Better Software Magazine Archive:

Jan/Feb 2000

IN THIS ISSUE

Time Management and the Art of Software
By Alyn Wambeke

Tried and true techniques for getting a grip on priorities and schedules can mean the difference between breaking your neck to get a passable software product out the door and emerging from a project with a quality product and a sane staff. Alyn Wambeke relays some software-specific time management suggestions.

A Look at Cost Xpert
By John Magill

John Magill found Marotz's Cost Xpert 2.0 to meet his requirements, offer some important relevant program factors, and permit him to change or adjust the factors to establish an estimating window or boundaries, all at a competitive price.

Faults of Omission
By Brian Marick

Brian Marick is obsessed with faults of omission in software code, and he thinks you should be too. In this Bug Report, Marick describes coding omissions, design omissions, and requirements omissions, and offers some ways to prevent (or at least test) them.

Project Politics
By Elizabeth Schmitz

Politics is often seen as a dirty business--but in the right hands it can be a way of bridging the gap between "I've got a great new project idea" and getting the right product into your customers' hands. Elizabeth Schmitz shares what she's learned about project politics.

Interesting Times
By Brian Lawrence

Technical Editor Brian Lawrence offers some troubling trends he sees in the world of software development and testing, including software produced in "Web Time" and mainline business functions being moved onto Web-based systems.

Testers and Developers Think Differently
By Bret Pettichord

Appreciating differences is critical for productive teams. Different approaches aid in finding solutions, and mutual respect dramatically improves group problem solving. Testers should not be judged according to developer criteria.

Using Monkey Test Tools
By Noel Nyman

Monkey testing refers to automated testing done randomly without any "typical user" bias. Here's a look at how to use such random testing techniques to cost-effectively catch bugs you might otherwise miss.

Bayesian Belief Nets: Predicting Defect Rates and Resource Requirements
By Norman Fenton

A Bayesian Belief Net is a graphical network that represents probabilistic relationships among variables. Here is a studied look at this causal modeling technique as applied to defect prediction and resource estimation.

Looking Under the Hood
By Len DiMaggio

Understanding a program's inner workings, dataflows, and bug history can enable you to build more robust tests. Here are pointers on investigating a system's internal design as a tool for effective testing.

Karl Wiegers Describes Ten Requirements Traps to Avoid
By Karl E. Wiegers

Recognized requirements expert, Karl Wiegers, shares the symptoms and solutions for common requirements-related project problems, including inadequate customer involvement, vague and ambiguous requirements, inadequate change process, and scope creep.

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