Articles

Business Engagement How the Right Business Engagement Can Lead to Transformation “Happy Ever After”

Winning the hearts and minds of users should be a priority of business transformation from day one. This way the people who really know the day-to-day running of the business have the opportunity to ensure that the new system will meet their and the organization’s requirements when it’s delivered.

Antonio Nigrelli's picture Antonio Nigrelli
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
reverse mode To Move Forward in Your Test Planning, Try Going Backward

A different perspective can give you a whole new approach to work. Here, László Szegedi suggests that the next time you need to plan something, you think backward—visualize your goal, then reverse-plan to map the whole process that leads to that result. He gives examples for simple tasks and for higher-level test planning.

László Szegedi's picture László Szegedi

Better Software Magazine Articles

DevOps 2017 Is a Pivotal Year for DevOps

Customers expect real-time software updates. As DevOps becomes the engine for delivering business value, continuous innovation is needed. And this has to begin at the start of every project.

Eric Robertson's picture Eric Robertson
The Impossibility of Estimating Software The Impossibility of Estimating Software

Estimating software schedules must be an art, not a science. With so many techniques published on the subject, why is it so difficult? It has to do with the human element and past project knowledge.

Balancing Waterfall Predictability with Agile Flexibility

In this FAQ column, Arlen Bankston highlights the difficulty many companies have making the full transition to agile, straddling between waterwall ways and the new horizons of agility.  Arlen provides techniques that can enable companies to ease into the transition, allowing their organization to make the adjustments without the burden of large plans and commitments.

Arlen Bankston's picture Arlen Bankston
Become a Great ScrumMaster

Performing all the functions required to facilitate project teams as ScrumMaster can be a task. Zuzi Sochova describes creative ways to become a master of Scrum by adopting a ScrumMaster state of mind.

Zuzi Sochova's picture Zuzi Sochova

Interviews

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
Neal Huffman discusses transitioning to agile The Peaks and Valleys of an Agile Transition: An Interview with Neal Huffman
Video

Neal Huffman speaks about his upcoming presentation at Agile Development Conference & Better Software Conference East 2014, covers what peaks and valleys can be expected when making the agile transition, and tells you how to know when you and your company have finally become agile.

Cameron Philipp-Edmonds's picture Cameron Philipp-Edmonds
Larry Putnam Jr. discusses software estimation and project planning From Proposal to Project: An Interview with Larry Putnam Jr.
Video

Larry Putnam Jr., co-chief executive officer at QSM, sits down to talk about the importance of the proposal when executing a successful project, five key questions that should be answered before any project starts, and how software estimation ties into the proposal process.

Jeff Dalton talks about transitioning a large organization to agile Agile Resiliency: An Interview with Jeff Dalton
Video

Jeff Dalton is an author, a consultant with more than twenty-five years of software process improvement experience, and president of Broadsword, a management-consulting firm. In this interview, Jeff talks about agile resiliency and large organizations making the agile transition.

Jonathan Vanian's picture Jonathan Vanian

Conference Presentations

Agile DevOps Is Your Project Doomed from the Start?
Slideshow

When we think of planning, we often think about requirements planning. We get the initial features and functions down, and then see where agile takes us. Lisa Calkins claims that less than a third of software development projects are successful. Regarding this lack of success, process...

Lisa Calkins
Agile DevOps Visual Management Gone Wild
Slideshow

A visual management system is a low-tech tool with a simple mission—to visually represent the work that the team is doing. When used regularly and correctly, it can be a project acceleration tool. However, teams often go wild with visuals, decorating every inch of free wall space with...

Nichole Vanderlaan
Collocated West Logo Product Management: The Innovation Glue for the Lean Enterprise
Slideshow

At a time when organizations of all sizes both want and need innovation, exciting approaches including lean startup and agile development have risen to the forefront. Although there is no shortage of resources and expertise on these approaches, less guidance is available on the daunting...

Mimi Hoang and George Schlitz
Inside the Mind of the 21st Century Customer
Slideshow

Testers frequently say that they are the voice of the customer or the customer advocate for their organization’s products. In some situations this can be a helpful mindset, but no matter how hard he tries, a software tester is not the customer. In fact, there is no one better suited to...

Alan Page, Microsoft

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