Better Software Articles

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Prepare to Succeed

Another pair of eyes will find bugs, but code reviews are traditionally time consuming and painful. Learn how modern, lightweight techniques make code reviews effective and practical.

Jason Cohen
Countdown to Agility

Jean Tabaka believes in the power of an entire agile organization. These ten characteristics of an agile organization may seem counter to market success, but she explores why they are wholly embedded in twenty-first century business success.

Jean Tabaka's picture Jean Tabaka
Three Kinds of Measurement and Two Ways to Use Them

Are software development and testing sciences subject to the same kind of numerical measurement that we use in physics? If not, what kinds of measurements should we use? How could we think more usefully about measurement?

Michael Bolton's picture Michael Bolton
The State of the Practice

While software testing focuses on detection rather than prevention, we can argue that it has become a powerful counter-offensive against bugs. We can equally argue that many of today's software practices impede quality. Ross Collard compares these two positions and invites you to join the discussion.

Ross Collard's picture Ross Collard
Scrumdamentalism

It's been said that, over time, charismatic movements often evolve to become "bureaucratic"—focused on a set of standardized procedures that dictate the execution of the processes within the movement. Has Scrum evolved to this point or is there still a place for agility in our processes?

Lee Copeland's picture Lee Copeland
IDEs and Build Scripts

Teams benefit from using both IDEs like Eclipse and integration tools like Maven. Steve Berczuk discusses the risks that can occur when IDEs and build scripts diverge, and provides guidelines for keeping the two consistent, so that teams can be more productive.

Steve Berczuk's picture Steve Berczuk
It Takes a Village

Pair programming is an Agile practice that has been shown to greatly improve code quality without a huge increase in development time. This article explains the ins and outs of pair programming and some things you need to consider before you tell team members to grab a partner and get programming.

Ronica Roth's picture Ronica Roth
Software Longevity Testing: Planning for the Long Haul

How long do you let your software run during testing? An increasing number of software applications are intended to run indefinitely, in an always-on operating environment. And yet, few test plans include more than a brief memory leak test case. Learn how to test for problems due to the passing of time and problems due to cumulative usage.

Steven Woody's picture Steven Woody
The Whos and Wheres of Stakeholder Requirements

Whether you're working on a collocated or a distributed team, it's important to take stakeholder requirements into account: "Who" are they and "where" are they located? In this article, Mary Gorman offers some tips to help you narrow the gap between thinking and acting globally and locally.

Mary Gorman's picture Mary Gorman
Rescuing a Captive Project

Allowing an individual to hold a project hostage to his knowledge and expertise is bad for the project and for the team. Fiona Charles describes one captive project and shows how it could have been remedied.

Fiona Charles's picture Fiona Charles

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