software engineering

Building a Business Case for Automation in Your Software Lifecycle

To remain competitive, organizations should consider implementing a well-integrated set of automation capabilities—not just for testing, but across the entire lifecycle. Making the investment might take some convincing, so here are some questions to ask in order to assess the potential benefits of automation.

Michael Sowers's picture
Michael Sowers
Think Agile to Work Efficiently and Effectively

Of course it's important to work efficiently, without wasting time, money, or energy. But working effectively is just as important. Agile cycles between creating, testing, and getting feedback, allowing us to work in small chunks and make sure what we're producing has the most value. That's effective.

Johanna Rothman's picture
Johanna Rothman
Before Jumping into Software Testing Tools, Get Your Code Straight

Software testing tools can be incredibly helpful, but only if you're implementing them from a good starting place. If your code is a mess, a tool won't fix that; you'll end up simply adding layers on top of the mess. Matt Heusser explains how your team would be better off learning elements of code as craft.

Matt Heusser's picture
Matt Heusser
The Test Expert’s Role in DevOps

If our goal as testers is to build and release code more rapidly, frequently, and reliably, we must also align and integrate our testing practices, testing tools, test cases, test data, and test environments into continuous integration, testing, and deployment. A DevOps culture yields all new opportunities.

Michael Sowers's picture
Michael Sowers
How Can We Get More Business Value Out of Software Development?

CIOs and software development managers can tell you what the budget is for a particular project. But what about the value delivered by a software project? Does your organization make that consideration? The Value Visualization Framework can help you define and track that important factor.

Michael Harris's picture
Michael Harris
Software Testing: A Social Responsibility

As businesses and consumers embrace big data and analytics, mobile, cloud, the IoT, and other rapidly emerging technologies, the expectation that software "just works" is rising exponentially. Equipping our technical workforce with the best education and training, tools, and approaches is critical.

Michael Sowers's picture
Michael Sowers
The Word “Automation” Has Led Us Astray

The misunderstanding that automation for software quality is just doing what humans do (i.e., manual testing), but faster and more often, causes business risk. Unless you’re very clear, the quality measure is incomplete. The word automation distracts from the real value: measuring quality.

Matt Griscom's picture
Matt Griscom
Agile, Waterfall, and the Blending of Methodologies

Agile doesn’t always require you to throw the baby out with the bathwater. Just because you plan to incorporate agile into your team (or even your entire organization), that doesn’t mean you need to scrap whatever other practices, such as outsourcing, or methodologies you’re using.

Josiah Renaudin's picture
Josiah Renaudin