Can you tell our readers a little about your background?

I have over 30 years in IT Service Management and software development (14 years developing and maintaining software, almost 16 years in QA, more than 12 years in process improvement and nearly 14 years managing these things).  Most notable of my positions: 13 years as a Member of the Technical Staff at the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, and 10 years in my current position as the President and Principle Consultant of ASK Process, Inc.

What recent activities have you been involved in that are relevant to the courses you instruct?

ITIL Foundations: I am expanding my certifications in IT Service Management.  This month, I earned my Operational Support and Analysis Certification, and in April, I earned my Continuous Service Improvement certification.  With those two intermediate certifications and my extensive experience, I will be positioned to earn my Professional in Service Management (PSM) certification later this year.  It will also allow me to become and Accredited Trainer, my ITIL Foundations course to become an Accredited Training Course, and both ASK Process and ASPE to become Accredited Training Providers.
Software Quality courses: In December, I wrapped up a significant consulting engagement in which I helped a large university in Pittsburgh to establish a “Quality Office” in their IT Department.  The charter for this Quality Office includes supporting other groups as they prepare for testing, measuring and analyzing the organization’s quality performance, undertaking organization-wide process improvement initiatives, and supporting other groups as they do internal process improvement.

What courses do you currently teach and what real-world skills can these courses teach people that they can take directly to their jobs?

“ITIL V3 Foundations Exam Preparation Boot Camp” – Besides earning their “ITIL Foundations” entry-level certification, students walk away with a basic understanding of the 18 core Service Management processes and four functions.  For practitioners, this allows them to improve their performance in the processes and functions for which they are responsible. by capitalizing on recognized industry best practices and understanding how their work impacts (& is impacted by) and supports (& is supported by) others in their IT organization.  For managers and executives, this allows them to assess their IT organization to determine which of the 18 Service Management processes and functions they have mastered, which best practices they have capitalized upon, and where they have opportunities to improve the value they are providing to their customers and end-users.
“Developing & Writing Testable Business Requirements for Software Development & Software Testing” – Students walk away from this course able to ensure that software testing is based upon the true business needs.  For Business Analysts, this course gives them insight into the information that testers need, enabling them to produce more complete and concise Business Requirements documents.  For testing professionals, this course identifies the information they should look for in Requirements documents, and equips them with the questions they should ask when that information is incomplete, so they can design testes that confirm the software meets the actual business need.
“Developing Software Testing Techniques” – Students walk away from this course able to define an effective software testing strategy.  For testing professionals, this course equips them with a framework for separating and organizing all of the different testing strategies and approaches that they may choose from, and high-value techniques for designing effective tests (those that are most likely to uncover defects with the least effort and time).
“Planning Effective Software Testing” - Students walk away from this course able to plan and justify the time, effort and cost of an effective software testing effort.  For testing professionals, it equips them with the rudimentary planning and management techniques they need to self-manage, set realistic expectations with other stakeholders, and articulate the impact of limited time and resources on testing in a way that managers will understand and respond to.  For managers, it applies the planning and management techniques with which they are likely already familiar to the specifics of software testing so they can set realistic expectations with other stakeholders, understand the impact of limited time and resources on testing and take appropriate actions.
“Proactive User Acceptance Testing” – Students walk away from this course able to plan and do effective User Acceptance Testing (UAT) of a software product.  For testing professionals, this course equips them with an understanding of the objectives of UAT (as opposed to system testing or other types of testing), and high-value techniques for designing effective tests to achieve UAT testing objectives.
“The Test Automation Workshop” – Students walk away from this course with an understanding of the value and costs of using automated techniques and tools for software testing.  For testing professionals, this course equips them with an understanding of the power and limitations of test automation so they can make appropriate decisions about when to apply automation and when not to.  For managers, this course equips them with an understanding of the power and limitations of test automation so they can make appropriate decisions about investing in automation based on the return they are likely to get on that investment.
“Web Testing Core Fundamentals” – Students walk away from this course able to plan and do effective testing of a internet-based software product.  For testing professionals, this course equips them with an understanding of the unique challenges that are presented by web-based products, and high-value techniques for designing effective tests to address those challenges.

What kind of hands-on training do you use in the courses you teach?

