agile

Outdoor staircase leading up, photo by Håkon Sataøen The Role of the Test Manager in Agile

In traditional software processes, test managers are responsible for all management aspects of their team. Agile, however, is self-directed, so teams handle all the usual duties. Still, there is a role for test managers in agile, and it’s much more strategic than it was before. Here are the opportunities for the role.

Jeffery Payne's picture
Jeffery Payne
Climbing tower on a playground, photo by Basil Lade Creating an Environment That Encourages Resilience

Creating environments at work that acknowledge that failures will happen—and supporting the efforts team members make to recover—can help your organization become more effective. You cannot predict every challenge, but by embracing risk and providing opportunities for people to experiment, you can be more productive.

Steve Berczuk's picture
Steve Berczuk
Signs pointing toward success one way and failure the other What You Can Learn from Failure—and from Success

Success and failure teach different lessons. Lessons from failure tend to revolve around what not to do next time around, whereas lessons from success focus on what you can do again, perhaps even better. But whether you experience success or failure, the key is to take the time to learn from what happened.

Naomi Karten's picture
Naomi Karten
Cover of the Spring 2018 issue of Better Software magazine What's in the Spring 2018 Issue of Better Software Magazine

The Spring 2018 issue of Better Software magazine is now available, and it's got a great mix of foundational basics and cutting-edge techniques. This roundup describes the featured articles about DevOps, service virtualization, Scrum, test automation strategies, and testing for the internet of things.

Ken Whitaker's picture
Ken Whitaker
chemistry test Is There a Bias against Manual Testers?

Manual testing might not be as all-important as it once was, but it’s still needed if you have any hope of delivering software at a quality you can be proud of. How we create software is going to continue to change, but the burden of that change needs to be handled by more than one group within the industry.

Josiah Renaudin's picture
Josiah Renaudin
Pile of books on a table, photo by Sharon McCutcheon 3 Must-Read Books for a Good Agile Foundation

If you are searching for agile knowledge, there are many books outside the current literature that may enlighten you. Some discuss the underpinnings of concepts we consider agile, while others are contemporary business books that present compelling ways to use agile effectively. Here are three Jeff Payne recommends.

Jeffery Payne's picture
Jeffery Payne
person drawing Do Most Agile Teams Lack Creativity and Innovation?

You can’t solve the problem unless you know what that problem is, and you can’t rekindle your creativity if you just don’t know why you’re doing what you’re doing. Pinpoint your team’s purpose, let everyone on your team contribute, and rekindle the innovative nature at the core of agile.

Josiah Renaudin's picture
Josiah Renaudin
Rabbit with its ears up, photo by Vincent van Zalinge The 5 Levels of Listening: Which Does Your Team Practice?

The ways we listen—and not listen—are detailed in the Five Levels of Listening model, which goes from most distracted to most focused. Ideally, we’d all practice the fifth level: empathic listening, where we try to understand what matters to the person who is speaking, delaying our problem-solving and responsiveness.

Steve Berczuk's picture
Steve Berczuk