Why You Need a Tablet PC

If you’re a gadget fan, you may be excited by the Tablet PC, the new mobile computer that lets you work with a pen and use all of your favorite office and business software. Yet if you’re budget conscious, you may have trouble justifying the expense for what some see as just a laptop with a pen. Well, in this presentation, you’ll get your justification! We’ll look at what a Tablet PC is, see it in actions, learn ways that it lets you work more productively in a mobile situation, and explore work that you can’t do with any other sort of computer. We’ll help you to convince yourself (or your boss) that you really do need this new machine.

Attack and Defense

Common computer security concerns and how you can protect against them. In this session, you’ll learn the basics of various forms of computer threats: email threats, Web threats, and intrusion threats. We’ll examine how your system can be vulnerable to these threats, what their consequences may be, and what you can do about them.

Speak Geek in One Easy Lesson

If you’ve ever purchased custom software, you probably know that the process takes a long time, is prone to errors, and often ends in failure. What you may not know is that most of the problems have a single cause: failed communications. Those software geeks just don’t know how to speak the language of your business, and the language they speak can be pretty confusing. Your project can’t succeed if they don’t learn the language of your business; but you can help them to do that by learning just a few techniques to make it easier to communicate with them. In this presentation, you’ll learn some simple tools that will help you get through to them, so that they can understand what your business really needs.

Aesop's Fables of Software Development

Have you ever wondered why software development projects take too long and are prone to errors? It turns out that Aesop answered those questions a couple of thousand years ago; yet with all that time, we still haven’t learned the important lessons. In this presentation, we’ll look at some of the classic fables you grew up with and see what they teach us about purchasing and building custom software today.

One Man Band: Technology Tools for the Very Small Business

Do you have a small business with big ideas? Are you trying to do more with less? In this presentation, we’ll look at tools that help a small business to establish a foothold, gain visibility, and do work that used to require a much larger staff. Technology won’t solve all of your problems; but it can help solve a lot of common problems, leaving you more time to concentrate on your core business.

Requirements Patterns and Antipatterns

The number one source of errors and failures in custom software development is poorly defined requirements. Software development teams need to become better at requirements definition and analysis; but as their customer, you can help. In this presentation (based on an upcoming book), we’ll look at some techniques customers can use to help developers to do their jobs better, so that they can help you do your job better.

Under the Gun: Recovery Plans for a Project in Crisis

Most custom software development projects run late and cost too much. Far too many are never completed at all. In many crisis projects, there comes a time where the project could be salvaged if people took the right corrective measures; but too often, they don’t know the right measures, and instead just insist on “more of the same – only faster, and with fewer problems.” Instead, they should focus on recovery plans: strategies for recovering from a project in crisis. Ideally, the development team should work out their recovery plans; but if you’re the customer and they’re falling into the “more of the same” trap, then it may fall to you to put a recovery plan into place. In this presentation, we’ll learn about recovery plans that you as the customer can instigate and drive. We’ll see what your role should be, and what it cannot be. We’ll also see how you can assess the effort and best know when recovery isn’t possible, and it’s time to cut your losses.