The Latest

In this issue's Editor's Note, Ken Whitaker kicks off the new year with a push to raise awareness of better software and how you can read Better Software anywhere on your mobile device.

André Dhondt is an agile coach for Rally Software and has more than a decade's worth of experience working with teams and organizations. In this interview, André discusses how to be prepared for sprints, the idea of speed grooming, and how agile has impacted the role of the tester.

Terry Wiegmann writes about how Microsoft Word's features, like its spelling and grammar checkers, can help one identify agile smells—those signs that something might be wrong. While we may want to minimize documentation and the use of Word, we can mentally use some of Word’s features to sniff out some whiffs of smells.

When you think of configuration management, build automation and version control usually come to mind. Dave presents a perspective that shows the important role CM plays in the entire product and project lifecycle.

Jonathan Wiggs explains that in 2001, the agile process began to emerge and roles began to change. So, in the modern agile world, is there still room for the architect? If there is, how has that role changed in the last twelve years?

Marcia Rose Sweezey and Stefan Visuri explain two best practices that are defined for agile teams in their organization. Read on to discover how externalizing strings and conducting pseudo-language testing during each iteration and sprint will give you the most payback for the least investment.

Every time we look at the data, we perform an analysis that helps us make decisions—hopefully the right ones. In this article, Gil Zilberfeld describes a few traps where bug data misled him to make bad decisions. These traps are in the data itself, not the tools, and can lead us in the wrong direction.