Better Software Magazine Archive:

June 2007

IN THIS ISSUE

Do You Work in IT?
By Danny R. Faught

A self-professed latecomer to IT, Danny Faught has a new appreciation for the challenges faced when developing products for an internal customer rather than products for sale.

Reap the Rewards of Recognition
By Naomi Karten

Everyone likes to feel as if her hard work and good deeds have been appreciated. In this installment of Management Chronicles we discover how the words "thank you" can become a powerful management tool.

The Whorfian Hypothesis
By Lee Copeland

Benjamin Whorf hypothesized that the language we speak constrains the thoughts we can have. Learn how a well-developed organizational vocabulary can help increase the quality of your products.

Jack Be Agile, Jack Be Lean
By Al Shalloway

Lean software development and agile software development are two approaches for creating new software. But how much do you really know about them? Do they compete or complement each other? Discover how agile and lean processes can work together for sustainable product development.

To Track or Not to Track
By Lisa Crispin

What's your take on the defect-tracking debate? Are defect logs helpful repositories of knowledge or cumbersome, inefficient inventories? Lisa Crispin took to the trenches to find out how different industry workers view defect-tracking systems. Find out what they had to say.

Hurry Up & Wait
By Scott Barber

There are no industry standards for Web response times. How long a user is willing to wait for a Web page to load depends on any number of variables and conditions. Find out how to determine and quantify performance criteria and use those criteria to create happy customers.

An Arsenal of Answers
By Michael Bolton

Be ready with an answer the next time you're asked, "How long will it take to test this product?" Dive beneath the surface of the question to understand what your manager really wants to know.

Piles of Sand
By Chuck Allison

When was the last time you thought about floating-point arithmetic? Chuck Allison says in order to attain maximum accuracy we need to brush up on our floating-point number knowledge and get back to our roots.

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