People & Teams
Articles
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Improve Tester-Developer Relationships with Helpful Feedback Testers and developers often have a strained relationship. Each side has a certain level of expectations as to what the other side should know and do, while there is little understanding of the constraints, conditions, and requirements that the other team has to work within. But it does not have to be this way. A little effort in giving more specific and helpful feedback can go a long way toward improving attitudes. |
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A Simpler Way of Using Machine Learning to Shift Testing Left The advantages of shifting left and testing as early as possible are obvious. But as you automate more testing, the test suite grows larger and larger, and it takes longer and longer to run. Instead, just automate the process of finding the right set of tests to run. The key to that is machine learning. This isn't AI bots finding bugs autonomously without creating tests; this is a different way to use machine learning, and it’s far simpler. |
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Whole-Team Testing for Whole-Team Quality Whole-team testing means the whole team understands and participates in testing, using testing education as a tool to support quality efforts. And to be able to support testing in a meaningful way, team members must experience how testing is done by professional testers. Understanding skilled testing can help non-testers realize what quality criteria should be there and what elements of a product contribute to great quality. |
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Dealing with a Test Automation Bottleneck The test team uses the test automation system to execute thousands of test cases because … why not? The tests are running automatically, for free, so there is no incentive to improve test efficiency. Just run them all! But eventually, as more and more tests are added, the system becomes overloaded. Test runs are delayed and you get a bottleneck. Don't throw more money—or new systems—at the problem; do this instead. |
Interviews
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An Open Source Framework for Automation: An Interview with Chris Loder Chris Loder, an automation architect at InGenius Software, talks about his open source framework for automation, as well as why he says he left testing behind and started automating. He also discusses running the Test Lab at STARWEST, where conference attendees can practice their QA skills together to solve puzzles and test code. This year there were new AI features and an Automation Zone, where participants got hands-on experience with automation. |
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Communication Is Everything: A Conversation with Shachar Schiff Shachar Schiff, founder and principal consultant at BadTesting, chats with TechWell community manager Owen Gotimer about the recent rebrand of BadTesting, the four archetypes he uses to help customers, and the universal importance of communication. Continue the conversation with Shachar (@Shak) and Owen (@owen) on the TechWell Hub (http://hub.techwell.com/)! |
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8 Ways to Ruin Your One-on-Ones: An Interview with Jason Wick
Video
In this interview, Jason Wick, senior manager at MakeMusic, discusses his STAREAST presentation about eight ways you could be making your one-on-one meetings completely useless. He discusses in depth what he feels is the number one way to ruin these meetings: holding back on feedback. He also offers advice on how you can educate your team leader to avoid the pitfalls that lead to ineffective one-on-ones. |
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Embracing Tools and Technology in QA: An Interview with Melissa Tondi
Video
In this interview, Melissa Tondi, senior QA strategist at Rainforest, discusses the foundation you need in order to have a positive introduction for new tools and technologies. She explains why the team leader has to understand what motivates each individual and how to get them excited about their job. Melissa says team members also have to realize that if they are in any way involved in testing software, they are a technologist, so they have to embrace the tools and technology that will continuously improve and streamline repetitive tasks. |
Better Software Magazine Articles
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QA Is More Than Being a Tester QA testers often take on more of a role than just testing software code. When the team needs help, QA should lend a hand in assisting with business analysis, customer communication, user experience, and user advocacy. |
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All Customers Are Not Created Equal Software developers may not think they have much to do with customers, but it is wise to consider the customer in all you do, from collecting requirements to design and implementation. |
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The Unspoken Truth about IoT Test Automation The internet of things (IoT) continues to proliferate as connected smart devices become critical for individuals and businesses. Even with test automation, performing comprehensive testing can be quite a challenge. |
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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. |
Conference Presentations
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Minimum Viable Product: Deliver with Vision, Simplicity and Focus
Slideshow
To build good software, teams (and businesses) need to have a laser focus on all three of these items. It is virtually impossible to keep the effort focused on building to the needs of the customer if you don't start with a solid vision from the product owner/sponsor. When the focus isn't on just what is needed by the customer, that leads scope creep and feature bloat tends to set in and impact the products ROI. Whether you are focusing on a minimum viable product, minimum viable prototype, or a minimally viable package of code; leveraging the few simple principles allows teams to keep things simple, meet the vision and needs of the customer, while building in smaller batch sizes. In this presentation, we will review case studies, hands-on exercises, and real-life examples to cover some simple techniques to lock in a vision, focus on customer needs and drive to a simple, minimal viable product. |
Brian Watson
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Leading in an Era of Constant Change
Slideshow
Change is a good thing. Being a leader in an era of constant change can be frustrating. Putting a company through a significant transformation is a serious process that takes a lot of people, time, and money. However, if your organization doesn't innovate and change by market-driven needs and demands, it will fail—it's just that simple. So, how do you do it? This interactive workshop will introduce five key factors to successful change management. You will experience techniques to get everybody actively involved in transformation, from top-level executives and stakeholders to the team level, clients, and partners. You'll be able to go back to your organization with tools and techniques to manage change and truly lead a successful agile transformation. Come learn how change can be invigorating instead of exhausting. |
Kim Brainard
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Lean Leadership and Systems Thinking in Agile Adoptions
Slideshow
When teams self-organize, they need an effective ecosystem that enables them to collaborate, communicate, and work effectively. Creating such an ecosystem is management’s responsibility. Lean thinking tells us to focus on these systems where people are operating. We can do because we trust our teams to be motivated and do their best. Lean thinking provides a holistic view for the work done in an organization, which is even more important when a company doesn’t already have an agile culture. In this case, management must consider that it’s easier for people to work their way into a new way of thinking than to think their way into a new way of working. Join Al Shalloway as he discusses the critical role that managers have in agile adoptions. |
Al Shalloway
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ScrumMasters: The Struggle Is Real
Slideshow
Are you a new ScrumMaster who is trying to figure out what the heck to do each day? Or have you been a ScrumMaster for a little while now but still find it difficult to set aside time to continue to grow your team’s knowledge of agile best practices? Do you struggle to improve the team dynamic or the relationship with your product owner because you are too busy removing roadblocks all day? These situations have become all too familiar. Courtney Wilkinson knows because she has successfully overcome many herself. As a former ScrumMaster and current agile coach, Courtney can tell you the struggle is real. Regardless of what you have been told, you don’t have to solve every roadblock alone. Join Courtney as she shares some tactical techniques, including a list of four specific questions you can teach your team, to combat these roadblocks in your day-to-day work. |
Courtney Wilkinson
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