Unfortunately, the span of development after planning and before testing, Design and Architecture, typically has quality absent. In practice, quality will not be achieved if the product was not designed right from the start, no matter how good the testing efforts are.

In this presentation, we'll explore how to advance the overall product quality from within the product development path, identifying a class of impactful issues that may elude the best tests. We will explore three patterns that can be used to improve product architecture and design quality, proactively. These techniques will empower the development team to take ownership of the product quality, in ways that testing would have a hard time finding (or at least in a cost efficient manner).

At the conclusion of this talk, participants will know how to:

• Structure a model of the architecture that can be used to validate and trace requirements into the design.
• Facilitate team collaboration activities to identify bugs and risks in the architecture.
• Rank and prioritize identified risks to build a plan to proactively address design weaknesses (long before the code has even been written).

SQGNE President Darin Kalashian is a software engineering and quality evangelist, currently working at VMware as a Senior Software Engineering Manager. Darin has always believed Quality is a team sport and has spent most of his career to insert quality engineering principles throughout the development process. While testing surely provides a safety net for release, inserting quality habits from day one drives efficiency and effectiveness improvements that testing has a hard time competing with.

Neha Chopra is a software quality advocate working on her Thesis while working at Red Hat as a Software Automation Engineer. For Neha, the irony of being a successful tester is to believe in failure. Neha is motivated to work with her teams to effectively apply quality techniques where they will be most impactful. Understanding that test automation has its limits, Neha works to explore ways to insert human logic and heuristics to complement testing and deliver quality.

Because of COVID's resurgence, SQGNE is continuing to have online Zoom monthly meetings at least through January. We're eager to resume in-person meetings, hopefully starting in January and again with free Flatbread pizza; but we need a host site in the Burlington-Bedford area off Route 128. Please let us know any possible sites and who to contact there.

We have top non-local presenters for our upcoming online meetings and will feature Boston-area presenters whether in-person or online for January-June meetings. Our full calendar soon will be on our www.SQGNE.org website.

Quality is everybody's job but not everybody's specialty. Regardless of your role, SQGNE helps you better understand and apply software quality to improve your job and career performance. Attending monthly meetings, reading and posting on the SQGNE LinkedIn Group, and volunteering in various SQGNE capacities all contribute to your benefit.

SQGNE relies on sponsors like Checkpoint Technologies, Mabl, and Flatbread Pizza of Bedford to enable us to continue in our 28th season as an educational and networking forum for promoting software quality and professionals. Please help us identify additional sponsors. Contact Robin Goldsmith at robin@gopromanagement.com.

SQGNE also relies entirely on volunteers to make the group work. Thanks especially to Susan Houle for stepping up to the Clerk position on the Board and to Alison McKendree for assisting with improving our website. To volunteer, please contact SQGNE President Darin Kalashian at dkalashian@gmail.com.