People & Teams
Better Software Magazine Articles
The Danger of Testing "Only" Stories Finding defects late is a common issue when teams don't consider levels of precision or detail. You must take into account how stories and features fit into the system. In this FAQ column, Janet Gregory tells you how you should remember the big picture—even while testing the small stuff. |
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Leveraging Automated Testing to Improve Product Quality Improving product quality is often a very difficult task for even the best software development organizations. Rajini says the additional benefits of automation include benchmarking, code scanning analysis, end-to-end test cases, and compatibility validation. |
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Chasing Mavericks: Using Rolling Wave Planning to Transform Agile Teams By using an approach similar to that used by surfers to catch waves, you can effectively help your team transition to agility. Scott presents a four-stage process that alternates training with coaching and doing with learning. |
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Quick, Before We Release Matt Heusser presents ten key factors to establish a team cadence—the time between running tests and getting a product into production. The shorter the cadence, the less time spent in test/fix/retest land, and the more time spent working on new features. |
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Improving Quality and Value Delivery with T-Shaped Team Members Thomas Wessel presents how T-shaped and pi-shaped teams based on each member's span of knowledge, ability to collaborate, and depth of expertise play an important part in how effectively your team performs. |
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Avoiding the Prioritization Trap With incoming priorities being requested by just about everybody, how in the world can you and your team prioritize? Brandon shows you some innovative techniques that you can use to turn chaos into order. One surprising approach is simply handling priorities on a first-in, first-out basis. |
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A Real Sprint in the Life of a ScrumMaster You read so many books and articles that present how perfectly a Scrum project goes; yet in practice, that is rarely the case. Natalie shares ten lessons that she learned the hard way when she started out as a ScrumMaster. Special attention is given to ways you can avoid those same mistakes. |
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Why Do Defects Escape? What happens when defects go unnoticed until it is too late? Mayank provides an insightful view of the true cost of not providing enough test coverage during a software development lifecycle. He also suggests some techniques to ensure that defects are identified and mitigated early. |
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Understanding Whole Team Testing Whole team testing makes product quality everyone's business. It can also make people uncomfortable. Matt explains how this new way to approach project quality helps with leading retrospectives, conducting defect analysis, and mitigating project risks. |
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Feeling Lost in the Woods? Mind Maps Can Help Claire takes us on a nontraditional journey where designing and implementing testing approaches can be rapidly organized into a hierarchy of connected elements. Mind maps, used primarily for visual and conceptual thinking, may be just the answer for quality assurance professionals. |