Better Software Magazine Articles

Much Ado about Outsourcing

Turn to The Last Word, where software professionals who care about quality give you their opinions on hot topics. This month, read why one man thinks the US is overreacting to the threat of overseas outsourcing.
 

Adam Kolawa
Outsourcing: Twelve Tips to Make Outsourcing Work

More and more projects are being shipped overseas or outsourced to a contract company nowadays. However, managing an outsourced project is a risky task. Take home twelve hot tips that will help keep your project from getting burned. Ed Weller offers twelve tips to make your outsourcing experience better.

Ed Weller's picture Ed Weller
Keeping Secrets

Test data has long been a challenge for testing; privacy legislation, identify theft, and the continued trend towards outsourcing has made it even worse. Just establishing and maintaining a comprehensive test environment can take half or more of all testing time and effort. In this column, Linda Hayes adds in the new and expanding privacy laws that inevitably limit your testing options. Yet from the quagmire of laws and company standards, better testing can emerge.

Linda Hayes's picture Linda Hayes
Thinking Inside the Box

The problem with urging outside-the-box thinking is that many of us do a less-than-stellar job of thinking inside the box. We often fail to realize the options and opportunities that are blatantly visible inside the box that could dramatically improve our chances of success. In this column, Naomi Karten points out how we fall victim to familiar traps, such as doing things the same old (ineffective) way or discounting colleague and teammate ideas. Thinking outside of the box can generate innovative and ingenious ideas and outcomes, but the results will flop when teammates ignore the ideas inside the box.

Naomi Karten's picture Naomi Karten
The Enemy Within

Not all threats come from outsiders. In an era of downsizing, layoffs, and pay cuts, sometimes it's your own disgruntled employees (or ex-employees) who are targeting you. Get some tips to help you protect your software from sabotage.

Clarke Ching's picture Clarke Ching
Trust Everyone, but Cover Your Assets

Need a place to go to get the solutions you've been craving? Management Fix is what you've been looking for. In this issue, find out how to manage when you suspect someone on your team may have been stealing from the company.

Elisabeth Hendrickson's picture Elisabeth Hendrickson
Warning: Security Storm Brewing

For too long now, consumers have been bailing, patching, and plugging their software each time a new security hole is discovered. And they've been absorbing the damage done by the leaks. A wave of security-conscious buyers is rising, demanding software that is sound and secure by design. Are you ready to give it to them? Find out why you should be.

Herbert H. Thompson
Talk Talk Talk

Managers need to talk about goals, strategy, and mission. Managers need to talk about how daily work keeps the business humming. Esther writes about how important it is for managers to also ask questions and listen.

Esther Derby's picture Esther Derby
Building Better Test Teams

Mustering the best project or test team is key to any project's success. In this column, Johanna Rothman explains her interviewing techniques to help you find the perfect candidate. Find out if your candidates are qualified before they become part of your team. Johanna's methods cover six typical questions that will help you build a better test team.

Johanna Rothman's picture Johanna Rothman
Reduce Risk Using Security QA Automation Techniques

Security QA testing is still in its infancy, yet the number of vulnerabilities found in applications is increasing-up by 75 percent in 2001 according to Gartner Group. Although software teams are learning about the types of coding and configuration errors that expose vulnerabilities in an application, a comprehensive QA methodology must be applied to reduce security risk. This means testers need a security policy that can serve as the basis for automated tests. Security experts can define these policies, but testers need to know how to effectively run the security tests in an automated environment to locate vulnerabilities, evaluate their results, and enter bugs for failed tests in a defect tracking system. By automating security tests, organizations can significantly reduce risk and maximize existing resource productivity.

  • Reduce the cost of development by finding security holes early in the cycle, before release
Alexander Mouldovan, Cenzic Inc

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