people management

Better Software Magazine Articles

Where Are the Interns?

The demand for software engineers is outpacing the supply from colleges and technical schools. Learn how to attract new talent through internships.

Patrick Bailey's picture Patrick Bailey
Surprise! Making the Most Out of Your Most Surprising Moments

Lee Copeland explains that surprise is often an indicator that discovery, learning, or even delight may be just around the corner. The surprise itself can be amusing, enlightening, befuddling, disconcerting, or frightening, but surprise should not be the end of the experience; it should be the beginning. Analyze the surprise to learn why you didn't see it coming and what you gain from that.

Lee Copeland's picture Lee Copeland
Making Beautiful Music—The Art of Small Teams

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.

Steven  Ropa's picture Steven Ropa
Controlled Flight into Terrain

Entering a holding pattern on a project can give you the opportunity to gather additional information about a problem. But, sometimes, holding consumes valuable resources with disastrous consequences.

Lee Copeland's picture Lee Copeland
Agile Teamwork: Three Ways to Minimize Handoffs

Rather than rely on large handoffs between specialties, high-performing Scrum teams learn to do a little bit of everything all the time during a sprint. To do this effectively, teams must make three changes: shift from writing about requirements to talking about them, reduce the size of handoffs and make them more frequently, and pay more attention to the size of the product backlog items that they bring into their sprints.

Mike Cohn's picture Mike Cohn
Crowdsource Your Career

In today's tech-centric environment, there are many advantages to building a social network both online and "in real life." Here are some ideas to help you boost your career, market yourself, and add to your problem-solving toolbox by harnessing this "people power."

Dawn Code's picture Dawn Code
How Do You Know When It's Time To Go?

Whether you are in a toxic work situation, or you feel you are no longer performing effectively, sometimes you find yourself at a crossroads in your job and you have to ask yourself, "Should I stay, or is it time to move on?"

Lee Copeland's picture Lee Copeland
The Half-Life Of Trust

There is definite asymmetry between building trust and destroying trust. While building trust can be complex and time-consuming, destroying trust can be done in one simple instant.

Lee Copeland's picture Lee Copeland
Move Your Career Forward

Often we spend too much time analyzing or agonizing about where to go in our careers and too little time moving forward. This article provides a few practical tips to break out of career analysis paralysis and start taking the steps that will build forward momentum behind your career.

Laura Brandenburg's picture Laura Brandenburg
Once Upon A Retrospective

Children can teach us some extremely profound things--often when we least expect it. Jennitta Andrea shares sage advice about project retrospectives that she learned while perusing the well-known children's stories on her daughter's bookshelf. These insights will help improve the way you plan, facilitate, and participate in project retrospectives.

Jennitta Andrea's picture Jennitta Andrea

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