Soft skills matter in how effective a manager is, but what about technical skills? If you're a software engineer, how important is it to you for your manager to have the same background and to fully understand your job? Ideally they would, but in some cases, that role can be better filled by a technical lead.

Agile encourages teams to continuously improve through learning. One of the phrases associated with this process is "failing fast"—trying new things and taking lessons from mistakes as you go. But Johanna Rothman thinks "learning early" is a better phrase. That change in terminology can give you a happier mindset.

With new concepts, platforms, methodologies, and devices being introduced at a rapid rate, it’s critical to both initiate and establish a culture of experimentation within your testing team. You need to experiment and take risks in order to keep pace and hopefully surpass the competition.