow. Most of these solutions still employ the services of a traditional enterprise data warehouse, but an increasing number do not.

by Colin White]]

Reinventing_Business_Intelligence...

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 11:00:00 GMT

[CDATA[

In the face of continuing economic turmoil, business, government and, indeed, all of us face increasing challenges in making even the most basic decisions. Old certainties can no longer be relied upon; traditional approaches no longer work. In this situation, new technologies and tools in Business Intelligence (BI) seem ever more attractive. But, will that be enough to face down the challenges, to overcome the turmoil? We review some recent technological developments in BI and conclude that together they drive a new way of thinking about business intelligence, data warehousing and information usage in the broadest sense in the Enterprise.

by Barry Devlin]]

The_Performance_Dashboard_The_New_Face_of_Business_Intelligence

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 11:00:00 GMT

[CDATA[

To stay competitive, organizations need business intelligence – accurate, actionable information about key business metrics -- more than ever.

A performance dashboard, the user interface ,providing summaries and reports of the most critical information which is called business intelligence delivers the most business value when used to manage progress towards operational, tactical and then strategic goals based on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

by Shaku Atre]]

User_Acceptance_Testing_Patterns_and_Processes

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 08:43:00 GMT

[CDATA[
by Randy Rice]]

The_Limits_of_Running_IT_Like_a_Business

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 11:00:00 GMT

[CDATA[
by Chris Potts]]

Technology Transfer - IT education at the highest level

It’s all about Cloud: Key Concepts, Players, Platforms and Technologies

Mastering Business Analysis

Mastering the Requirements Process

DASHBOARDS: Is it the new face of Business Intelligence?

Extreme Project Management

Risk Management for Software

SOA:Architecture, Standards, Technologies and the Cloud

International Summit on Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing 2012

Business Process Management

ALIGNING BUSINESS AND IT: a Business Architecture Approach

Business Process Modeling, Analysis and Design

Designing Modern Application Architectures

Applied TOGAF: Beyond Certification to Practical Application

Enterprise Data Governanceand Master Data Management

Architecture Skills for it Professionals

Data Management and Business Intelligence in a Cloud Computing Environment

User Interface Design for the Mobile Platform

VISUALIZING REQUIREMENTSProven techniques for using software visualization to drive requirements and usability

Secure Coding: major Web attacks and how to defeat them

BI2 (Business Integrated Insight)from Business Intelligence to Enterprise IT Integration

The Corporate Strategy for IT: How to create value from technology

Why a Corporate Strategy for IT – What’s in it for You?

What This Seminar Will Give You

Improving Return On Investment with your Web Systems

Ten Steps to Data Quality

Testing complex and undocumented Legacy systems

Enterprise Architecture

Practical Software Test Automation

Cloud Computing, Social Software Platform and Mobile Workforce Conference 2012

What_Is_Big_Data_and_Why_Do_We_Need_It_

Business_Capabilities_–_The_Rosetta_Stone_of_Business_/_IT_Alignment

Leveraging_Taxonomies_to_Improve_Findability

Is_an_Enterprise_Data_Warehouse_Still_Required_for_Business_Intelligence_

Reinventing_Business_Intelligence...

The_Performance_Dashboard_The_New_Face_of_Business_Intelligence

User_Acceptance_Testing_Patterns_and_Processes

The_Limits_of_Running_IT_Like_a_Business

SOA:
Architecture, Standards, Technologies and the Cloud

Enterprise Data Governance
and Master Data Management

VISUALIZING REQUIREMENTS
Proven techniques for using software visualization to drive requirements and usability

BI² (Business Integrated Insight)
from Business Intelligence to Enterprise IT Integration

The Corporate Strategy for IT:
How to create value from technology