Articles
 |
Focus on Agile Engineering Methods in Your Digital Transformation Organizations undergoing a digital transformation must adopt new and meaningful ways of working. For a successful transformation, in addition to agile processes, teams must also leverage agile engineering techniques and models. Continuous focus on agile engineering principles will provide a solid ground for teams to enhance their agility and deliver better software, faster. |
|
 |
Considering User Experience when Testing Push Notifications in Messaging Apps The functionality of a messenger app's push notifications is expected to be the same regardless of the device or OS being used. This article discusses how testing these notifications involves keeping in mind the different states of the device and the app, and why the functional configuration audit is just as important as the physical. |
|
 |
Product Development in the Era of the Internet of Things The Internet of Things is increasingly changing what we mean by a "product," as the emphasis is moved from hardware to its attached software and service components. This puts product developers in a new situation: They have to face the challenges of managing these additional, interrelated, and overlapping development lifecycles. |
|
 |
ADC West 2015 Keynote: Lean UX: Turn User Experience Design Inside Out When developing products, features, and enhancements, you have to have your customers’ best interests at heart. “We’re not just creating software,” speaker Jeff Patton said. “We’re changing the world.” You need to better understand the people you’re building things for, and the only way to do that is to spend more time with them. |
Better Software Magazine Articles
 |
10 Lessons Learned in Cross-Platform Development Building an app for a single platform is difficult, but designing, implementing, and testing an app targeting multiple operating system platforms can be next to impossible. The secret balances upfront design with customer feedback. |
|
 |
Reducing the Risk of Failed System Updates As software applications become more powerful and complex, users are demanding seamless and automatic updates. There is nothing worse than a “bricked system” after a failed update. The selection of a reliable file system is a vital component of the software update process. |
|
 |
Seven Guidelines for a Great Web API Web APIs have opened up a brave new world for app collaboration. James Higginbotham presents a series of guidelines that every programmer should consider in the design and implementation of a great API developer experience. |
|
 |
Incorporating User Experience into Early Agile Cycles Chris Nodder explores the emerging need to focus on a software app's user experience. It doesn’t have to cost a fortune to perform some basic user experience analysis as long as it is done early and tested throughout a project’s lifecycle. |
Interviews
 |
Testing in the Agile Age: An Interview with Alon Girmonsky
Podcast
In this interview, BlazeMeter founder and CEO, Alon Girmonsky, digs into why modern businesses must adopt agile methodologies. He talks about the advantages agile has over waterfall as well as how shorter iteration windows within the testing process affect manual hand-offs. |
|
 |
How Configuration Management Is Changing: An Interview with Joe Townsend
Video
Joe Townsend has been working in the configuration management field for fifteen years and is a regular contributor to CMCrossroads. In this interview, Joe discusses how configuration management has changed over the years, the trouble with tools, and trends in IT. |
Conference Presentations
 |
Using Design Thinking to Create Better Test Cases
Slideshow
Designing good test cases can be described as an art. With test cases being written with a focus on business, testers should be part of the discovery and design phase of the project, and the business drivers should dictate test case design. But how can we ensure we are focusing on the user and bringing the biggest value possible in this phase? Larissa Rosochansky will describe what design thinking is, how it relates to the testing methodology, and how to use it in the design phase of your project. She will also show you how to better frame the business drivers and select the persona and most important exercises from a wide range of possibilities. After this introduction, Larissa will demonstrate how to apply the exercises, create the agenda for a design thinking workshop, select the team to ensure you have a diverse and multidisciplinary group, and document the results. |
Larissa Rosochansky
|
 |
Devices and Desires: As Humans How Do We Experience Software?
Slideshow
We consume and still we desire more. More devices, more apps, more data, more bandwidth, more connectivity. The more we have, the more we want …. We assume that to be true – those of us who work in the software industry. But is that true? To understand what is really required of our... |
Isabel Evans
|
 |
Testing Imprecise Requirements
Slideshow
Articles on abc.net and elsewhere reported that Volvo has recently discovered a non-traditional requirement: Any self-driving vehicle approved for use outside Australian cities must recognize kangaroos on or near the roadway and take proper actions. The kangaroo’s bounce confused the large animal detector! In this session, industry expert David Gelperin shares a new perspective on the value of imprecise requirements and explores the nature of testing them. Excess precision may hamper the development of optimal solutions by excluding effective designs. Imprecise statements reduce the risk of excess precision and signal the need for analysis to understand their deeper meaning. Intentionally imprecise requirements entail a mixture of research and development and are a valuable supplement to traditional requirements. |
David Gelperin
|
 |
What's an API and How Do I Test It?
Slideshow
API-based applications have become ubiquitous in the past few years. Yet many of us still really don't know what an API is from the inside out. Moreover, many of us don't know much about how to comprehensively test them! Join Paul Merrill to learn what everyone is doing and talking about, related to APIs: microservices, REST, endpoints, requests, request methods, and responses. Paul demonstrates four free tools you can use to directly interact with a simple API: curl, the browser, Postman, and Java (with Rest Assured). Learn techniques for testing APIs at the service level and how to test APIs faster with greater coverage and quicker test automation. Walk away with an understanding of what JSON is, how APIs use JSON, and how to go about verifying that it is correct. With new knowledge and skills, you’ll do a better testing job and give more valuable feedback to the API designers and developers. |
Paul Merrill
|
Recommended Web Seminars
| On Demand | Building Confidence in Your Automation |
| On Demand | Leveraging Open Source Tools for DevSecOps |
| On Demand | Five Reasons Why Agile Isn't Working |
| On Demand | Building a Stellar Team |
| On Demand | Agile Transformation Best Practices |
Featured Resources
Visit Our Other Communities
CMCrossroads is a TechWell community.
Through conferences, training, consulting, and online resources, TechWell helps you develop and deliver great software every day.