Michael D. Barnett is the CMMI Coordinator at BAE Systems, provider of a wide range of sophisticated system engineering, intelligence, information technology, and program management solutions, primarily to the Department of Defense and various intelligence agencies. He has 25+ years experience in the development and monitoring of software-intensive systems, and has participated in several CMMI appraisals, both internal and external. Mr. Barnett is a Certified Six Sigma Green Belt. He has Bachelor of Arts degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Virginia and a Master of Science in Computer Science from Stevens Institute of Technology.
Mary Sakry is co-founder of The Process Group, a software engineering process improvement consultancy. She has 30 years of experience in software and process engineering. For 15 years she was a Software Manager within TI. In 1989 she lead TI’s process assessment effort and was a member of an SEPG. Mary is an SEI authorized lead appraiser for SCAMPI appraisals (including High Maturity certification) and Intro to CMMI instructor. She has an M.B.A. (St. Edwards) and B.S. in Computer Science ( Minnesota ). She is the co-author of Making Process Improvement Work A Concise Action Guide for Software Managers and Practitioners, Addison-Wesley.
Tim Lister is a software consultant at the Atlantic Systems Guild, Inc., based in the New York office. He divides his time between consulting, teaching, and writing. Tim is co-author with his partner, Tom DeMarco, of the book, Waltzing With Bears: Managing Risk on Software Projects (Dorset House, 2003) that won Software Development magazine's Jolt Award as General Computing Book of the Year for 2003-2004. Tim Lister and Tom DeMarco are also co-authors of Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams, (Dorset House, 1999) now available in 14 languages. Tim is currently a member of the Cutter IT Trends Council. He is a member of the I.E.E.E. and the A.C.M. He is in his 20th year as a panelist for the American Arbitration Association, arbitrating disputes involving software and software services.
Donald A. Borcherding has BSEE from the University of Missouri at Rolla and over 20 years experience in new product development. He has successfully optimized Systems, Software, Electrical and Mechanical Engineering performance in the Medical Device, Semiconductor, Defense, Marine and Broadcast Video industries in both small and medium size organizations.
Dr. Dorota Huizinga is the Associate Dean for the College of Engineering and Computer Science, and Professor of Computer Science at California State University, Fullerton (CSUF). She is the recipient of several CSUF outstanding faculty recognitions in the areas of scholarly and creative activities, teaching and service. Her publication record spans a wide range of computer science disciplines and her research was sponsored by the National Science Foundation, California State University System, and by private industry. Recently, Dorota wrote a proposal and lead the efforts in the implementation and WASC (The Western Association of Schools and Colleges) accreditation of the online, professional degree program Master of Science in Software Engineering. In her spare time she enjoys volunteering as a Website coordinator in the local chapter of National Charity League, helping with her daughter's Junior Girl Scout troop and playing tennis.
Dr. Adam Kolawa, co-founder and CEO of Parasoft, is considered to be a visionary in his field. In 1983, he came to the United States from Poland to pursue his Ph.D. In 1987, he and a group of fellow graduate students founded Parasoft to create value-added products that could significantly improve the software development process. a leading provider of Automated Error Prevention (AEP) software solutions. Kolawa's years of experience with various software development processes has resulted in his unique insight into the high-tech industry and the uncanny ability to successfully identify technology trends. As a result, he has orchestrated the development of several successful commercial software products to meet growing industry needs to improve software quality - often before the trends have been widely accepted. Kolawa, co-author of Bulletproofing Web Applications (Hungry Minds 2001), has contributed to and written over 100 commentary pieces and technical articles for publications such as The Wall Street Journal, CIO, Computerworld, Dr. Dobb's Journal, and IEEE Computer; he has also authored numerous scientific papers on physics and parallel processing. His recent media engagements include CNN, CNBC, BBC, and NPR. Kolawa holds a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from the California Institute of Technology, and has been granted ten patents for his recent inventions. In 2001, Kolawa was awarded the Los Angeles Ernst & Young?s Entrepreneur of the Year Award in the software category.
