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Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Kid Learn Agile Principles Indirectly through Practice

One of the primary questions for agile teams adopting a new approach such as Scrum is whether to start with principles or practices. Sometimes the best way to learn principles is indirectly, through practice. Experiences are a great way to learn, and sometimes they even teach you skills without your realizing it.

Steve Berczuk's picture
Steve Berczuk
Computer dashboard showing metrics, photo by Carlos Muza The Testing Practices and Metrics That Really Matter in Agile and DevOps

Scaled agile and DevOps change the game for software testing. It’s not just a matter of accelerating testing; it’s also about fundamentally altering the way we measure quality. The test outcomes required to drive a fully automated release pipeline are dramatically different from the ones most teams measure today.

Wayne Ariola's picture
Wayne Ariola
crystal ball Predictive Analytics to Give Quality Engineering a Facelift

Test automation is only as smart as we design it to be, but automation combined with artificial intelligence and machine learning is what can enable predictive analytics to produce smart outcomes—and that is the facelift quality engineering will soon receive.

Mukesh Sharma's picture
Mukesh Sharma
Training class with people's hands raised, photo by Nicole Honeywill If You Want Training to Take, Explore Experiential Learning

People typically think of training classes as passive activities, where the instructor talks and the others listen. But experiential learning, where you learn through hands-on activities and then reflect on the experience, often gets the lesson to stick in people's brains better. Consider using interactive lessons.

Steve Berczuk's picture
Steve Berczuk
Agile team all putting their hands in the center, photo by Perry Grone Creating a Company Culture Where Agile Will Thrive

A so-called generative culture has all the characteristics necessary to support self-directed teams, shared responsibility, experimentation, and continuous process improvement. But what about the rest of us? Most large organizations don't have a culture where agile will take hold so easily. Here's what needs to change.

Jeffery Payne's picture
Jeffery Payne
Gerald Weinberg, photo by Corey Grusden The Importance of People in Software: A Tribute to Jerry Weinberg

Gerald Weinberg's work inspired many to be better engineers and better leaders. Although he’s no longer with us, his message about the role of people in building quality software lives on in his writings and in those who have learned from him. Here, Steve Berczuk recalls some of Jerry Weinberg's most influential books.

Steve Berczuk's picture
Steve Berczuk
Team member estimating a project 5 Factors That Could Be Making Your Project Estimates Go Wrong

Why do our estimates for a project or a testing phase so often turn out wrong? Whatever causes underestimation, we clearly do not learn from experience, as we repeatedly make estimation errors, despite feedback showing previous errors. It’s a chronic problem. What could be driving these errors? Here are five factors.

Andrew Brown's picture
Andrew Brown
A train accelerating through a station Defining Velocity for Your Agile Team

When an agile team talks about velocity, it's usually how much functionality they'll deliver in a sprint, often based on historical data about the number of story points the team tends to finish. But you shouldn't use velocity as a measure of success for your agile process. Make sure everyone knows what's important.

Steve Berczuk's picture
Steve Berczuk