The Latest

	Burning With Excuses[article] We all know what it’s like to be frustrated with someone else when that person isn’t being as responsive as we would like. It’s especially easy to do when our own work or responsibilities are on the line. In this tale from Naomi Karten, she shows that a lack of response doesn’t necessarily mean a lack of care and explains how very important it is to have the full story before you get too worked up.	Naomi Karten August 1, 2011
	The Clean Coder (& Tester!)[article] Lisa Crispin reviews Bob Martin's "The Clean Coder". She says that she would have preferred something like "The Software Professional" or "How to Really Enjoy Your Software Career." According to Lisa, the lessons in this book are essential for everyone involved in delivering software, not only the programmers.	Lisa Crispin July 31, 2011
	How to Squeeze the Most Out of Your Automated Testing[article] Jonathan Lindo describes examples of automated test infrastructure utilizing both open source and traditional, independent-software-vendor-sourced software. In addition, he discusses new techniques for extending the value of automated testing by transforming the process from defect finding to defect resolution by reducing the effort required to document, reproduce, and troubleshoot the defects generated from automated tests.	Jonathan Lindo July 25, 2011
	From One Expert to Another: Simon Baker [article] In this interview, author, speaker, and agile tester Lisa Crispin speaks with Simon Baker, cofounder of Energized Work and recipient of the Gordon Pask award, about the approaches and tools his lab uses.	Lisa Crispin July 18, 2011
	Tips and Advice - Story Sizing and Granularity[article] George and Bob Payne discuss the finer points of appropriately sizing user stories to ensure that they can be delivered. This is a fairly tricky process and is best figured out by experimentation and ensuring that you have good examples.	Bob Payne July 14, 2011
	Early Automation Approach[article] An early automation approach involves the automation team in the early phase of the testing lifecycle to support agile or iterative projects. Automation scripting can commence in parallel to system development.	Senthilkumar Gopalakrishnan July 14, 2011
	A Practical Way to do Agile in an Enterprise ALM Environment[article] While some falsely accuse agile of not being scalable at the enterprise level, large development teams are beginning to see the benefits that agile can bring larger environments. As more business leaders, and CTO's become familiar with agile methodologies, the trend will only continue to rise.	TechWell Contributor July 14, 2011
	Continuous Integration and the Automated Database Update Process[article] Developers must have good feedback to ensure productivity. Most shops have a continuous integration (CI) build process that allows the developer to quickly know if a build failed, and some shops have an automatic deploy of the CI build to provide website feedback. Lance Lyons writes about an approach to automating the update of databases in a CI environment.	Lance Lyons July 14, 2011
	Experience and Learning[article] In the past few months I've heard a couple of stories about (in effect) the disadvantages of experience when it comes to innovation and productivity. A Story on WBUR on July 5, 2011 discussed how venture capitalists tend to favor young entrepreneurs, as, having never learned the wrong things in business, they don't know what's possible or impossible. In one quote, a VC said:	Steve Berczuk July 11, 2011
	Branching to Distraction[article] Branching can be an effective solution for managing change, enabling parallel development and improved productivity. But, working on a branch is a distraction and can decrease agility, productivity, and code robustness. Learn when the value of working on a branch outweighs the cost.	Steve Berczuk July 10, 2011
	Happiness and Agility[article] Agile development practices at their core, have a common theme of making better use of the time spent developing software. This starts at the project level and continues down to the developer day-to-day-activities. Consider an agile iteration. The team starts the iteration with a clear sense of the priorities for the sprint, and pretty good understanding of the project scope. Having estimated and committed to getting the work done, the team also has a sense that the goal is attainable. The team members then collaborate to get the work done as a team.	Steve Berczuk July 7, 2011
	ADPEast 2010 - Elizabeth Hendrickson - Test Obsession on Agile Teams ... It's a Good Thing[article] Podcast Elizabeth Hendrickson has been a force in the agile community for ten now and she was recognized for that last year at Agile 2010 with the Gordon Pask award. Bob Payne finally caught up with her at ADP East 2010. They talk about testing/test automation and acceptance test driven development.	Bob Payne July 6, 2011
	Four Techniques to Wrap Your Head Around Complicated Code[article] Software people love challenges and want to exercise their brains by tackling difficult problems. Our nature is to understand complicated problems, become familiar with various business domains, and generate a solution that helps the world become a better place. Nirav Assar explains four techniques to wrap your head around complicated code.	Nirav Assar July 6, 2011
	Agile Development Practices East 2010: Resistance as a Resource[presentation] As a developer or tester, you are a creative, intelligent, and insightful member of your team. Whether you know it or not, you also are a change agent.	Dale Emery, DHE
	Critical Success Factors for Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD)[presentation] A good analyst or tester knows what questions to ask to quickly bring clarity to a murky subject.	Jennitta Andrea, The Andrea Group, Inc.

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