Lee Vallone (lvallone@alcatel-lucent.com): Lee Vallone has been successfully leading software, project and business teams for the past 20 years in the telecommunications industry. Over the course of his career, Lee has led teams ranging from small business telephone and messaging systems to long haul optical networking equipment, with teams ranging from a few software developers to scores of developers spanning multiple disciplines. By far, the greatest satisfaction in Lee's career has come from seeing many of these teams gel and thrive, while at the same time achieving business objectives. Lee is also an adjunct professor at Monmouth University where he created and teaches a graduate level course on software quality, measurement and process. Lee has written and presented papers on a variety of topics such as technical topics for the Bell Laboratories Technical Journal and software engineering education for the American Society of Engineering Educators (ASEE), among others. Lee is a Certified Software Quality Engineer and Project Management Professional. He has a B.S. in Computer Science and Applied Math from SUNY at Stony Brook, an M.E. in Computer Science from Cornell and an M.B.A. from the Krannert Business School at Purdue.
Lenny Eng (lennyeng1@yahoo.com): A graduate of Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn with a Math degree and Sacred Heart University with a MBA, Lenny retired from Bell Labs after 20 years with AT&T. During those years, most of his career was invested in the IT field, spanning from Project Management to deployment. In his last two years, he was heading the first SQA group in the Labs that successfully passed CMM Level 2 and 3. He has been consulting as an SQA and brought 3 other organizations to CMM/CMMI Levels 2 and 3. In total, he and his groups have passed 6 of 6 assessments/appraisals among telecommunications, financial and military industries. Companies he worked for and consulted with are: AT&T, Citi, DoD, Lucent, Pershing and Wolters Kluwer. He has trained and mentored over 100 SQA engineers. He was a member of the ASQ from 2000 – 2006, and is currently the Program Co-chair of the NJ SPIN Chapter. He is an audio-video enthusiast and an avid investor.
Eugene Levin (eugene.levin@citi.com), MS, PMP, CSQE, Certified ScrumMaster, is a Software Quality Manager lead for Global Equities Technology and Global Banking & Syndicates Technology software quality teams. Eugene has over 12 years of experience in software development, project management, process improvement and software quality. Prior to Citigroup, Eugene worked on projects for New York Stock Exchange, JP Morgan, Merrill Lynch, American Express and AT&T. Eugene's interests include agile methodologies, best software engineering practices, organizational behavior, team dynamics, software measurements, peer reviews, design patterns, estimation methods, time management, and negotiation. Eugene has a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science and Master of Science in Information Systems both from New York University.
Steve R. Rakitin (steve@swqual.com) has over 30 years experience as a software engineer and software quality manager in a broad range of industries. He has written extensively on the subject of software quality and published a book titled: Software Verification & Validation for Practitioners and Managers. He helped write the first IEEE Software Engineering Standard (for Software Quality Assurance Plans, IEEE-STD-730) and is currently on the IEEE Standard 1012 (Software Verification & Validation) Working Group. He received a BSEE from Northeastern University and an MSCS from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He has earned certifications from the American Society for Quality (ASQ) as a Software Quality Engineer (CSQE) and Quality Auditor (CQA). He is a member of the IEEE Computer Society, the ASQ Software Division, and is on the Editorial Review Board for the ASQ Journal Software Quality Professional. He presents papers and workshops at conferences worldwide. As president of Software Quality Consulting Inc., he helps companies establish a more predictable software development process.
