The Latest
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Testing in the Dark[presentation]
Slideshow
Isn't it amazing? Stakeholders drop software on our desks and expect us to test it—without any requirements, design, or product knowledge whatsoever. About the only clear thing is the absurd and unrealistic deadline. We are expected to bend over backward, spread magic pixie dust, and... |
Rob Sabourin
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Become a Performance Diagnostics Hero[presentation]
Slideshow
Andreas Grabner maintains that most performance and scalability problems don’t need a large or long running performance test or the expertise of a performance engineering guru. Don’t let anybody tell you that performance is too hard to practice because it actually is not. You can take the... |
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A DevOps Primer: Whole Team Approaches for Better Software Quality[presentation]
Slideshow
With fingers wagging and eyes squinting, they query Why didn’t you find this problem during testing? How many times have you tried to defend yourself with things like We can’t test everything or It’s a corner case? Everyone knows you can’t improve quality with testing alone, so what can... |
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Instead of MVPs, Maybe We Should Be Releasing SMURFS[article] The term minimum viable product, or MVP, has come to be misunderstood and misused in many organizations. It doesn’t mean you should be releasing half-baked, barely feasible software. Instead, you should be thinking of your product’s capabilities as a Specifically Marketable, Useful, Releasable Feature Set—or SMURFS! |
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Employ Continuous Integration Processes to Make Your Code Work: An Interview with Melissa Benua[interview]
Video
In this interview, Melissa Benua, senior backend engineer for PlayFab, explains the new way of life that continuous integration brings. She imparts practical advice for creating builds and running automation on the fly without spending hundreds of hours or thousands of dollars. |
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Book Review: Managing for Happiness: Games, Tools, and Practices to Motivate Any Team[article] Jurgen Appelo’s useful and fun-to-read book Managing for Happiness: Games, Tools, and Practices to Motivate Any Team gives you concrete tools to identify ways to help your team be happier and to create environments where people can thrive and be more productive. Despite the word managing being in the title, the book is a beneficial read for anyone. |
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Your Test Automation Strategy Needs to Be Optimized: An Interview with Mary Thorn[interview]
Podcast
In this interview, Mary Thorn of Ipreo explains how to get the most out of your team's test automation strategy. She explains why you need to implement automation, the balance between manual and automated testing, and what to do when a team's automation completely lacks a strategy. |
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Getting Employees On Board when Implementing Change Management[article] Change is a difficult but important part of business. It can be most difficult on the employees, but if you involve them in the planning process and make an effort to understand their points of view, you can mitigate resistance and facilitate the experience for everyone. This article deals specifically with ERP implementation, but its advice is useful for any change management situation. |
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Cracking the Code on Millennials[magazine] Our latest generation of programmers, project managers, and testers is perceived to be uninterested, unmotivated, and difficult to manage. Jason Garber presents innovative techniques you can use to lead your next rising star. |
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Try Mob Programming to Inspire Team Growth[article] If you're familiar with pair programming, you know how much it can increase code quality and encourage developers to learn from each other. You should try mob programming—the same concept, but with an entire team of up to eight people and only one keyboard. It's a great way to explore new techniques and solve problems as a team. |
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Getting Test to the Strategy Table[magazine] When the big decisions are made to fund and scope the project, are testers in the room? Matt Heusser presents compelling reasons for including QA as a key contributor during strategic planning, along with advice on how to get there. |
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Want True Agility? Foster General Skills over Specialization[article] Many organizations enforce systems that stifle flexibility by promoting specialization. But encouraging learning new skills and expanding outside core responsibilities promotes flow over resource efficiency, helps cover gaps in time of crisis, and lets you build a team that can deliver continually at a sustainable pace. It's the age of the generalist. |
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Agile, DevOps, and What They Mean for Testers: An Interview with Jeffery Payne[interview]
Video
In this interview, Jeff Payne, the CEO and founder of Coveros, explains the fundamentals of agile and DevOps and their roles in the world of testing. He gives his thoughts and lessons for how to leverage DevOps and agile to further your career while creating and testing better software. |
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Making the Move to Product-Driven Process[magazine] Just because you follow the rules of your software development process doesn't necessarily guarantee project success. According to David Hussman, there are four product-centered principles that everyone should practice. |
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Recognizing #WomenInAgile[magazine] As part of her involvement with #WomenInAgile, Natalie Warnert conducted a study to determine why women are less involved in the agile community and what can be done about it. Her research shows some surprising results. |