The Latest
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Can Test Estimation Be à la Carte?[magazine] In this installment of FAQ, Rob Sabourin discusses the benefits of providing stakeholders a "menu" of past projects to help better estimate their current project's testing needs. |
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Using Agile for Requirements Management[article] Charuta Phansalkar writes on the necessity of capturing and understanding requirements using agile practices. Agile, when implemented effectively, will ensure that the customer's voice is clearly understood throughout the project, which results in maximum customer satisfaction. |
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Classic Software Testing Is Broken: An Interview with Regg Struyk[interview]
Podcast
With twenty years of commercial software development and testing experience, Regg Struyk has developed for several software testing tools including test integrity, iTest, and Polarion QA. Regg is continually analyzing testing trends and their potential impact on software testing. |
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Helpful Tips for Hiring Better Testers[article] Isaac Howard describes how his experience in hiring staff taught him to interview better and recognize who are the best picks for a standout team of testers. According to Isaac, the best job candidates are driven to learn and capable of adapting to change, two traits crucial to testing. Remember, testing is learning and relearning software every day. |
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You Can't Be Just a Manager Anymore[magazine] 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. |
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Understanding Whole Team Testing[magazine] Whole team testing makes product quality everyone's business. It can also make people uncomfortable. Matt explains how this new way to approach project quality helps with leading retrospectives, conducting defect analysis, and mitigating project risks. |
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A Configuration Management Interoperability Solution[article] David Lawton writes that with a few changes to capital project business processes and the implementation of a content management interoperability services (CMIS) database, operations content can be extracted directly from originating tools and populated into a data model that helps operations manage the lifecycle configuration. Consuming the project content during the project provides a vehicle to transform and feed subsequent processes. |
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How Pervasive Leadership Can Help You Manage Successful Projects[article] Jean Richardson shares a story about how the idea of pervasive leadership can help you manage a successful project. In order to practice pervasive leadership, one must change one's mental model of "I" and "thou," act locally and think holistically, and enact empathetic stewardship. |
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Management Myth 26: It’s Fine to Micromanage[article] Johanna Rothman explains the challenges and pitfalls of micromanagement. Sometimes, managers micromanage when they need information. In that case, it’s easier to create an information radiator rather than have the manager come running to you every thirty minutes. |
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How Skeleton Strings Can Help Your Testing[article] Brian Noggle writes about how he uses "skeleton strings" to help him when he probes an application under test. Just as skeleton keys unlock doors, these generic skeleton strings open up access to a wide variety of defects. |
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Feeling Lost in the Woods? Mind Maps Can Help[magazine] Claire takes us on a nontraditional journey where designing and implementing testing approaches can be rapidly organized into a hierarchy of connected elements. Mind maps, used primarily for visual and conceptual thinking, may be just the answer for quality assurance professionals. |
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The Three Pillars of Positive Psychology[article] Positive psychology encourages positive and effective behaviors that help to bring out desired traits, and it applies well to many business and technical situations. Leslie Sachs explains the third pillar of positive psychology, which is related to organizational psychology and is of great interest to anyone who wants to be part of an effective institution. |
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Reverse Mentoring: Should Younger Workers Be Mentoring Your Executives?[magazine] What happens when younger knowledge workers, the millennials, bring a new perspective to an organization? Reverse mentoring can dramatically improve employee retention, team collaboration, and the adoption of newer technology. |
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Why Target Needs a Secure, Trusted Application Base[article] Target’s well-publicized disclosure that customers’ personally identifiable information (PII) had been compromised is the latest software “glitch” that is getting a fair amount of attention. Read on if you would like to know how to secure your systems without having to rely upon security scans that only detect the presence of a problem after it is already on your server. |
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A New Year, A New Focus[magazine] In this issue's Editor's Note, Ken Whitaker kicks off the new year with a push to raise awareness of better software and how you can read Better Software anywhere on your mobile device. |
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