Please join us on Thursday, August 24th for an evening presentation by
Steve McConnell.


Software Development's Low Hanging Fruit

Everyone knows that better software development practices pay off in
the long run, but what if you need improvements now? In this talk,
award-winning author Steve McConnell describes strategies that produce
improvements in schedule, quality, and development costs in the short
term. McConnell identifies the specific technical practices that
produce the highest returns on investment, the lowest risks of
adoption, and the shortest paths to more successful software projects.
McConnell describes the theory behind short-term vs. long-term
improvement strategies and presents tips for maximizing your chances of
success in adopting these strategies.

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International Spectrum's MultiValue Conference and Vendor Fair is
returning to Seattle this October 11th - 12th, 2006. The event will be
held at the Holiday Inn - SeaTac Airport. With the enthusiastic support
of SAPUG, International Spectrum's new management is putting together a
robust new conference program. Additionally International Spectrum is
donating a Full Conference Pass to a lucky attendee at each of the next
two SAPUG meetings (August 24th and September 21st). Greg Heinrich was
the winner at the June 15th meeting. A big Thanks! goes to Nathan
Rector and International Spectrum for their support! Visit
www.intl-spectrum.com for the most current information about the
conference.


Microsoft is conducting research locally with IT Administrators and
they want to offer this to our SAPUG membership. This is slightly
different type of study, in that it is not a 'lab study'.
Microsoft would actually like to meet with individuals at their place
of work; a site visit. For this phase of the research they are only
visiting 8 sites in the nation, so the participants and the information
gathered at these sessions will be instrumental in the direction of
Microsoft server products. They are looking for Network and/or System
Administrators in the Seattle / Redmond area. "For this study we are
looking to gain insight into real world applications of server
administration by the Windows Server Team. We want to see how
individuals interact in a working environment with their server tools.
We would like to observe how people accomplish tasks and administer
servers in a network environment."

Site Visit Dates: August 15th and 24th (still available)
Number of Participants: 4 per Site
Duration: 2 hour site visit per Participant
Roles of Participants: Network Systems Admin, Server Systems Admin,
Desktop Systems Admin and I.T. Systems Manager
Number of gratuities for each participant: 1

Rickey Bird
Usability Research Coordinator
CORESTAFF at Microsoft
425-722-0574
a-rickb (AT) microsoft (DOT) com

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Thursday, Sept 21 - VIA Systems

Wednesday, Oct 11 - Dave Wells, Director of Education - The Data
Warehousing Institute
Bringing Business and IT Together
In conjunction with Seattle Regional Spectrum conference at Holiday Inn
- SeaTac Airport

Thursday, Dec 7 - Raining Data
Annual Christmas Gala with fabulous prizes!

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We meet at the Paragon Hotel (formerly Ramada Inn, etc.) and it is
still at 818 112th Ave NE, Bellevue.

The meeting costs $30.00 if you register in advance ($35.00 if you just
show up). If you come to any part of the meeting, you need to pay since
we will be charged whether you eat dinner or not.

5:30 - 6:45: Networking
6:45 - 8:00: Dinner
8:00 - 9:00: Software Development's Low Hanging Fruit by Steve
McConnell

Note the date and times and RSVP today to William Timbrook at
notices (AT) sapug (DOT) org (a forwarder to williamt (AT) gmnameplate (DOT) com )
or call at: (206) 436-6965 (can leave voice mail)