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Jack Be Agile, Jack Be Lean

Lean software development and agile software development are two approaches for creating new software. But how much do you really know about them? Do they compete or complement each other? Discover how agile and lean processes can work together for sustainable product development.

Al Shalloway's picture Al Shalloway
To Track or Not to Track

What's your take on the defect-tracking debate? Are defect logs helpful repositories of knowledge or cumbersome, inefficient inventories? Lisa Crispin took to the trenches to find out how different industry workers view defect-tracking systems. Find out what they had to say.

Lisa Crispin's picture Lisa Crispin
Hurry Up & Wait

There are no industry standards for Web response times. How long a user is willing to wait for a Web page to load depends on any number of variables and conditions. Find out how to determine and quantify performance criteria and use those criteria to create happy customers.

Scott Barber's picture Scott Barber
An Arsenal of Answers

Be ready with an answer the next time you're asked, "How long will it take to test this product?" Dive beneath the surface of the question to understand what your manager really wants to know.

Michael Bolton's picture Michael Bolton
Piles of Sand

When was the last time you thought about floating-point arithmetic? Chuck Allison says in order to attain maximum accuracy we need to brush up on our floating-point number knowledge and get back to our roots.

Chuck Allison's picture Chuck Allison
Feedback without Fear

Does the word "feedback" make you cringe? How about "configuration management"? Steve Berczuk has a pain-free plan for using your build environments and software configuration management system to provide the feedback that is essential to a successful agile project.

Steve Berczuk's picture Steve Berczuk
Analysis Paralysis and the Law of Imperfect Plans

Humans don't handle complexity well, and we certainly can't see the future—which helps explain why our plans and designs so often are flawed. In response to this truth, our guest technical editor offers Payson’s Law of Imperfect Plans. Embracing this law can help you avoid the dreaded analysis paralysis and accept that perfection just isn't possible.

Payson Hall's picture Payson Hall
A Classic Example

Many systems architects have a technology—centric view of service-oriented architecture. This article emphasizes the need to understand the business side of SOA before tackling the technology and illustrates this need with a look back in time.

Dan North's picture Dan North
Testing Around the World

These days outsourcing is a pretty familiar concept in this industry. Has globalization hit your company yet? Naomi Mitsumori has been involved in sending testing work offshore, and she has six suggestions that can help you successfully manage the transition.

Naomi Mitsumori
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

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