process improvement

A high-performing team working together How Group Norms Enable High-Performing Teams

Group norms are the traditions, behavioral standards, and unwritten rules that govern how a team works together. They can be implied or openly acknowledged, but establishing a consistent way the team functions helps the individual members focus less on their own preferences and more on what works best.

Steve Berczuk's picture
Steve Berczuk
Feedback form Make It Easy for Your Customers to Provide Feedback

The way some organizations request feedback ensures they don’t get much of it. If you really care about what your customers think of your product or service (and you should), you need to ask for feedback soon after the customer's interaction, give them time to respond, and allow space for their thoughts.

Naomi Karten's picture
Naomi Karten
When Can You Honestly Call Yourself Agile?

If you're working more iteratively and incrementally and things are better for your team and your customers, can you call yourself agile? As long as you're improving, does it really matter what you call yourself? Johanna Rothman says yes. Unless you're following the Agile Manifesto, you aren't truly agile.

Johanna Rothman's picture
Johanna Rothman
What’s in the Summer 2016 Issue of Better Software Magazine?

The summer issue of Better Software magazine is now live! This issue includes a number of articles that emphasize state-of-the-art practices in the IoT, DevOps, and product-driven process, in addition to highlighting the roles of QA, women, and Millennials and the benefits they can bring to your organization.

Ken Whitaker's picture
Ken Whitaker
The Best Way to Communicate Project Quality Concerns

When you encounter quality concerns in a project, it's important to let management know. But building an overly detailed list of faults and shortcomings undermines the impact of the important points and muddles communication. To effectively convey the crucial issues, you have to prioritize.

Payson Hall's picture
Payson Hall
Practical Strategies for Tackling the Tasks You Dread

Not everything we do at work is enjoyable. We can try reframing the more irksome duties in terms of means to an end, but sometimes, even with a mindset adjustment, there are still jobs we dread—and that can make them difficult to finish effectively. Here are some tips for tackling your most tiresome tasks.

Steve Berczuk's picture
Steve Berczuk
Shake Up Your Software Processes: The Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis

Organizations that refuse to change will get left behind. But at the other end of the spectrum, too much change is also harmful. Revamping everything you do at once creates stress and can lead to your efforts failing. The right balance is shaking things up just often enough to experiment with new ideas.

Matt Heusser's picture
Matt Heusser
Is Our Innovation in Software Testing Keeping Up with Technology?

The world of software testing has made many important advances in techniques and approaches, but is it keeping up with the leaps and bounds of technology's progress? Mike Sowers is an advocate for a revolutionary breakthrough in software testing, and to get there, we all need to become innovators. Here's how.

Michael Sowers's picture
Michael Sowers