The Calgary Software Quality Discussion Group, SQDG, is a community of software professionals in the Calgary, Alberta region. We are dedicated to the exploration of all aspects of software quality, with a special emphasis on providing software professionals with a means of sharing their experiences. See the About Us page for more details.

Our events are open to anyone. You do not need to be a member to attend. Our monthly sessions are a great way to hear about many topics within software quality, as well as offer an opportunity for individuals in the field to network. You can find the schedule for our current season of events on the Schedule page. If you are interested in attending an SQDG event, please RSVP and we look forward to meeting you.

The SQDG season runs from September to June each year. You can find out more about our current season on the Schedule page.

Each year a theme is chosen and presenters are encouraged to present around the chosen theme. There may be times when presentations do not align with the current theme to allow for a presentation of special interest.

Theme ideas for future years are welcome.

Our events include introductory and advanced sessions, discussion groups, debate panels, networking events and planning meetings. Occasionally, we host vendor presentations.

The session time is from noon to 1:00 pm; doors open at 11:45. The session will begin at 12:00 pm sharp. The session will allow time for a Q&A period. We encourage attendees to continue to network after the session; however, we need to clear the room by 1:15.

This confirmation helps us provision for lunch and seating arrangements. Due to fire regulations, we only have so much room to accommodate interested participants at each session.

A "Lightning Talk" is a 5 minute talk given by a presenter on a specific topic. Since the time allotted is only 5 minutes, presenters are asked to present on a small slice of their chosen topic. The talk is timed and when the 5 minute period runs out, the presenter is asked to finish their sentence and the talk ends. Another 5 minutes is allocated for Q&A about the presentation. After the Q&A session has completed, another presenter is called and the same process starts again.

During the season SQDG may host a session comprised of Lightning Talks. Lightning talks provide an excellent format for covering diverse topics and generating interesting discussion.

The SQDG can only post presentation material that presenters have authorized and provided. As the presentation material is made available to the SQDG, the material will be provided on the website.

The discussion group is informal. Membership is not required and there are no fees involved. To become a member, simply join the SQDG LinkedIn Group .

Membership to the SQDG is free.

The SQDG is always looking for presenters. Presenting at the SQDG is a great way to share your experiences and insights on software quality. Please note that as we do not charge for meetings or membership, presenters are not financially compensated. If you are interested in presenting, please see our Be a Speaker page.

The SQDG is maintained and organized by volunteers. We are always looking for help. If you are interested in volunteering please contact us . Tell us a bit about yourself and what you would like to help with.

We offer a variety of different ways for individuals or organizations to sponsor and support our group. No donation is too big or too small. If you are interested in sponsoring us in any way, please contact us .

The SQDG has a monthly newsletter. You can read more about our newsletter including subscriptions, content, and a listing of past issues on our Newsletter page.

The SQDG has a group on LinkedIn and communication regarding our upcoming events is shared using the discussion boards. Join the SQDG LinkedIn Group . Once you join, be sure to configure your group settings to accept notifications and this will ensure you are emailed when new sessions are announced on the discussion boards.

The SQDG does not have a Twitter account at this time.

The SQDG does not have a Facebook page at this time.

Yes! The SQDG does have a Slack channel.

Register here.

And join the discussion on the channel sqdg.slack.com

The SQDG is operated by a team of volunteers appointed each season as the team of Directors. There is also an Advisory Board consisting of past directors. You can read more about about the team on our About Us page.

SQDG does not operate as an official non-profit organization.

As we are a volunteer organization, we only have capacity to support a limited number of browsers. We have tested the SQDG website using the following browsers on Windows:

• Opera Next

If you are interested in providing testing support on other browsers or other platforms, please contact us .

If you find any issues on our site, please use our Report a Bug link to email us the details. We greatly appreciate the support of our local testing community to help make the SQDG website better.

If you have any concerns with the compatibility of our website, please contact us .