Although the Agile Manifesto has worked well to help many organizations change the way they build software, the agile movement is now suffering from some backsliding, lots of overselling, and a resulting backlash. Brian Marick believes that is partly because the Agile Manifesto is almost entirely focused outwardly—it talks to the business about how the development team will work with it. What it does not talk about is how the team must work within itself and with the code. Even though those omissions were appropriate then, now more is needed. Teams starting agile need to know that more discipline is required of them, and that discipline is fruitless without a strong emphasis on skills. Teams need to recognize that success is not just fulfilling requirements. It is also increasing productivity and decreasing the consequences of mistakes.

It's a technique children and teenagers have mastered: asking "why" until they get to an acceptable response (or until we're too tired to continue answering). Find out how Michele Sliger uses a similar approach designed by Six Sigma to drill down into the underlying cause of any problem within software projects. She then continues the inquisition with a series of other questions in order to find out how these problems affect business value and technology. Read on to learn what these questions are and how you can start using them to find out why things aren't going as planned.

Database locking is a complicated technical issue for some testers. Although we often think that this issue belongs in the realm of the developer and the DBA-"It's not my problem"-database locking is the enemy of functional and performance testers. As Justin Callison can personally attest, locking defects have led to many disasters in production systems. However, there is hope! Justin sheds light on the problem of database locking, how it varies among different platforms, and the application issues that can arise. Armed with a new understanding of database locking, you can develop effective testing strategies. Join in and learn about these strategies: designing explicit locking tests, ensuring appropriate test data, implementing sufficient monitoring, and combining manual with automated testing to avoid disaster.

Are you a frustrated tester or test manager? Are you questioning whether or not a career in testing is for you? Do you wonder why others in your organization seem unenthusiastic about quality? If the answer is yes to any of these questions, this session is for you. Julie Gardiner explores five directives to help testers make a positive impact within their organization and increase professionalism in testing. Remember quality-it's not just time, it's time and quality; it's date and quality; it's functionality and quality. Learn to enjoy testing and have fun-the closest job to yours is blowing up things for the movies. Relish the testing challenge-it's you against the software and sometimes, it seems, the world. Choose your battles-take a stand on issues that are vital and let the small things go. And most importantly, remember that the only real power we have springs from our integrity-don't sell that at any price.