Better Software Magazine Articles

Software: Use at Your Own Risk

Is it really so hard to produce software that works? When was the last time you read a software license agreement? Most are one-sided statements that limit the product developer's liability. It's time to move away from "Use at your own risk" software and be upfront with customers about the true cost of quality.

Chuck Allison's picture Chuck Allison
Software Quality and the Prisoner's Dilemma

This industry spin on the classical dilemma illustrates the games we play when software quality is at stake and gives insight into why software managers who forego quality in order to reach a short-term marketing advantage are actually acting rationally.

Paco Hope's picture Paco Hope
What's In a Word?

Evolution of a word's meaning through common misuse is a reality of human communication. In the software industry, by using the phrase quality assurance to refer to what is more properly called quality control (i.e., testing), we may have lost our ability to answer the question "does our process work?"

Antony Marcano's picture Antony Marcano
The Secret to Software Development

In the wake of Rhonda Byrne's bestseller The Secret, Carol Dekkers examines whether the theories behind Byrne's blockbuster can be applied to software development. Can the Law of Attraction and positive energy really be all it takes for successful, positive project results—or is that just wishful thinking?

Carol Dekkers
Quality-It's All in the Values

We are in the business of providing our customers with products. While we may proclaim our commitment to quality, what really matters is how our users experience our products. So, how do we ensure our organization is a quality organization? Examine our values.

Neil Harrison
The QA Catchall

Pssst. You with the QA hat on. Would you be surprised to learn that you probably don't work in a QA department? Find out why what you are doing may not be QA, and discover some practices you can implement to insure that A really does stand for assurance in your organization.

Alan S. Koch
The Blind Men and the Quality Elephant

Lee Copeland takes a look at quality assessment through the filter of John Godfrey Saxe's poem "The Blind Men and the Elephant" and offers an important lesson: When assessing quality, make sure everyone on your project is looking for the same thing.

Lee Copeland's picture Lee Copeland
QA All-Stars: Building Your Dream Team

A testing team can mean success or failure for a project, but developing a team means more than putting a few people together and telling them to test something. Hans Buwalda shares his teambuilding experiences and gives some tips on how you can build the best team for the job.

Hans Buwalda's picture Hans Buwalda
Relocate for Reuse

All code is not created equal. Learn from a master of the craft how to spot bad code and mold it into good. This month, Mike Clark explains how moving code from one class to another to make it reusable can save you time in the long run.

Mike Clark
What Is Quality, Anyway?

All year long we've been asking people in every phase of the software development lifecycle to tell us what quality means to them. We found that while most agree on what quality is, there's still controversy over how to achieve it.

Rebecca Traeger

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