Michael Sowers

Mike Sowers has more than twenty-five years of practical experience as a global quality and test leader of internationally distributed test teams across multiple industries. Mike is a Training Line of Business Leader and a Senior Consultant, skilled in working with both large and small organizations to improve their software development, testing, and delivery approaches. He has worked with companies—including Fidelity Investments, PepsiCo, FedEx, Southwest Airlines, Wells Fargo, ADP, and Lockheed—to improve software quality, reduce time to market, and decrease costs. With his passion for helping teams deliver software faster, better, and cheaper, Mike has mentored and coached senior software leaders, small teams, and direct contributors worldwide.

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All Stories by Michael Sowers

Agile and DevOps Bring the Focus Back on Quality

As companies move to agile and DevOps, silos are coming down and there is more interaction and collaboration among teams. Quality is also becoming everyone's responsibility for the entire software development lifecycle. Quality is more than just testing: Consider a quality value stream along the overall value chain.

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.

The Importance of Goal Alignment in Agile and DevOps

For agile and DevOps teams to succeed, there must be a common vision that strives for detailed customer-focused outcomes. There’s never a magic bullet to address goal misalignment, as the challenges are context-specific, but here are some approaches that help move organizations and teams toward better alignment.

How Testers Can Collaborate with the ScrumMaster

ScrumMasters serve the team by providing facilitation and coaching, but they also have many challenges. Those in testing roles are in a good position to collaborate with the ScrumMaster to improve agile processes. Here are some ways testers can partner with, support, and assist the ScrumMaster—and the rest of the team.

A Lean, Flexible Measurement Dashboard for Agile and DevOps

If you’re moving from a more traditional software development approach to agile and DevOps, or if you’re struggling with implementing metrics, consider reviewing, revising, and refining your measurements. Leave those that add no value behind and look at a monitoring system that has these five essential categories.

Data-Driven Testing Skills in an Agile and DevOps World

For agile and DevOps, an understanding of the role of data analysis in the test strategy is helping teams accelerate development, testing, and deployments. As we continue to enhance our testing effectiveness, data analytics skills are an important dimension in managing risks in a “continuous everything” world.

Keep Up with Changing Technology by Making Learning a Priority

Many organizations are constantly adopting or integrating new technology, with the goal of remaining competitive. But there are so many new platforms and methods being created that it’s impossible to keep up with them all. Michael Sowers shares some tips that have helped him stay current with changing technology.

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