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Hand putting together units of Legos Engaging Developers in Unit Testing

Unit testing is key for driving early defect identification, but organizations and teams continue to be challenged when it comes to designing and implementing unit tests. Realizing a culture of sound unit testing is often more a leadership challenge than a developer one. Here's how to instill a culture of unit testing.

Michael Sowers's picture
Michael Sowers
Cover of the Summer 2018 issue of Better Software magazine What's in the Summer 2018 Issue of Better Software Magazine

For twenty years now, Better Software magazine has published articles offering helpful tips and techniques for those in the software industry. The new issue celebrates those two decades of knowledge-sharing—and, of course, gives you more ideas. Articles this issue focus on leadership and software quality.

Ken Whitaker's picture
Ken Whitaker
Person about to slip on a banana peel 3 Mistakes Teams Make When Choosing a ScrumMaster

One cause of agile project failure is choosing the wrong person as your ScrumMaster. While a bad ScrumMaster is a problem for any team, it is particularly bad for teams new to agile, as the team won’t know they are being led down the wrong path. Here are three mistakes organizations make when choosing a ScrumMaster.

Jeffery Payne's picture
Jeffery Payne
People attending a talk at the Agile Dev, Better Software & DevOps West conference Lessons Learned at the Agile Dev, Better Software & DevOps West Conference

The Agile Dev, Better Software & DevOps West conference was held in Las Vegas in early June. Coveros technical manager Gene Gotimer was a speaker at the event, but he also attended as a delegate, getting to experience the keynotes, sessions, Expo, and other parts of the software conference. Here are his takeaways.

Gene Gotimer's picture
Gene Gotimer
A person's legs dangling off the edge of a building, photo by Alex Wong The Risk of Overemphasizing Risks

We are trained to identify and evaluate risks. This prevents teams from making decisions that are unlikely to work, saving time and money and helping the team move forward. However, a risk-avoidance mindset can also stop progress. Successful agile teams see risks as ways of starting a conversation, not stopping it.

Steve Berczuk's picture
Steve Berczuk
A group of people participating in a mob programming session Mob Programming: Working Well Together

Mob programming is a whole-team approach to creating software where everyone works together on the same thing at the same computer. It's not a bunch of people watching one person write code, but rather everyone thinking, discussing, designing, and collaborating. Sound crazy? Here's how it improves the quality of code.

Woody Zuill's picture
Woody Zuill
Many brightly colored sticky notes and markers on a table, photo by Frans Van Heerden Refining Your Scrum Planning Meetings

Scrum events are meant to be productive opportunities for collaboration that replace more tedious, wasteful meetings. If you find your planning meetings becoming passive events where no one is asking questions or actively seeking to understand the backlog, the problem might be in the execution or the preparation.

Steve Berczuk's picture
Steve Berczuk
Caution tape stretching across a construction site 5 Pitfalls Agile Coaches Must Avoid

Successful agile teams often have a coach driving continuous improvement. While some coaches are effective initially, many eventually succumb to pitfalls that inhibit their team’s growth and fail to compel any lasting changes. Here are five common pitfalls of agile coaches in most projects that fail to improve.

Alan Crouch's picture
Alan Crouch