Rules of engagement:  “Thou shalt be engaged!”  I begin every class by stressing to the students that they will get much more value from the course if they raise any questions or concerns that occurs to them right away.  I also acknowledge that some of them come into the class with a lot of relevant experience under their belts, and ask that they volunteer their own experiences related to the course topics (good or bad).  As I tell them, it will make the class much more interesting if I am not the only one talking, and people will likely learn from their experiences.  I have learned a lot from my students!
Of course, because ITIL Foundations is an exam prep course, every chapter wraps up with practice questions.  This gives students plenty of opportunity to learn how to interpret and answer the exam questions while simultaneously ensuring they understand the material just covered.
The courses that I wrote (and one other) include case studies.  Each chapter wraps up with exercises where the students apply the content from that chapter to the case study situation, after which we compare the students’ approaches against each other and against the “book” answer.  This allows the students to take the theory that was presented in the course materials and make it concrete.
Finally, for every course I teach, regardless of the other hands-on opportunities, I engage the students in regular discussions of how each topic might apply in their organization.  This provides the opportunity for each student to address the unique situations they face and explore their concerns about each topic.

What are the professions of your students?

The ITIL Foundations course attracts people from all phases of IT operations (both practitioners and managers) as well as some professionals from the software development world.
The testing courses mainly attract testers and testing managers, although there are often Business Analysts, developers or managers in those classes as well.

What organizations are you a part of that help you keep in touch with the technologies you teach about?

Agile Alliance and Scrum Alliance – Software Development processes, (especially Agile ones).

IEEE (Institute for Electronics and Electrical Engineering), Computer Society – Software industry trends.

IIBA (International Institute for Business Analysis) – Business Analysis (and requirements development) as a profession.

IIOM (International Institute for Outsource Management) – Trends and issues in outsourcing software development and testing.

IISP (International Institute for Software Process) – Process improvement as a discipline and software processes in general.

itSFM (IT Service Management Forum) – ITIL and the advances in adoption of IT Service Management in the US

Manufacturer and Business Association – Business concerns (as the context for my technical focus).

National Speakers Association – Keeping my skills and focus as a public speaker (trainer) sharp.

PMI (Project Management Institute) – Trends in project management.

Technology Councils (Pittsburgh and Northwestern Pennsylvania) – Business concerns (as the context for my technical focus).

Why did you decide to teach the courses that you teach?

ASK Process Mission Statement: Consult with IT organizations and train IT professionals to ensure dependable, smooth, cost-effective IT services.
This mission focuses my work mainly on process improvement, which it the common theme across all of the courses I teach.

In the rapidly changing environment that we live in, can you give some insight as to what the future may hold for the courses you teach?

ITIL is coming of age in the US.  From its beginnings in the UK 25 years ago, it quickly spread across Europe.  It first started making inroads in the US only about five years ago, and is just now being embraced a bit more widely.  It fills a need for a mature model for IT Service Management.  In the past few years, interest in IT Service Management has manifested in other organizations becoming involved.  ISO (International Standards Organization) created ISO 20000, a standard that is almost an exact re-statement of ITIL.  And the SEI (Software Engineering Institute) added CMMI-SVC (Capability Maturity Model Integration for Services) to its CMMI suite of models.

In software development, the process work of the SEI from 20 years ago seems to have generated a backlash that is resulting the a wide embrace to the Agile methods (e.g. Extreme Programming – XP and Scrum).  These were originally fringe concepts that generated more discussion and concern than actual adoption.  But over the past few years, Agility has crossed the chasm from “Early Adopters” into use by “Early Majority”.  This jump is marked by wide availability of tools, books and training to support the Agile approach, and is evidenced by organizations (even large ones) officially testing or even embracing Agile methods.  Where several years ago, the students in Agile classes were almost exclusively there because they wanted to create grass-roots support in their organizations for Agility, today most are reacting to their organizations’ official move to Agility.  “I’m a BA who is assigned to a project that is using Scrum!  What do I do?”  And in the most interesting twist in this story, the SEI has an official research project going on right now to to explore embracing Agility within the CMMI!  (Wow!)

Software testing is also being impacted by the move to Agility.  This is partly because testers need to figure out how to operate as members of Agile projects.  But it is also because the Agile community has introduced (or re-introduced) testing methods with which testers must become proficient.  For example, TDD (Test-Driven Development), Exploratory Testing, Risk-Based Testing, Context-Based Testing.

Alan,  writes articles for Project Connections and CM Crossroads, and is a member of both LinkedIn and Plaxo.

Alan teaches public courses but is also available for a personalized on-site training courses that can be tailored for your companies needs, for more information please visit our On-Site page.