Better Software Magazine Articles

Collaborative Pest Control

Read this edition of "From the Front Line," to find out why Brett Goldman says having more QA meetings can be a good thing.

Brett Goldman
A Rush to Judgement

If you find an article grating on you, if you think the author is clearly wrong-headed, I suggest you read it differently than you probably read most articles. Explicitly separate what the author implies you should believe from the actions she describes. Focus on her specific results and the actions that led to them. How, in your style of work could you adapt the author's actions to get your results? In this edition of Technically Speaking, Brian Marick explores this possibilty.

Brian Marick
The Upside of Downsizing

This article gives some pointers on surviving downsizing and will introduce you to the Scrum process. Scrum empowers teams by allowing requirements to be fluid while work is progressing. Learn what steps to follow to simplify and streamline your project by adopting this process.

Mike Cohn's picture Mike Cohn
Metrics That Matter: Making Measurements Meaningful for Everyone

Metrics are only worthwhile if you review and use them. Do your quality reports go directly from the inbox to the trash can? A quality metrics program can be a great asset to your organization. Engineering, sales, and the company overall can benefit from having such a program. This article will help you explore ways to make measurements meaningful outside of QA.

Marsha Holliday
It's in the Bag

Kristi Wheeler wanted to create a forum in which all of the testers in her company could come together to talk about their skills, learn more about testing, and bring individual experiences into a group setting. Here, she describes how she started up brown bag groups for testers and developers in her organization–and how you can start them in your own company.

Kristi Wheeler
The Shopping Cart Delusion

Believing that a technique is a well-defined thing can hamper you if you're not careful. It encourages you to react to problems in just one way: try ever harder to do the technique right. It turns off the "situated" part of situated reasoning. Brian Marick shows how the "shopping cart delusion," or strictly adhering to definitions, keeps you from breaking the rules to your benefit.

Brian Marick
QA Consciousness Raising

Change is hard, but leading your managers and co-workers toward higher quality needn't be dull and dreary. In this article, author Lisa Crispin explains several techniques you can use to take your organization to the next level, including gauging your visibility and recruiting a quality champion.

Lisa Crispin's picture Lisa Crispin
Surviving the Witch Hunt

A witch hunt is the search for whoever let those darned bugs out into the field. How do you stop a witch hunt? The best way is to refocus attention from "someone to blame" to "something to fix." If you focus on what in the process is causing the defects and discuss how to minimize or even eliminate the causes, you have a real chance to turn things around.

Tony Akins's picture Tony Akins
Project Archaeology

This article aims to show you the rich variety of information that can be used to help you build a good model of the system you are involved with. Some of the areas covered are: the business context; the language; the organizational structure; the culture; and cross-departmental relationships.

Andy Schneider
Adopting XP

Extreme Programming (XP) takes practices that are known to be good and combines and applies them in a revolutionary way. Before you turn your team on to XP, check out the steps to take, and pitfalls to avoid, to make your project an "Xtreme" success.

C. Keith Ray

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