The Iowa Democratic Party used a mobile app to pull results from statewide precincts for the Iowa caucus. But the app was not properly tested or deployed, and it turned into a high-profile tech disaster. When deadlines loom, release testing is often what gets cut, but this situation shows why it's a crucial activity.

Conforming team performance evaluations to a tidy bell curve is a simple, quantitative solution to the challenging problem of rating employee performance. However, it doesn’t work. It’s unrealistic (not to mention counterproductive) to force-fit employee evaluations to the curve when that doesn't reflect their work.

When a software defect is identified, best practices usually only pertain to the initial writing of the defect, not the tasks required to close it. Many factors can influence the tester's work. The solution is to add a “Next Steps” section that identifies the work remaining and the person responsible for completing it.