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Avoid Overthinking and Make Decisions Faster Overthinking is not the same as being cautious and methodical about making a decision. By contrast, despite the amount of analysis overthinkers do, they may never get any closer to actually making a decision. If you’re an overthinker—or even just want to make decisions faster—try these tips to be more decisive. |
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Testing in a Pair Programming Environment If a development team does pair programming, where does testing fit in? You don't have to wait until the programming is done—testers can be part of the whole process, from code design to reviewing changes to production. Pair programming plus a good automation strategy mean quality is built in throughout development. |
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Preventing Workplace Miscommunication When one person says something that the other one misinterprets—a very common type of workplace miscommunication—the conversation often moves on with neither party realizing what happened. Being able to discover a misinterpretation and straighten it out before it escalates into a serious tangle is an important skill. |
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Let the Outdoors Help You Reduce Work Stress Studies have found that natural environments can promote positive emotions and heighten physical and mental energy. If you're feeling stressed in the office, try to go outside briefly, take a short walk, commune with the trees if you’re able, and get back to work. You just might feel reinvigorated. |
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Bananas and Critical Thinking People skilled in critical thinking are willing to accept new findings and evidence, even if it means reassessing previous beliefs. They aim to rely on reason rather than emotion in making decisions, and they seek to detect inconsistencies in reasoning, including their own. It's an important skill to have in software. |
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Weird Ideas for Improving Your Productivity at Work You've tried all the typical tips for increased productivity—scheduling, timeboxing, prioritizing—but you still find yourself distracted and wasting time. Maybe it's time to give one of these unconventional ideas for improving productivity a try. They're so crazy, they just might work. |
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A Tester’s Guide to Choosing a Programming Language Many testers want to learn a programming language, but how should they decide which one? Justin Rohrman suggests finding an authentic problem to solve and moving from there to determine which language would be best. You can also ask developer coworkers for suggestions and help—take advantage of available resources. |
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Think through System Changes to Anticipate Quality Issues When you replace or significantly modify components of a larger system, too frequently we focus on whether the code we are building functions correctly. This is important, but it’s also short-sighted. It’s easy to introduce errors because we are changing interactions. Coding bugs are only one quality problem. |
