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

Software Development and Testing Agility Demands Fungibility

Fungibility means the ability to change without needing an external catalyst. In our agile culture, fungibility is a critical characteristic. The triad of people, processes, and technology ideally should all be fungible. Just like perfection, this may never be attainable, but it’s an important goal.

Reviving the Master Test Plan in the Age of Agile

In the competitive environment of delivering software more quickly, many teams have abandoned detailed test plans. Michael Sowers argues for bringing back the overarching master test plan—not to have more documentation, but for the questions, creative test designs, and critical thinking the planning brings.

Maintaining Our Objective Voice in Testing

As we embrace an agile culture, we adopt the core value of whole team accountability. But while collaboration is important, testers must continue to ask challenging questions, think deeply about the “what-ifs,” consider and advocate for alternative views, challenge assumptions, and look for ambiguities.

Which Test Metrics Are Useful in Agile Projects?

Just as our measurement and metrics capabilities improve as our technology and knowledge evolve, we must also refine and adapt our software quality and testing measures as we embrace an agile culture. Our measurement and metrics strategy should shift to lower levels of the application or system under test.

Agile Demands a Holistic View of Testing and Automation

Is your team struggling to transform your traditional testing methods, techniques, and tools in the context of an agile culture? The accountability for the right level of quality delivered at the right time belongs to the collective team. It's important to make decisions together about what value means.

Bringing the Value of Your Test Automation Efforts Front and Center

Once you’ve adopted test automation, you should determine whether it’s actually yielding the expected benefits—and you’ll want to keep these benefits visible to stakeholders to reinforce the value. A metrics dashboard aligned with the organization goals and business objectives shows you're on the right track.

Building a Business Case for Automation in Your Software Lifecycle

To remain competitive, organizations should consider implementing a well-integrated set of automation capabilities—not just for testing, but across the entire lifecycle. Making the investment might take some convincing, so here are some questions to ask in order to assess the potential benefits of automation.

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