The Latest
Examine Your Personality to Find the Right Best Practices for You[article] Best practices are the result of creative and hardworking professionals evaluating and communicating what works and what doesn’t. Getting the right best practice in place requires personality traits that focus on doing the right thing without regard for whether you invented the idea or perhaps learned it from someone else. Sorting through the available choices can be very difficult, and too often we focus on who came up with the idea instead of what the idea represents in terms of value. Coming up with best practices that are truly best requires that we reach deep inside our own personalities for the traits that help us excel in everything we do. This article is about how to put your personality to work for you in a creative and productive way. |
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Ten Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) "Best" Practices[article] In his CM: The Next Generation Seriesm Joe Farah identifies and discusses ten application lifecycle management (ALM) best practices. |
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What Is a “Best” Practice?[article] What's good for the goose isn't always good for the gander. This is especially true when it comes to labeling "best practices." Joe Townsend has a few things to keep in mind when determining "best," "better," and "good" practices in your organization. |
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Leap IT: Lean Accelerators for Productivity improvement in IT[article] “Expectations from IT just keep increasing every single day “– this is a point of view echoed by several CIOs across the organizations all over the globe. Newer developments in IT like Social Networking, Green IT, Virtualization, and Business analytics are changing the way businesses are run. |
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CM as Communication and Coordination Enabler[article] This article includes some of the material that Geoff Thorpe presented at a BCS CMSG event where he discussed the control of applications using change management, release management, |
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In Search of the Elusive "Best Practice"[article] A friend and fellow consultant has been known to react quite strongly to the phrase "best practice". Anyone who is unlucky enough to have James within earshot when they utter that phrase is likely to receive a dressing down for using it. "There is no such thing as best practice!" he will inform them in his not-so gentle manner. "There are only good practices that are appropriate under certain circumstances!"
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Alan S. Koch
March 15, 2010 |
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Use Uncertainty As a Driver[article] Confronted with two options, most people think that the most important thing to do is to make a choice between them. In design (software or otherwise), it is not. The presence of two options is an indicator that you need to consider uncertainty in the design. Use the uncertainty as a driver to determine where you can defer commitment to details and where you can partition and abstract to reduce the significance of design decisions. |
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The Checklist Manifesto as Agile Primer[article] Agile software development methods often have very few explicit processes. However, these processes are essential and require discipline to execute well. We're often tempted to skip steps, either because we think that the step doesn't apply in a particular situation or we forget to do it. |
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Quality Management - Testing in the World of Scrum and Agile Product Development [article] Does Quality Management have a place in agile product (system-software) development and delivery?
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An Unusual Question about Managing Change[article] Change is disruptive. Even when a particular change leads to a positive outcome, the transition from the old way to the new way can be a time of turbulence. Might there be circumstances in which it's appropriate, or even helpful, to prolong that period of turbulence? That's the question Naomi Karten wrestles with in this column. |
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The Unshreddable Résumé[magazine] The recent economic downturn has record numbers of job seekers pounding the pavement. Find out what you need to include on your resume to increase your chances of getting out of the paper stack and into the building for that all-important interview. |
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Hidden Messages[magazine] A defect management system contains data such as how many defects have been raised, the priority and severity of individual defects, and even who is raising them. This information is regularly used by program and test management to guide decision making. In this article, Dan Minkin proves that an experienced test manager can gather useful information by looking at more than just the defect management system's data. |
Dan Minkin
March 5, 2010 |
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Selling To Your Buyer[magazine] No matter how well you've built it, no users will benefit from your product unless you can convince the buyers to purchase it. Selling to buyers is different than satisfying users—and you have to do both well to succeed. Consider the needs of the buyer as stakeholder. When you have no buyers, you have no users. |
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A Release Without a Tester[magazine] In this article inspired by an unfortunate video store rental, Lee Copeland invites software organizations that think testing is expensive to try the alternative. |
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Working Together—Not Just Working Together[magazine] People collaborate—and don't—in a variety of ways. Johanna Rothman examines what happens when collaboration isn't working, and how to make it work. Watch for several barriers to collaboration including those imposed on people by the organization itself. |