Software testing and poker have interesting commonalities. Some say there’s no use in either, that both are a waste of money and, at worst, dangerous to the financial health of the poker player or software project. Proponents say that both teach us something valuable and are enjoyable activities.

The solution to prioritizing work is a matter of prioritizing audiences. A tester’s work has an audience: users, coworkers, and bosses. Testing is a service we provide to each audience, so it is important to know which audience is at the top of the "make happy" list.

Because of its ability to advance the time-to-release and the overall quality of software, automated testing has been steadily growing in popularity. Sumit Mehrotra explains how virtualization and a hybrid cloud-based model provide for dynamic capacity management and a well-resourced IT department.