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Terminology Pollution in DevOps Many folks are embracing DevOps best practices. But there is also a dark side in the way that some teams are using terms like continuous integration, delivery, and deployment in vague and confusing ways. Using terminology in a clear and consistent manner is essential when implementing DevOps. |
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Focus on the Most Challenging Parts of Your Project We estimate to make decisions and to give an answer to the question, "When will this be done?" But estimation has limits, and trying to estimate too precisely in an agile project is wasteful. By driving the backlog based on priority, you can better deliver what is valuable to the business. |
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Meeting the Goal of Estimation The classic discussion for agile estimation is about whether points or hours are better. But there is now a third option: a movement called #NoEstimates. It actually does involve estimation, but you break down work in priority order and estimate only when you know enough to estimate accurately. |
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Exploring Your Beliefs about Your Customers Have you and your coworkers ever discussed your beliefs about your customers? Or questioned those beliefs? You may surprised at the discrepancy between what you think your customers want and what they actually want. It's a good idea to reconsider every now and then and shake up the status quo. |
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Meetings: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly Meetings are a crucial part of the communication process, but they endure a lot of ridicule. You can’t do away with them entirely—meetings are essential to an agile process like Scrum. Rather than avoiding all meetings, it’s better to work at making the times you meet with people more effective. |
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The Value of Checklists in Our Software Testing Work Some may see checklists as unnecessary, but consider the growing complexity of many of our software development and testing tasks. Ignoring the use of a tool such as checklists (when appropriate) can increase the risk in our already risky world of software testing. Sometimes, simpler is better. |
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Leverage Emails as Your Ambassadors We are often communicating with people we have never met in person. In these cases especially, it's important for our emails to convey accuracy, transparency, tactfulness, and preciseness. It can help if every time you hit Send, you think of that email as an “ambassador” going out on your behalf. |
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How to Do Your Best Creative Thinking Between interruptions, meetings, changes in priorities, and general everyday chaos, it's difficult to do any creative thinking. You need to give your brain a break from heavy-duty, task-oriented thoughts. To find out how to stimulate your own best creative thinking, consider both where and when. |