Articles
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Using OKR Dashboards to Keep Focus on the Goal Employees often lack two key pieces of information that would help keep them motivated and focused: What goal am I pursuing in my current task? And how much progress is being made? You can generate constant transparency around answers to these questions by using dashboards that outline objectives and key results, or “OKRs.” Keep everyone informed about current goals and the path to achieving them. |
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How Docker Enables Agile Software Development Docker has revolutionized how software is packaged, distributed, and deployed, so it's easy to see why it has become the de facto containerization platform. But have you thought about how Docker actually makes software development, testing, delivery, and deployment more agile? Let's look at how Docker inherently supports several of the founding principles of agile software development. |
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5 Key Elements for Designing a Successful Dashboard When you’re designing a dashboard to track and display metrics, it is important to consider the needs and expectations of the users of the dashboard and the information that is available. There are several aspects to consider when creating a new dashboard in order to make it a useful tool. For a mnemonic device to help you easily remember the qualities that make a good dashboard, just remember the acronym “VITAL.” |
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For Distributed Agile Teams, It’s Not All about the Tools Many managers and distributed team members think that if they just had the right tools, they could make some agile approach work. Maybe, but tools only enhance the work of a collaborative agile team. Before you select tools, make sure you have people who can work together and have enough skills and capabilities for your distributed team. Tools do not make the team; they support the team. |
Better Software Magazine Articles
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The Amazing Benefits of Integrated ALM Tools For years, developers have struggled with using individual lifecycle management tools, but no longer! Joe Farah walks you through a history and benefits of an integration of ALM tools that every team should seriously consider. |
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Why NoSQL Matters and What Configuration Management Experts Need to Know About It NoSQL is a new approach to data storage that addresses many problems associated with relational databases. Many highly popular websites—including Facebook, Netflix, and Digg—are using NoSQL to crunch large volumes of data. Eugene Dvorkin gives us insight into why NoSQL is important and what CM experts need to know about it. |
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Practical Security Testing for Web Applications It seems like every week the press has yet another story about security breaches or stolen data at some of the world’s largest companies or government agencies. Sometimes the responsibility for ensuring thorough security resides with an IT security group, and other times it gets outsourced altogether. The responsibility seldom falls to testing teams. However, this is changing. Having trained and experienced testers hunt for security bugs will make web applications safer from hackers and will further protect consumers, corporate assets, and brands.. Scott Aziz offers some practical techniques that will help you get started. |
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Traditional Test Engineering, Your Days Are Numbered In the first installment of this article, Dr. James Whittaker discussed turning testing on its head—to revitalize and improve the value of late-stage testing. James also discussed ideas behind empowering your dogfooders, testers, and the crowd to significantly and efficiently improve software quality. In part two, Jason Arbon discusses the research and engineering experimentation behind realizing these ideas into new tools and processes. |
Interviews
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Continuous Integration and Process Management: An Interview with Melissa Benua Melissa Benua, a senior technical lead at mParticle, discusses the wide range of topics she will present at the STARWEST conference, including continuous integration, containers, and process management. She also shares details of the projects her team is working on with deep back-end core features, qualities, and dev tools. Melissa also talks about her involvement with Women Who Test, why she made sure to expose her kids to the events at a young age, and how it reinforces the importance of a work-life balance. |
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Data Visualization in Test Automation: A Conversation with Greg Paskal
Video
Greg Paskal, test automation lead at Ramsey Solutions, talks about data lakes and how to effectively use data visualization. Done well, data visualization should help practitioners, managers, and stakeholders easily consume, understand, and act on the information the visual displays. |
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Mining a Data Lake to Improve Analysis of Your Test Automation Data: An Interview with Greg Paskal
Video
In this interview, Greg Paskal, a technology innovator in quality assurance, discusses a new open source tool from Elastic Stack that creates a “data lake” that can be mined to analyze the data coming from test automation on a more effective level than pass/fail. |
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Why Test Automation Is Important for Agile Data Teams: An Interview with Cher Fox In this interview, Cher Fox, of Fox Consulting, explains why test automation is essential for agile data teams' success. However, there are many other items to consider and address before implementing test automation. You may be able to get started with tools you already have. |
Conference Presentations
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Building Quality into Your Release Pipeline
Slideshow
Decreasing the time to market has become critical for many organizations. |
Troy Walsh
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Building Healthy Agile and DevOps Teams
Slideshow
The tools and technologies our teams rely on to build solutions are changing faster every day. New frameworks, new tools, transformations to DevOps, and migrations to public cloud are all putting strain on our teams. |
Lee Eason
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Dig In: Get Familiar with the Code to Be a Better Tester
Slideshow
Maybe you’ve been testing the same application for a while and your rate of finding new bugs has slowed. Or you’re trying to find more ways to figure out what your devs are doing day to day. |
Hilary Weaver-Robb
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The Dell EMC Journey in the Age of Smart Assistants
Slideshow
Dell EMC is driving to optimize and reimagine their testing practices with the application of data-driven smart assistants, powered by analytics and machine learning. |
Geoff Meyer
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