Articles

A pile of documents Slim Down Your Test Plan Documentation

Test plans are essential for communicating intent and requirements for testing efforts, but excessive documentation creates confusion—or just goes unread. Try the 5W2H method. The name comes from the seven questions you ask: why, what, where, when, who, how, and how much. That's all you need to provide valuable feedback and develop a sufficient plan of action.

László Szegedi's picture László Szegedi
Disaster Plan key on keyboard The Apocalypse Plan: What to Consider before Things Go Wrong

Undoubtedly, your organization has disaster plans in place for recoverable situations. But what about for going out of business? Thinking about your obligations to clients, users, customers, and partners before the worst happens can make the transition easier for everyone. Here are some people and things you should incorporate into your apocalypse plan.

Brian Noggle's picture Brian Noggle
Crowd of people Crowdtesting: A Personal Account

When you have a project with a lot of moving parts but not a lot of time, crowdsourced testing may be the way to go. But how do you manage many people in varied locations when you haven't even met them? Yaron Kottler gives his account of finding and leading eighty testers for an international campaign—the challenges and his solutions.

Yaron Kottler's picture Yaron Kottler
Five ways 5 Ways Testers Can Mitigate Practical Risks in an Agile Team

Testers who analyze quality in every aspect of the team’s deliverables also have a responsibility to mitigate risks and practical issues that are bound to come up, and help the team succeed in their product as well as at being agile. Here are five such issues that testers can help the team alleviate or avoid.

Nishi Grover's picture Nishi Grover

Better Software Magazine Articles

The Secrets of High- Performance Software Teams The Secrets of High-Performance Software Teams

Of all issues that impact getting quality products out on time, the team should never focus on simply managing costs. To minimize the risk of perpetual product delivery delays, define what “done” really means.

Steve Mezak's picture Steve Mezak
tolerate You Get What You Tolerate

We’ve all worked with a talented developer who can be a frustrating challenge to manage. First-time managers may unknowingly encourage bad behavior. There are several innovative ways to resolve the situation.

Andy Kaufman's picture Andy Kaufman
Achieving Continuous Improvement and Innovation in Software

There is tremendous pressure on software development teams to deliver software faster, better, and cheaper. Quality engineering with a focus on innovation is the answer

Michael Sowers's picture Michael Sowers
Become Agile 10 Things You Must Do to Become Truly Agile

Agile is not a state of doing; it’s a state of being. Adopting business models on value and learning how to make teams autonomous are both necessary steps to reap the benefit of agility.

James Schiel's picture James Schiel

Interviews

Tania Katan The United State of Women Summit: An Interview with Tania Katan
Video

In this interview, Axosoft evangelist Tania Katan, who is also the creative instigator of the international viral campaign #itwasneveradress, reports on being invited to the White House’s United State of Women Summit. She talks about agile project management, activism, and Michelle Obama and Oprah.

Jennifer Bonine's picture Jennifer Bonine
Julie Gardiner discusses Applying Emotional Intelligence to software testing STAREAST 2015 Interview with Julie Gardiner on Applying Emotional Intelligence to Testing
Video

Julie Gardiner discusses her experience at STAREAST 2015 and her different presentations at the conference. These include "Applying Emotional Intelligence to Testing," "Getting Your Message Across: Communication Skills for Testers," and "Testing in the Digital Transformation Age."

Jennifer Bonine's picture Jennifer Bonine
Acolyst's Valeh Nazemoff The Four Transformational Intelligences Approach: An Interview with Valeh Nazemoff
Podcast

In this interview, Valeh Nazemoff, senior vice president and co-owner of Acolyst, discusses her four transformational intelligences approach. She digs into why she decided to create this concept, the best way to handle a single day's tasks, and her support from the government.

Josiah Renaudin's picture Josiah Renaudin
Ken Whitaker discusses the importance of communication on software teams The Importance of Communication in Today's Software Teams: An Interview with Ken Whitaker
Podcast

In this interview, Ken Whitaker, vice president of engineering at Datalight, discusses how to best lead software teams. He talks about time prioritization, how to avoid getting overwhelmed on a daily basis, and the importance of communication in today's software teams.

Josiah Renaudin's picture Josiah Renaudin

Conference Presentations

Agile DevOps East Tear It Down to Build It Up: Using Agile in Construction Project Management
Slideshow

Operating on the philosophy that one must thoroughly know the rules before one can break them, a global company developed its own delivery model that is still as true to the agile mindset as is possible. Join Arjay Hinek in this lively session as he deconstructs his company's experiment in melding agile with construction project management to create a hybrid delivery model. At first, the teams were struggling with clear ownership, timely communication, and clear follow-through on work in progress. From modifying the user story mapping model in order to improve project initiation to dissecting and rewriting the values and principles of the Agile Manifesto, Arjay stretched agile practices to the limit to help his teams strive and grow through iterative and incremental delivery. Arjay will share the struggles, failures, and successes of this innovative experiment.

Arjay Hinek
STARCANADA Test Management in Agile—What Happened to All My Testers?
Slideshow

Substantial confusion exists about the roles and responsibilities of test management when using an agile software development process. Agile seeks to streamline project management and leadership under the role of a ScrumMaster, but what does this mean for test managers? How do they stay...

Jeffery Payne
STARCANADA Testing at 43,000 Feet: Reporting Risk That Matters
Slideshow

Testing dashboards can give stakeholders the false impression that projects are under control. But are they really? As a tester, you can see a counter indicating a high percentage of passing tests but know that you may still have critical failures in the product. Alexandre Bauduin will...

Alexandre Bauduin
STAREAST 2018 Behavior-Driven Development: Real-World Mind Reading
Slideshow

Imagine this scenario: Business users are excited to finally get their hands on an implementation delivery that is on schedule, (mostly) on budget, and passed rigorous testing with flying colors. Unfortunately, when working with the new app or feature, the users realize that the way they described their needs didn’t translate into what they actually needed. Sound familiar? While she may not be able to offer telekinetic mind-reading tools, Kim Tatum is convinced that leveraging a behavior-driven development (BDD) approach helps bridge the gap between domain experts and technical teams. Join Kim to discuss how natural, human-readable language ultimately creates shared accountability and reduces misunderstandings. Review how this framework is implemented on a variety of delivery projects and walk through an implementation approach and leading practices.

Kim Tatum

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