Technical Environment: Various Windows operating systems and setups.

Brief Description: Develop a test plan for the installation engineering for our client's software product. Installation engineering spanned seven operating systems, with or without terminal server running, and remoting to all operating systems via terminal services. Numerous conditions had to be detected and handled, such as the presence or absence of the correct .NET framework and the presence or absence of a SQL Server database instance.

Upon completion of the test plan, Stout's consultant was asked to provide the testing services, which included the testing itself, defect reporting and tracking, and follow-up testing.

Buzzwords: QA, Test Plans, Test Execution, Terminal Services, Windows

Technical Environment: Web, Oracle, DB2

Brief Description: Consultants wrote test cases from functional specifications for our client's Web-based front-end. They then executed tests, both manual and automated.

Buzzwords: QA, Web-basted testing, Mercury QuickTest Pro, WinRunner

Technical Environment: OpenGL, Visual Studio, C

Brief Description: Our client embedded an OpenGL library in its application. Because the application was for use in a military environment, every line of code needed to be exercised by our client's test bed. Our consultants were given functions within the driver utility; in response, they wrote unit tests to fully exercise each. These were then incorporated into our client's test bed.

Buzzwords: Unit Test, OpenGL, C Programming

Technical Environment: SQL Server 2005

Brief Description: Our client's expertise is in civil engineering and Web development. Demand for its products and services has grown unexpectedly, resulting in explosive growth in its SQL Server 2005 database. Our consultant provided two services: first, it performed an analysis of the SQL Server database and made specific recommendations to improve performance. Second, our consultant provided SQL Server database training so that our client's software engineers and Web developers could manage the growth of the SQL Server database and maintain optimum performance.

Buzzwords: SQL Server 2005, Spot Consulting

Technical Environment: Oracle 10G

Brief Description: Our client maintains an Oracle 10G database with historical information from all of its past consulting. Performance issues and database corruption had been arising from time to time, seriously undermining the usefulness of the data. Stout Systems' consultant addressed the following areas:

• Best use of stored procedures, views and other database structures to improve performance
• Validation of disaster/recovery procedures
• Performance issues at peak times
• Archive logging
• Recommendations for hardware, operating system and Oracle version upgrades

Buzzwords: Oracle 10G, Spot Consulting

Technical Environment: VB.NET, AJAX, Oracle, Scrum

Brief Description: Developed data warehouse and reporting system following Scrum methodology. The Scrum Manager worked with the product owner to establish a prioritized backlog list, generated sprint backlogs, and ran daily stand up meetings. The Scrum Manager also developed a Microsoft Access-based tool to track sprint progress and generate burn down reports.

Buzzwords: Agile, Scrum, Backlog, Sprint, Burn Down