Better Software Magazine Articles

My Summer as a Hacker

Pete TerMaat shares some valuable lessons learned from a summer with "hacking legend" Richard Stallman. He learned that attitude, passion for one's work, was most important. Reviews, coding standards, porting guidelines, bug hunting advice, and other measures can fall flat without a passion for clean code, for "getting things right."

Pete TerMaat
Speaking of Quality

Technical Editors Esther Derby and Brian Marick introduce Volume Four of STQE magazine.

Esther Derby's picture Esther Derby Brian Marick
A Study in Failures

Examples of mistakes, manifestations, and problems help us understand all parts of the software. Brian Marick suggests Web resources that examine software failures.

Brian Marick
Why Testers Should Care About Patterns

Patterns, as described by the architect and theorist Christopher Alexander and his colleagues over the last thirty-five years, are a way of describing problems and customizable solutions. Patterns became popular in the software development field, and they've been applied to testing. Here, Brian Marick explores patterns and problem solving.

Brian Marick
Houston, We Have a Problem

Errors start with individuals, and a primary job of testers/QA people is to prevent those errors in the first place. But an equally important part of the job is to find them once they are there, understanding that errors will happen. Jon Hagar asks, "What can we do personally, above and beyond the normal day-to-day jobs that we testers and developers have?"

Jon Hagar's picture Jon Hagar
I am a Bug, and Refactoring

Our editors recommend the books I am a Bug (a children's book written by a software development manager and tester to explain his job to his children) and Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code (by Martin Fowler, with contributions by Kent Beck, John Brant, William Opdyke, and Don Roberts).

Brian Marick
Book Review: Adaptive Software Development

Johanna Rothman recommends the book Adaptive Software Development by James Highsmith. She says, "Highsmith shows the reader how to recognize when development practices need to change and how to acquire the skills to adapt. For a fresh approach to software development, be sure to check it out."

Johanna Rothman's picture Johanna Rothman
Know Thy User

Testing, in its broadest sense, means ensuring that your visionaries and programmers are creating a helpful product that people will actually use. As the two authors of this installment of Bug Report illustrate, understanding how those users will operate your application is more than an exercise in empathy; it's a simple key to avoiding some real usability meltdowns.

Brian Marick
EXtreme Documentation

The kind of collaboration that Extreme Programming engenders can benefit both publications and development. Writing, like programming, is a naturally iterative, revisionary process. Dana De Witt Luther shares what she's learned about documenting an Extreme Programming project, using iterative planning meetings and story cards.

Dana De Witt Luther
Interesting Times

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.

Brian Lawrence

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