People & Teams

Better Software Magazine Articles

From Curmudgeon to Kanban

It didn't take long for Stacia Viscardi to realize that as effective as agile can be, a plan-driven mindset may not be the best approach for every project or every team. Breaking the rules and embracing whatever it takes to motivate the team to get a project to doneness—and delighting the customer along the way—is a much better approach, even if it means breaking away from fixed iterations.

Stacia Viscardi's picture Stacia Viscardi
Scaling DevOps at the Enterprise Level

DevOps for the enterprise is the set of activities that support development and testing being managed within a framework for delivering the software into a stable production environment. Kim Megahee believes that DevOps can be successfully deployed with the adoption of Akaizen.

Kim Megahee's picture Kim Megahee
Painful Lessons I Learned from Bootstrapping a Startup

If you are considering leaving the nest to self-fund your own endeavor, you may want to read about Mike Botsko's experience creating a cloud-based, bug-tracking app called Snowy Evening. What started out as a lot of fun quickly turned into a tough journey. Don't worry—it has a happy ending!

Mike Botsko's picture Mike Botsko
Motivating Teams In a Self-Organizing Environment

A key characteristic of agile is that a team self-organizes to best fit the workload. This, according to Maria Matarelli, can be more difficult than the more traditional approach of a project manager simply telling the team what to do.

Maria Matarelli's picture Maria Matarelli
Being Agile, Even if My Organization Isn't

Many of us work for organizations that claim adherence to agility, yet in practice aren't even close. Agile is definitely here to stay, and if you haven't caught the wave, it is only a matter of time before you do. Brian Rabon  presents insightful techniques that can help you become more agile now.

Brian M.  Rabon's picture Brian M. Rabon
Scrum or Kanban—Which Is Better?

In this FAQ column, Arlen Bankston defines the roles of Scrum and kanban and describes how the two agile methodologies can be complementary, each ideal for different situations, or blended to achieve the desired outcome.

Arlen Bankston's picture Arlen Bankston
A Tale of Two Doctors and the Value Stream

Johanna Rothman compares the experience a patient has with doctors to software development. Producing value implies that the customer believes the software you create provides an important benefit by taking into  consideration the way a user works along with an exceptional user experience.

Johanna Rothman's picture Johanna Rothman
Overcoming Challenges That Impact Product Delivery

Eric Winquist has considerable experience not only leading his company but also consulting with development teams. His advice to “link people to the work” is one of many golden nuggets of information that will help your team deliver projects on time.

Eric Winquist's picture Eric Winquist
How to Design a Test Strategy

Speaking from his experience with test-centered design projects, Jon Hagar explores some testing pitfalls that could have been avoided if the right test strategy had been chosen. You won't find a better, easier-to-understand explanation of a practical test strategy.

Jon Hagar's picture Jon Hagar
Leverage the Power You Don't Know You Have

Being technically gifted and performing great work may not be enough when you consider a large part of your job is getting others to collaborate with you. Bob McGannon gives some simple ways you can present yourself and your views that can result in greater job satisfaction and career success.

Bob McGannon's picture Bob McGannon

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