People & Teams
Articles
Dodging the Ditches "We want the software to be faster, better, cheaper!" the marketing guy declares. We want to deliver, but if we aren't positive what those adjectives mean, we will fail. Read on to learn how a road trip prompted industry veteran Esther Derby to revisit how to avoid the expectations gap. |
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Through the Eyes of a Troubled Customer Have you ever had to cope with a demanding developer? A touchy tester? A quarrelsome QA person? A cantankerous customer? Why oh why do people act that way? This column describes the route one IT group took to reverse a customer's bad attitude and make her a valuable ally. |
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When Enough is Not Enough Have you ever found yourself stuck in a situation where, no matter what you do, you can't seem to please your senior manager? Your manager wants you to decrease test time, but at what price? You go back and forth, but no matter how much you compress the schedule, it's never enough. Johanna Rothman explains how to avoid the bring-me-a-rock trap, when enough is not enough, and keep your team from being sucked into unreasonable time constraints. |
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One Bad Apple Never underestimate the divisive power one person can have on an entire team. One team member with a bad attitude can affect overall productivity, communication, and job satisfaction. This week, Lori Howard offers some direct, decisive solutions for handling these "de-jellers" before they ruin your otherwise cohesive team. |
Lori Howard
December 31, 2003 |
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Trading Gold for Days Spending additional money on resources to ease the strain of a tight schedule seems like a good idea. What project manager wouldn't want more help with a project? This week, Peter Clark explains the pluses and the pitfalls of trading gold for days. |
Peter Clark
December 22, 2003 |
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Out of Mind, Out of Sight Sometimes it takes a child's perspective to remind us of the things that have become "invisible" to us. We make choices that become part of the daily flow and are forgotten until something happens that reopens our eyes. This week, Esther Derby explains how a four-year-old reminded her of an important lesson about decisions and routines. |
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Becoming an Information-Gathering Skeptic Customers don't always know what they want. That's a given. But even if they do know, they may not always be able to communicate it clearly. That's also a given. Given these givens, you have a much better chance of comprehending your customers' needs and concerns if you're a skilled information-gathering skeptic. |
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The Secret Ingredients of High Morale Jessica and Sean have just attended the company spirit meeting, and they're feeling a little dispirited. What does it really take to build morale? The answer is both simple and difficult. Learn the ingredients of morale as identified by a group of experts—a project team that may be a lot like yours. |
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Human Communication on Projects Tackling communication issues at the start can set a project up for success. Staying alert to communication issues during a project means keeping the lines open, clear, accurate, and helpful. Then when the deadline approaches, the schedule slips, or serious problems start cropping up, issues can be confronted much more smoothly and efficiently. In this column, Eileen discusses how human communication affects projects from start to finish. |
Eileen Strider
October 23, 2003 |
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Helpful Hints for Interviewing Experienced QA/Testing Candidates This article introduces suggested questions that can be presented to a candidate interviewing for a QA/Testing position. The suggested questions would help a test manager assess a candidate's knowledge of QA concepts and technical skills. The test manager can create a sample set of questions from this article and that will help them form a framework for efficiently interviewing future candidates. |
Jose Fajardo
October 16, 2003 |