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The Hidden Benefit of One-on-One Manager Meetings Managers may frame one-on-one meetings as a way to “support employees” and check to see if the employee “needs to meet this week.” Supporting an employee is a primary goal of these meetings, but the value of one-on-one time to managers—and the importance of building trust with employees—also should be prioritized. |
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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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Why Agile Is a Double-Edged Sword When It Comes to Quality When it comes to quality, agile very often leads to better applications and just stronger testing overall. However, the rapidity of agile can make it even more difficult to keep up with bugs since you’re iterating at speeds teams often just aren’t used to. |
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During Times of Major Change, Keep People Informed During times of major change, readily available information can help reduce the fears of those affected about what it means for them. If you’re involved in implementing change, it’s wise to keep people informed—not just about the change itself, but also about its impact on processes, responsibilities, and expectations. |
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The Manager’s Role on a Self-Organizing Agile Team Scrum and other agile methods focus on team roles and dynamics, and because of the emphasis on self-organizing teams, there’s sometimes a misconception that there’s no need for a manager. In reality, good people management can help an agile team thrive—the manager just has to know how to empower the team. |
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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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Agile and Testing Change Can Come from Leaders at the Bottom, Not the Top Change doesn’t need to be a decree from the top that forces everything else to follow suit. Change can and should start from the bottom, and that happens after you empower your developers and testers and clearly show why things like agile are critical to overall success. |