Edward Yourdon is an internationally-recognized expert witness and computer consultant who specializes in project management, software engineering methodologies, and Web 2.0 development. A veteran of the IT industry for over 40 years, he has been deeply involved in the Internet revolution since it began in the mid-1990s; he has served on Boards of Directors and technical advisory boards for numerous high-tech startup companies in the U.S. and India. He has been involved in Web 2.0 since its beginnings in the 2002-2003 period, and he currently consults, lectures, and writes about various aspects of the new technologies. Yourdon is the author of over 550 technical articles; he has also written 27 computer-related books since 1967. Among his recent books are Death March (1997), Case Studies in Object-Oriented Analysis and Design (1996), Mainstream Objects (1995), and Object-Oriented Systems Development: An Integrated Approach (1994). Ed Yourdon received a B.S. in Applied Mathematics from MIT in 1965; he has carried out graduate work at MIT and at the Polytechnic Institute of New York. He has been appointed an Honorary Professor of Information Technology at Universidad CAECE in Buenos Aires, and has lectured at MIT, Harvard, UCLA, Berkeley, and other universities around the world. Yourdon is a member of the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), Project Management Institute (PMI), and the International Technology Law Association (ITLA).
Arlene F. Minkiewicz leads the Cost Research Department as Chief Scientist at PRICE Systems. She is responsible for the research and analysis necessary to keep the suite of PRICE Estimating products responsive to current cost trends. She works with industry leaders to collect and maintain cost research data and offers analyses of this data to the cost estimating community through the PRICE products. Arlene's most recent accomplishments include the development of a catalog of cost estimating relationships for hardware and systems projects to be delivered to the cost estimating community as part of the TruePlanning suite. Her recent research into cost challenges of Systems of Systems has been published in Crosstalk (May 2006) and has resulted in an invitation to participate with the Software Intensive Systems Acquisition Improvement Group. Arlene frequently publishes articles on estimation and measurement in publications such as Software Development Magazine and Crosstalk. She has also been a contributing author for books on software measurement and activity based budgeting. She speaks frequently on these topics at conference such as STC, ISPA, SCEA, IEEE Aerospace Conference, and SEPG. Her papers have been recognized by ISPA and SCEA as the Best Papers in the Software track in 2004 and 2006.
Larry Berstein is the Industry Research Professor of Software Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ. He is Director of the Quantitative Software Engineering Program and teaches Quantitative Software Engineering. His recent book is “Trustworthy Systems Through Quantitative Software Engineering,” Lawrence Bernstein and C.M. Yuhas, Wiley, 2005, ISBN 0-471-69691-9. He had a 35-year distinguished executive career at Bell Laboratories managing huge software projects. His systems are used worldwide. He is a Fellow of the IEEE and the Association for Computing Machinery for innovative software project management that he introduced to Bell Labs. He is on the Board of Center for National Software Studies and Director of the NJ Center for Software Engineering. He is an active speaker on Trustworthy Software in the IEEE Computer Society DVP program, visiting a chapter monthly in the US, Canada and Mexico. He served on the Board of Governors with the IEEE Communications Society.
Sudhendu Das is currently a Software Quality Manager supporting Global Equities Technology in the financial industry. Previously he led the IT Process Maturity agenda for the Corporate Systems at MetLife Insurance Headquarter in NY, using frameworks such as the CMMi/ITIL and SoX 404. He also led a similar agenda of IT Process & Quality Compliance & Improvements for the NAM Technology Operations Equities at JP Morgan Chase Investment Bank. Sudhendu has over ten years of experience in the Software Quality Assurance, Testing and Client-Server based development for web-based applications and for Financial ERP solutions. He has successfully facilitated/led IT organizations towards CMMi Maturity Levels 4 and 5 and consulted for and participated in Level 5 CBA/SCAMPI assessments. He has helped many organizations in deploying standards such as BS/ISO/IEEE/MiL and best practices from ISO 9004/15504/12207, NQA and PMBOK. Sudhendu has presented papers in the SEPG Conferences/SPINs on synergies of CMMi, Six-Sigma & Agile methodologies, and is actively pursuing Process Optimization initiatives based on Competence Management and Statistical Process Control methodologies.
