Deception and Self-deception in Software Testing Untruths about software testing are common. Managers, programmers, and other people on software projects don't always mean to deceive. Quite often, they fool themselves into believing what they want to believe. But sometimes they lie deliberately and even pressure testers to lie. And testers can also practice deceptions and self-deceptions of their own. In this column, Fiona Charles describes four categories of common deceptions and self-deceptions in testing and outlines what testers need to do to address them. |
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If Your Build Fails and No One is Around to Hear It, Does It Make a Sound? Continuous Integration build tools are great: they help us ensure our product works after every commit, keep historical data and metrics, build our product for all target environments, and do many more useful things. But there's one key aspect that often gets overlooked: They're fun. |
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Tips and Advice - Retrospectives
Podcast
Tips and Advice - Retrospectives |
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Distributed Agile Day to Day "Distributed" isn't a word that always has appeared favorably in works about agile methodology. After all, the proximity of agile team members while working is highly regarded. In this article, an excerpt of which originally appeared in the May 2009 Iterations eNewsletter, Chris McMahon takes a look at how "agile" and "distributed" can work together successfully. |
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Moving into the role of Scrum Master - Jill Tubaugh
Podcast
Moving into the role of Scrum Master - Jill Tubaugh |
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Three Strategies for Task Allocation Iteration and release planning are keys to successful agile projects, but overall have a relatively small impact on a developer's day-to-day life, compared to the daily planning that takes place each morning. The strategy a team uses to sign up for work has significant implications for what a developer's day will look like, impacts his work style and habits, and ultimately can significantly impact the overall success of the iteration. Unfortunately, the agile community gives relatively little guidance in this area. In this article, I will share my experiences with three strategies for task allocation, drawn from several typical agile projects with two to three week iterations. |
Robert Williams
May 12, 2009 |
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Feasibility: is this project viable? (This is a Book Excerpt from "Becoming Agile" by Greg Smith and Ahmed Sidky) Our project backlogs are full of great ideas. In some cases, we get so excited about a great idea that we disregard all the challenges and jump right in to start development. Sometimes we succeed, and sometimes we have to abort. Many companies struggle when trying to validate a project’s value. Some companies initialize a project without knowing if it’s viable; other companies scrutinize the value of a project for months before making a decision. There are issues with both approaches. |
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How Scrum Increases Productivity: The Product Owner In Scrum, the Product Owner role is the one person responsible for the project's vision and direction. He or she leads by communicating with the team, outlining chunks of work through the composition of product backlog items and then prioritizing those items. |
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Scrum and SVO-p Scrum is unique in that the management method is consistently direct. All communication in authentic Scrum is concise, direct and clear. Scrum encourages responsibility. The daily stand-up meeting actively encourages personal responsibility to execute on specific work, and to be accountable to the Team. The three questions of Scrum are questions related to accountability for specific commitments. |
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A Second Look at "Requirements Come Second" My article, "Requirements Come Second," in a recent issue of Agile Journal caused something of a fuss. The piece was picked up by several more sites and was widely commented on - both on websites and in my inbox. I'm not entirely surprised by this reaction, I've been discussing this research for a year or so now and often find it surprises people. Given this level of interest it is worth looking at how people responded. It is also worth restating the key message: Requirements are an essential part of maximizing business value, but when an organization is struggling with effectiveness it is best to start change by improving delivery. |
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