people management

It's amazing how many projects, already in a hole, keep sinking deeper. When team members and staff don't have the insight or objectivity to turn things around, an independent consultant can help—or not. In this column, a leading industry consultant gives you "the straight dope" on what to watch out for.

Is the tester doing a good job or a bad job when she proves that the program is full of bugs? It’s a bad job from some developers’ points of view. Ridiculous as it seems, there are project managers blaming testers for the late shipment of a product and developers complaining (often jokingly) that “the testers are too tough on the program.” Obviously, there is more to successful testing than bug counts. Here are some tips about how testers can build successful relationships with developers.

Software projects are filled with productivity needs and deadline pressures. As a project manager, you may feel responsible for project deliverables yet highly dependent on others to complete their work. It's common to push, prod, and heavy-handedly coerce your team to go faster. Sometimes this has the desired effect. And even if it doesn't, you can at least claim you pushed as hard as you could. But is that really all that can be done? Eileen Strider suggests another tool at your disposal.