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Is It Really ‘Us vs. Them’? Teams often view executives as being "against" them and making decisions that are clueless at best or nefarious at worst. Usually, neither is the case, but there's no way of knowing true motivations if there's no discussion. Teams and directors need to repair their communication rift. This is a tale of two perspectives. |
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What’s the Problem with User Stories? Agile projects focus on very lightweight, simple requirements embodied in user stories. However, there are some problems with relying solely on user stories. They often don't contain enough accuracy for development, testing, or industry regulations. There's a better way to write detailed requirements that are still agile. |
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Ditch Your Logs for Better Monitoring Metrics Many teams use logs to track the behavior of applications, services, or platforms. But how actionable is that log data? There are better ways to parse that information and make it more visible, more useful, and easier to understand. Try converting your logs into metrics for a faster and more lightweight monitoring system. |
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How to Make a Fixed-Scope Contract More Agile Establishing a contract that genuinely supports agile methods can be a significant challenge. By its very nature, a contract that specifies detailed, upfront deliverables contravenes the principles of flexibility and adaptation that are at the heart of agile. But it is possible—both parties just need to focus on results. |
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The Real Value of Cross-Functional Agile Teams Agile teams know that cross-functional collaboration is central to the methodology, but there are often barriers to fully embracing this idea. If teams are used to handoffs, it may seem like it makes sense to maintain the status quo. Try collaborating on something small to realize the true value of cross-functional teams. |
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Testing in the Dark Requirements only go so far in identifying areas to test. Sometimes testers are given no information at all, leaving it up to them to determine what to test. Don’t accept the need to indiscriminately test with no clear understanding. Your testing should be targeted, and these techniques will help focus your test effort. |
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Leave No Tester Behind Creating comprehensive automated tests within a sprint can be a challenge. If the testers don't finish the automation and the rest of the team moves on, testers get left behind and can't catch up. You need some techniques to keep everyone together and ensure that all essential work is accomplished—including test automation. |
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Lessons the Software Community Must Take from the Pandemic Due to COVID-19, organizations of all types have had to implement continuity plans within an unreasonably short amount of time. These live experiments in agility have shaken up our industry, but it's also taught us a lot of invaluable lessons about digital transformation, cybersecurity, performance engineering, and more. |
