The Latest

Making Beautiful Music—The Art of Small Teams [magazine]

In a jazz combo, each member of the team has a specialty. As the members play individually, they create a tapestry of music that becomes much greater than the sum of the individual contributions. A small development team also works best this way.

Test Automation on an Agile Project: An Interview with Alexander Andelkovic [interview]

We recently had the opportunity to speak with Alexander Andelkovic, who works as a test lead for Spotify in Stockholm, Sweden. Alexander is a driving force for implementing agile model-based testing techniques and is an ambassador for session-based test management.

Making Agile Work for Government: A Blended Approach [article]

As technology development programs represent some of the biggest line items on agency budgets, there should be little surprise that agile development, with its promise of a fast, lightweight, and iterative approach to delivery of value, has caught the attention of officials from across the government space as they seek to improve their programs’ productivity and effectiveness.

Management Myth #8: I Can Still Do Significant Technical Work [article]

The temptation can be incredibly strong for managers—especially new ones—to step in when a technical problem arises. But, that isn’t a very good show of faith in one’s team members. Johanna Rothman writes that as a manager, you have to delegate a problem and leave it delegated.

Changing Iteration Contents Mid-Sprint [article]

Johanna Rothman writes on how she facilitated a project management clinic in which she overheard this statement: "We have a product owner who persists in changing the contents of the sprint during the sprint. This is difficult for us. It costs us to change the content." To Johanna, this is a huge pain and it is similar to multitasking.

The Independent Tester [article]

Has the agile world’s insistence on collaboration blown away the need for testers to be independent? What do we mean by “independence,” anyway? Consultant Fiona Charles argues that tester independence is essential, but that it is a state of mind that can thrive only when the whole organizational culture supports it.

Livestock Improvement Goes Agile [article]

Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC) is one of the largest integrated herd-improvement organizations in the world. This is the story of how LIC transitioned from a successful, traditional development process to one with hyper-productive agile teams that produce software faster, better, and cheaper.

Automating Content Creation: An Interview with Clark Malmgren [interview]

We recently had a chance to speak with Senior Engineering Manager (Applications) for Comcast Video Services, Clark Malmgren, about his role in test automation and how his experience and practices can lead to success in many areas of software testing.

Testing Tradeoffs and Project Risk: A Case Study [article]

Between extreme opinions of what is testing “overkill” and what is “essential,” there sometimes exists a reasonable middle path. In this field report, Payson identifies an example of risk mitigation and the evolution of the analysis that brought him there.

The Homegrown Tools Syndrome [article]

Test management is a generic process, yet much effort goes into developing tools in house to do this work. Learn the reasons for this phenomenon and suggestions for avoiding it.