David Herron is a Principal in The David Consulting Group. Mr. Herron is an authority in areas such as Functional Measurement and Software Process Improvement. He has over 25 years of experience in software development. During the past ten years he has served as a consultant to Fortune 1000 companies in the areas of software metrics, software process improvement and applications outsourcing management. He is an acknowledged authority in the measurement and estimation of software productivity and quality, specializing in the determination of software project size, effort and cost. His engagements have supported clients on the use of metrics to monitor the impact of IT on the business, on the advancement of IT organizations to higher levels on the Software Engineering Institute’s Capability Maturity Model and on the governance of offshore outsourcing arrangements. Mr. Herron is a noted author and lecturer on functional measures, software process improvement and applications outsourcing. Prior employment included the position of Vice President for Consulting Services at Software Productivity Research, Burlington, MA. While at SPR, Mr. Herron managed and participated in the delivery of consulting services to numerous organizations and institutions. Mr. Herron’s industry background includes experience in commercial software development, government projects and corporate information systems.
Robert Zotti is Director of WebCampus, the online learning unit at Stevens Institute of Technology. He leads more than 150 faculty and staff in the development and delivery of more than 120 graduate and training courses in management, engineering, and computer science. Under Zotti’s direction, the division's infrastructure and operations were modernized and streamlined, helping the school quadruple the number of enrollments in online programs within four years. His efforts to promote best practices in online learning was instrumental in the school being awarded the United States Distance Learning Association’s "21st Century Award" and as well as the Sloan Foundation's top honor for the "Best Online University." Zotti plays a key role in joint programs the school conducts with the Beijing Institute of Technology and the Central College of Finance and Economics. He has also lectured for the Sloan Foundation, INCOSE, SHARE, and the Software Process Improvement Network (SPIN). Before joining Stevens, Zotti worked at Prudential for 10 years as a programmer, project manager, and trainer. After earning his Masters degree in Information Management from Stevens, he worked for two years in Prudential's Software Engineering group which supported CMM Level-2 initiatives. He has a PMP rating from the Project Management Institute and is now a doctoral candidate at Stevens.
Yuri Chernak is the president and principal consultant of Valley Forge Consulting, Inc. As a consultant, Chernak has worked for a number of major financial firms in New York helping senior management improve their software test process. Currently, his research interests focus on use-case-driven testing and test process assessment and improvement. Chernak is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Computer Society. He has been a speaker at several international conferences and has published papers on software testing in the IEEE publications and other professional journals. Chernak has a doctorate in computer science. Contact him by email: ychernak@yahoo.com.
Gregg Vesonder is head of the Communication Software Research Department at AT&T Labs-Research and an adjunct professor at Stevens. Vesonder has developed and managed numerous commercial expert systems for factories, sales support, and telecommunications. He has performed research on the application of artificial intelligence and object oriented techniques to large scale software systems. He has also been involved in Unix and personal computing (MS Windows) tool development in such projects as speech recognition, C++ compiler development, e-commerce (especially in music) and software design and analysis. He was named a Bell Labs Fellow for his work on artificial intelligence and as well as an AT&T Fellow. Vesonder received his B.A. in Psychology from the University of Notre Dame and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh.
Barbara Beech is currently a Group Manager at AT&T Labs in the Consumer CIO Vendor Management Division. Her current responsibilities include establishing service levels for new and existing outsourcing contracts as well as internal system metrics. She has worked at AT&T for over 20 years in the area of software development. For the past 9 years her focus has been on process and metrics having worked to establish a balanced scorecard, helping applications achieve SEI Level 2, and supporting the definition of service levels for outsourcing initiatives. She is located in Piscataway, New Jersey.
Linda Laird: Following a distinguished career at Bell Laboratories, in which she specialized in large software projects and product management, Linda Lairds now teaches online at Stevens. At Bell Laboratories, she ran large projects using state-of-the-art technology. She was responsible for both technical development and business profitability for projects that earned more than $200 million. Laird received her B.S. in Computer Science from Michigan and her M.S. in Electrical Engineering from Carnegie-Mellon.
Steven Lett has thirty years of software engineering experience as an engineer, project manager, software process improvement leader, and consultant. He has played significant leadership roles in helping organizations achieve Software Engineering Institute (SEI) Capability Maturity Model (CMM and CMMI) Levels 2, 3, 4 and 5. His experience spans both DoD and IT software development. He has presented at numerous software process improvement conferences.
