personal improvement

Better Software Magazine Articles

overwhelmed at work Saying No to More Work

We’ve all been placed in the situation where a boss asks you to perform more work than you can possibly handle. Johanna Rothman knows firsthand that there is a better way to respond that benefits you and your manager.

Johanna Rothman's picture Johanna Rothman
Recognizing #WomenInAgile

As part of her involvement with #WomenInAgile, Natalie Warnert conducted a study to determine why women are less involved in the agile community and what can be done about it. Her research shows some surprising results.

Natalie Warnert's picture Natalie Warnert
Planning to Performance Test Your App? Think Again!

To complement functional validation, software teams are expected to validate performance. But, according to Jun Zhuang, you must be prepared to invest time, personnel, and resources to benefit from performance testing.

Jun Zhuang's picture Jun Zhuang
How to Prepare for ISTQB Exam

In this FAQ column, Michael Sowers provides advice on preparing for the ISTQB Advanced Level Test Manager Certification Exam.

Michael Sowers's picture Michael Sowers
Painful Lessons I Learned from Bootstrapping a Startup

If you are considering leaving the nest to self-fund your own endeavor, you may want to read about Mike Botsko's experience creating a cloud-based, bug-tracking app called Snowy Evening. What started out as a lot of fun quickly turned into a tough journey. Don't worry—it has a happy ending!

Mike Botsko's picture Mike Botsko
Motivating Teams In a Self-Organizing Environment

A key characteristic of agile is that a team self-organizes to best fit the workload. This, according to Maria Matarelli, can be more difficult than the more traditional approach of a project manager simply telling the team what to do.

Maria Matarelli's picture Maria Matarelli
Are You Done or Done-Done?

Probably one of the most frustrating roles a manager has to master is how to know the true status of work being performed. To a developer, completing 80 percent of the work may be good enough, but is it  even close to being really done? Masha Nehme shows techniques you can use to verify task completion.

Masha Nehme's picture Masha Nehme
Leverage the Power You Don't Know You Have

Being technically gifted and performing great work may not be enough when you consider a large part of your job is getting others to collaborate with you. Bob McGannon gives some simple ways you can present yourself and your views that can result in greater job satisfaction and career success.

Bob McGannon's picture Bob McGannon
Improving Quality and Value Delivery with T-Shaped Team Members

Thomas Wessel presents how T-shaped and pi-shaped teams based on each member's span of knowledge, ability to collaborate, and depth of expertise play an important part in how effectively your team performs.

Thomas Wessel's picture Thomas Wessel
You Can't Be Just a Manager Anymore

It used to be that a project manager did one thing: manage the success of the project. As IT budgets shrink and job responsibilities expand, there is no such thing as a typical project manager role. You're expected to wear many hats, facilitate human resource issues, become a subject matter expert, and assist with key technical activities.

Gunasekaran Veerapillai's picture Gunasekaran Veerapillai

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