leadership

Articles

Building the Right Culture Within Your SQA Team

The concept for development teams in a scrum environment is to be self-organizing, basically managing themselves and holding each other accountable. This poses the question: What do QA managers do with their time? For me, it’s always been about building the right culture—respecting those under you just as much as you respect those above you. It is about finding a way to manage your team without being directly involved with them.

Daniel Garay's picture Daniel Garay
Most Common QA Myths

One of my mentors, whom I admire, once told me, "Quality is not only QA's responsibility; everyone- from development engineers to technical architects, to product managers need to share the responsibilities. In a QA role, if you want to be successful, you have to know the right amount of information from everyone and always ask questions." I took my mentor's advice very seriously. 

Dilruba Malik's picture Dilruba Malik
Agile developers and testers collaborating Testing in Agile: How to Get Started

There is a lot of interest in organizations around a transformation to agility. However, the focus is usually on agile development, so it may not be clear how software testing is done in agile. If you're responsible for leading your testing teams, don't let them be left behind. Here’s how you can make testers part of the transformation, too—step by step, because this is agile, after all.

Balazs Schaffhauser's picture Balazs Schaffhauser
Test manager putting his hands up to his head in frustration Dealing with a Test Manager’s Most Annoying Problems

A test manager has to perform in multiple dimensions, using a variety of professional and interpersonal skills daily. With all these career facets, there are lots of different areas that can pose a problem. Here are the most common (and most annoying) things a test manager typically hears on a regular basis, as well as some strategies for how to deal with them.

László Szegedi's picture László Szegedi

Better Software Magazine Articles

Scrum Basics Scrum: Back to Basics

So you think you know Scrum? Using the whimsical notion of farm animals and light-hearted visuals, take a refreshing review of the entire Scrum lifecycle as an intuitive set of roles, responsibilities, and handoffs. Particular attention is placed on what the ScrumMaster and product owner are expected to do at each handoff.

Brian M.  Rabon's picture Brian M. Rabon
Scaling Agile Thinking through Empowered Teams Scaling Agile Thinking through Empowered Teams

Just because a software team adopts agility doesn’t mean they’ll see results. Being flexible has its benefits, but ensuring that the team is given total responsibility to make decisions may be more important.

Bob Costello's picture Bob Costello
success Achieving Success through Servant Leadership

Regardless of whether you are working with a stellar team or one that struggles, your style of management can influence the success of the project. Josh Dawson wants you to consider adopting servant leadership.

Josh Dawson's picture Josh Dawson
Hire the Right Developer

Wondering why—with all the jobs you've applied for—you aren't getting noticed? Take it from Xojo CEO Geoff Perlman; it isn't just your programming or testing skills that will land you a job. Far from it. Geoff knows from experience that hiring the right individual is a careful blend of skill, fit, and passion.

Geoff Perlman's picture Geoff Perlman

Interviews

Selena Delesie Discovering the Soul of Agile: An Interview with Selena Delesie
Podcast

In this interview, Selena Delesie, an international leadership and transformation coach and trainer, explains how your team can find the soul of agile, why some agile teams lack creativity, and who on your team should become a leader.

Josiah Renaudin's picture Josiah Renaudin
Isabel Evans How Leaders Can Help Software Teams Thrive: An Interview with Isabel Evans

In this interview, Isabel Evans, a quality and testing consultant, talks about the traits most often seen in effective leaders. She details different leadership styles that work best in different situations, how you can learn to lead agile teams, and what leaders can learn from the animal kingdom.

Josiah Renaudin's picture Josiah Renaudin
Dawn Haynes The Power of Collective Experience: An Interview with Dawn Haynes
Video

In this interview, Dawn Haynes, CEO, testing coach, and consultant for PerfTestPlus, describes her STAREAST experience, explains the importance of discussing challenges female testers face, and talks about her sessions, the Workshop on Regulated Software Testing, and the leadership summit.

Jennifer Bonine's picture Jennifer Bonine
Swim Along with the Testing Wave: An Interview with Dawn Haynes
Video

In this interview, Dawn Haynes, CEO, testing coach, and consultant for PerfTestPlus, explains how testers can expand their skills to move along with the development wave and collaborate with their programmer colleagues. She also talks about her problem-solving workshop at the Women Who Test summit.

Jennifer Bonine's picture Jennifer Bonine

Conference Presentations

STARCANADA 2019 Providing Value as a Leader: More Than Just Being the Boss
Slideshow

Being a test manager is more than just being the boss. Sure, there is direction to set, issues to address, hiring, performance reviews, and status updates.

Jeff Abshoff
Scaling Quality through Community Leadership
Slideshow

Modern software development organizations often build teams around features. Unfortunately, these teams tend to become siloed, building tools and processes without being aware of how other teams have solved the same problems.

Philip Daye
Are You the Best Leader You Can Be?
Slideshow

We are all leaders. At a minimum, we must lead ourselves every single day, but many of us also have teams that we lead and serve. Have you ever stopped to analyze yourself to determine if you are the best leader you can be? Amy Jo Esser has had the joy of learning from many great leaders outside the testing arena, including John C. Maxwell, Tony Robbins, Mel Robbins, Brendon Burchard, Michael and Megan Hyatt, and Rachel Hollis. She continues to learn from leaders in our testing community, including the inspiring leaders and speakers who have been a part of the Women Who Test community. Join Amy Jo as she shares ways to be the best leaders we can be by employing approaches from these leaders, including “Win the Morning, Win the Day,” “The Continuous Learning and Growing We All Must Do,” and “Honoring and Embracing Your Fears,” as well as tips from other favorite leadership books, blogs, and podcasts.

Amy Jo Esser
Agile DevOps West Brainwriting: The Team Hack to Generating Better Ideas
Slideshow

Brainstorming has long been held as the best way to get ideas from teams. The purpose is to solicit large amounts of ideas in a short timeframe.

Chris Murman

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