James H. Heil was a Team Leader at L3 - ILEX Systems in Shrewbury, NJ, and supported the US Army Initiative to develop effective processes for all of the Software Engineering Center (SEC). Jim was a Sr. Consultant and Director of Testing Services at Software Management Solutions, Inc. Prior to that he headed the Process Improvement activity at Lucent-Mt. Olive, and also worked at Telos, MITRE, ITT Avionics, IBM-Federal Systems Division, and IBM HQ. Jim headed the Industry group that helped prepared DOD-STD-2167 & 2167A, and also worked on the National Core group on the following standards: DOD-STD-2168 (SQA), MIL-STD-1498, IEEE-1498, and ISO 12207. Jim also has taught the American Society for Quality (ASQ) class for SQA for the last 10 years or so. Jim was the chairman of the North Jersey SPI until 2006. A Jim Heil Memorial Award was established by the NJSPIN in his memory. Jim had a great impact on many lives, both in his professional and personal life, in the many varied roles he took in the software industry, especially in the Quality and Software Process Improvement arena.
Michael Mah will talk about cultural clashes in the software industry, agile management methods, death march projects, and the race for productivity. Michael has 20 years of industry experience and is a contributing author and senior consultant with Cutter Consortium's Business Technology Trends & Impacts, Measurement and Benchmarking, Agile Software Development & Project Management, and Sourcing & Vendor Relationships Practices. He is also past editor of Cutter's IT Metrics Strategies publication, presently known as the Cutter Benchmark review. Michael is a managing partner of QSM Associates, based in Pittsfield Massachusetts. As part of QSMA, Michael teaches negotiation, conflict management, and software estimation for high pressure projects. His clients include JPMorganChase, IBM Rational, Vanguard Group, Verizon Wireless, Keane, and others. He can be reached at michael.mah@qsma.com.
Dr. Michael D’Ambrosa is Engineering Process Director for BAE Systems CNIR in Wayne, NJ, and also serves as the BAE Systems North America CMMI Project Manager. He chairs the NA CMMI Working Group and is a member of the Corporate CMMI Working Group, representing all of NA. Mike is the SEI Transition Partner contact for BAE Systems. He has made presentations at the SEPG Conference, the NDIA CMMI Conference, the Software Productivity Consortium’s Executive Forum, the SPIRE Conference in the UK, and at the NJ SPIN Meetings. Mike has over 20 years software and systems development and management experience. He has served as manager of CNIR’s SEPG and is an SEI-authorized trainer and appraiser for both SW-CMM and CMMI. Mike also has worked as a software process consultant for IT groups for several US companies. He has been involved in about 20 CMM/CMMI appraisals as a leader, team member, or official observer over the last five or six years. Prior to Mike’s engineering experience, he taught college Mathematics at both undergraduate and graduate level. He has a Masters degree in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering from Stevens in addition to his doctorate in Mathematics from the Polytechnic Institute of New York.
Sharon Miller is a senior Process Improvement Consultant and Software Quality Engineer at ILEX Systems in Shrewsbury, NJ. Sharon will also be a featured speaker at the 2005 and 2006 Symposiums in Edison, NJ. She is a Certified Software Quality Engineer, and is supporting the Software Process Improvement activities of the U.S. Army Software Engineering Center at Ft. Monmouth, NJ and at other Army Centers in the U.S. Sharon also has taught the Introduction to CMMI class many times within the Army and ILEX community, and has helped perform CMM-based and SCAMP Assessments.
Steve Janiszewski has over 25 years of experience in all phases of software development, management, and process improvement. As Manager of the Software Engineering Department in Teterboro New Jersey, Steve, together with Ellen George, led that site to become the first CMM Level 4 site within AlliedSignal. Starting in 1997, Steve led the introduction of PSP and TSP at AlliedSignal. Prior to joining PS&J Software Six Sigma, Steve was the Director of the Honeywell corporate System and Software Six Sigma organization. At Honeywell, Steve’s responsibilities included providing process assessments, training, management consulting, and improvement planning assistance throughout the corporation , servicing over 6000 software engineers in more than 100 locations world-wide. He has consulted on the application of software process to diverse domains including aerospace, medical instrumentation, industrial automation, automotive system, and financial systems. Steve is an SEI authorized PSP instructor and TSP Launch Coach. He holds a MS and Ph.D. in theoretical physics from NYU.
