The Latest

As a professional test manager or test engineer, you must keep up with the latest test techniques, management practices, and systems technologies. But that is not enough.

Identifying risk is important-but managing risk is vital. Good project managers speak the language of risk, and their understanding of risk guides important decisions.

A vendor left me a phone message. He began by thanking me for visiting his booth at a conference at which I was a speaker. He told me that his product was just what I needed and would solve some of my biggest problems. He also assured me that I would benefit in many ways. Finally, he then asked if I would call him back so we could continue the conversation

When the United States landed a man on the moon, my wife and I use to engage our friends in fun debates on whether Neil Armstrong really stepped onto the surface of the moon or did he descend onto a huge sound stage just north of Phoenix, AZ. As farfetched as that argument is, in many cases, upper management in many software development organizations are being led to believe that their Eagle has landed at Tranquillity Base when it fact their project is “Lost in Space.” Much of that information is coming from the Configuration Management System (CMS).

What if you want to print out every variable defined in a Makefile? In this tip I'm going to show you how and introduce GNU Make's powerful functions.

Why do version control? I remember the first time I learned about version control. It was for a SunOS based project, and my manager told me to learn SCCS, and put all of our sources in it. Its been years since I've used SCCS, and I am not always sure if it had features I also remember in RCS and PVCS. They are all similar tools. Since those younger years, I've learned that version control is much more than a glorified file repository, and has more to do with people working toghether, collaborating on their project code base.

Many times when managers first consider parallel development, it appears to be a very effective way to manage changes to concurrent streams of development. This is somewhat true if the project uses an SCM technology that allows for stable branching and establishes discreet project and maintenance branches. However, what is often forgotten is that while branching is a great way to separate code changes, at some point merging will have to occur. This article provides guidance for approaching and performing parallel development.