The Latest Stories
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Agile Methods for Tackling the Work You Don’t Want to Do We all have work we don't want to do. Some of it is boring or unpleasant, but there's another type: work we don't know if we can finish to our satisfaction. It's hard to tackle a task you're not an expert at. Johanna Rothman offers two classic project management approaches to face the work you're putting off. |
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Automation Friendly Test Design—An Example A major contributor to success in test automation is test design. If tests have many unnecessary detailed steps and checks, even a skilled automation engineer will not be able to make the automation efficient and maintainable. Hans Buwalda shares an example of a test design that is automation friendly. |
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Why Agile Begs for Better Team Communication How do you promote effective communication among a group of individuals, especially in agile? That’s the big question. In a world where some people might even have differing definitions of the actual word “communication,” it can seem impossible to get everyone on the same page. |
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Getting Your Data to Work for You Practically everyone records data somehow. The real value comes from using that data to gain deeper insight. When used appropriately, data profiling can be a powerful tool for analyzing existing data, profiling for planned changes, or monitoring for unplanned circumstances, helping save time and remove risks. |
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How Innovation Really Happens We tend to seek out creative ideas that will result in innovation, thinking that will bring about success. But popular theories of how innovation happens are actually wrong; more work is required than some think. There is more to innovation than just great ideas—and there is more to success than innovation. |
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The Dangers of Digital Distractions It's crazy that people can’t put their devices down long enough to drive, or even watch where they’re going. And aside from dangers, cellphones and social media also can be time sucks. Digital distractions have become bad enough that there's now a Center for Internet and Technology Addiction. Are you hooked? |
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Creating Effective Processes to Deliver Quality Software Delivering complex systems depends on software processes that guide the work on a daily basis. Much has been written about the evils of verbose waterfall processes, but the truth is that not having enough process also makes it impossible to deliver enterprise software without making many mistakes. |
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Finding the Truth in Testing through Folk Tales and Fairy Stories When we test, we build fictions in our minds. We make thought experiments about what the product or system might do, what we could expect the results of an action to be, what they should be, and how they might go wrong. Isabel Evans shows us why you're never too old for folk tales and fairy stories. |
