Articles

Practical Security Testing For Web Applications

It seems like every week the press has yet another story about security breaches or stolen data at some of the world’s largest companies or government agencies. Sometimes the responsibility for ensuring thorough security resides with an IT security group, and other times it gets outsourced altogether. The responsibility seldom falls to testing teams. However, this is changing. Having trained and experienced testers hunt for security bugs will make web applications safer from hackers and will further protect consumers, corporate assets, and brands.. Scott Aziz offers some practical techniques that will help you get started.

Considering the Modern Technology Career

The technical career ladder may be a quick climb, but what will you find at the top? Matthew Heusser looks at the lifespan, challenges, and opportunities of the modern tech career.

Automation: Process Comes First

I recently wrote a short article on on StickyMinds.com about automation. After it was published I came across another related post by Jim Coplien which makes the point that automation should come after you have figured out your process.

Making Agile Work for Government: A Blended Approach

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

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

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

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

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.

Testing Tradeoffs and Project Risk: A Case Study

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

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.