Evan Marcus is a Principal Engineer for Veritas Software Corporation. He has more than 15 years experience in UNIX systems. After spending 5 years at Sun Microsystems, Evan joinded Fusion Systems, and later, OpenVision Software, where he worked to bring the first high-availability software applications for SunOS and Solaris to market. Evan is the author (along with Hal Stern of Sun) of Blueprints for High Availability: Designing Resilient Distributed Systems (2000), and several related articles. He also co-edited The Resilient Enterprise: Recovering Information Services from Disasters. Evan is a well-regarded and popular speaker on the design of "highly available systems."
Ivan Handojo is a Senior Quality Process Specialist at NJM Insurance, where he is involved in establishing the process framework and improvement efforts. Prior to joining NJM, he worked as a Software Quality Manager at Citigroup CMBTech and at the SEPG/Metrics Group at Telcordia Technologies, where he was a key contributor to corporate quality initiatives, including the design and management of the quantitative approach that led to a successful CMM Level 5 rating. Ivan was also involved various corporate initiatives, such as the cost of quality initiative, improvement of the estimation process, and efforts to incorporate agile methodologies into the Telcordia Software Development Process (Quality Method of Operation, QMO). Ivan has over 15 years of experience in the software engineering field, and holds a B.Sc. in Computer Science & Engineering from UCLA and an MBA & MSc in Software Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University. His past experience included the management and implementation of various application and infrastructure development efforts for financial institutions, including works on teller machines and VisaNet. In his spare time, Ivan enjoys sharing and expanding his artistic and music horizon with his wife and two sons.
Joe Lukas is the Industrial Business Segment Leader for the Bergmann Associates Eastern Region. Bergmann Associates is a full service engineering, architectural and project management firm with ten offices in the Northeast including Hoboken, East Windsor and Philadelphia. Joe is a Chemical Engineer from Syracuse University, and has been involved in project management for over 20 years. He has worked in engineering, manufacturing, construction, project controls, estimating and contracting. Joe has also been a Program and Project Manager supporting worldwide programs. His project management experience spans product development, capital and IT/IS projects. Joe joined the Project Management Institute (PMI) in 1984 and has held numerous Chapter offices including President of the Rochester Chapter. Joe has written over 25 articles on project management topics, and is a frequent guest speaker on project management subjects for organizations and companies across the country. Joe is also an instructor and consultant on project management topics including project planning, earned value, risk management, negotiating, and project management best practices.
Beverly Reilly is a Senior Quality Engineer at Telcordia Technologies. In order to maintain compliance with the Telcordia Software Development Process (Quality Method of Operation, QMO), Bev developed procedures for and led a Quality Coaching Initiative to support project teams for process adherence, peer reviews, and external quality assessments as well as for quality coaching and training for global customers. Bev’s additional process improvement efforts included the re-engineering and development of an interactive project team-based workshop on managing software development, a corporate orientation program for new technical employees, and the re-engineering of a process for, and instruction on, Quantitative Risk Analysis for Telcordia and SAIC. Lastly, Bev provided quality training for internal and external customers and facilitates Key Learnings for both domestic and international customer teams. Bev is a member of the International Coaching Federation. She spends her leisure time gardening, traveling, and reading. She has two children—both lawyers.
Bob Small is a Principal Member of the Technical Staff at the Systems and Software Consortium, a not-for-profit, member-based organization, based in Herndon, VA. He has worked at the Consortium for 10 years. His technical interests include Agile Software Development and Security. He has coached many teams as they strive to adopt Disciplined Agility. Small has 30 years of experience in software engineering and program management. He has a BA degree in Economics from Ursinus College and a MS in Computer Science from the University of New Haven. He also holds several certifications in security.