Articles

On Beauty, Quality, and Relativity

The saying “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” rings true whether you’re staring at a centuries-old painting, listening to a busker’s music reflect off the tiles in a subway station, or testing software. It’s one thing to evaluate quality, but how do we evaluate how we evaluate quality?

Zeger van Hese's picture Zeger van Hese
person on podium We're Not "Special"

Often, when I comment on someone's blog post or respond to a tweet with a story about how my team succeeded with some practice, someone replies, "Yeah, but your team is special." I interpret this as meaning, "You're a presenter and book author. You must be an expert, so of course your team can do anything." This frustrates the heck out of me.

Lisa Crispin's picture Lisa Crispin
Empowering Agile Teams

Teams, when truly empowered, will always make better decisions than any one individual. Where can you empower teams as you adopt agile?

Jean Tabaka's picture Jean Tabaka
origami birds Behavior Unbecoming of a Leader

One of the most important roles of a leader is to serve as a role model for others in the organization. In this article, Naomi Karten describes a situation in which a CIO forgot this responsibility, almost taking action that would have undermined his efforts to reverse the IT organization’s plunging morale.

Naomi Karten's picture Naomi Karten
Tester, Know Your Product

Should you diligently produce multiple big documents before testing begins? Consultant Fiona Charles argues that you should do that only if you believe that documentation is your product as a tester. If your product is information, you should instead minimize test documentation and engage with the software to build the product your stakeholders are paying for.

Fiona Charles's picture Fiona Charles
How to Lose a Customer

Giving your clients the opportunity to voice their opinions after conducting business with you is a great way to express your interest in continuing to work with them. Just make sure you're earnest in hearing their thoughts and that you don't simply think this is accomplished with a survey alone.

Naomi Karten's picture Naomi Karten
Dynamics of a Small Team When Implementing CM and ALM

Small teams can have big dynamics that threaten the team’s success in terms of productivity and effectiveness. This article will examine some of the essential people issues that arise when implementing software configuration management (SCM) and application lifecycle management (ALM) with small teams.

Leslie  Sachs's picture Leslie Sachs
From One Expert to Another: Simon Baker From One Expert to Another: Simon Baker

In this interview, author, speaker, and agile tester Lisa Crispin speaks with Simon Baker, cofounder of Energized Work and recipient of the Gordon Pask award, about the approaches and tools his lab uses.

Lisa Crispin's picture Lisa Crispin
Factor in Coworkers' Personalities When Implementing ITIL/ITSM

There are many people who do not like structure. Application lifecycle management (ALM), and, even more so, IT infrastructure library (ITIL) as a framework, touch some people's buttons as being just too much structure. In this article, Leslie Sachs examines the personality factors that you need to be aware of when implementing ALM and ITIL/IT service management (ITSM).

Leslie  Sachs's picture Leslie Sachs
How to Make People Feel (Un)Welcome

The age-old expression "you never get a second chance to make a first impression" is still true to this day. So often the way we greet people, or fail to greet them, sets an irreversible path of leaving others feel completely unwelcome, even if that wasn't the intention.

Naomi Karten's picture Naomi Karten

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