teams

Balancing Culture Fit with Diversity: Hiring for SuccessCompany culture is important, but you shouldn't base hiring decisions solely on how well someone seems he'll fit in. This leads to conformity and a fragile organization. To increase diversity, consider people who may not at first appear to be a cultural fit, but who could be valuable additions to your team.
Overcoming the Real Fears behind Behavior-Driven DevelopmentBehavior-driven development can bring many benefits to software delivery. But while many companies focus on customizing frameworks, tools can only achieve as much as the people and organizations behind them. You also have to consider the individual roles and personalities of your developers and testers.
The Secret Life of Team LeadsEngineering an environment that helps teams do their best work can be difficult. When the team works well, it can deliver better, and helping teams deliver more effectively is what being a team lead is all about. However, this role also comes with some responsibilities and challenges that aren't always clear.
Language Differences and the Challenge of CommunicationMiscommunication happens all the time in our collocated teams, so you can imagine how much it happens when we communicate across international boundaries with people for whom English is not a first language. By understanding language differences, you'll have a better chance of communicating effectively.
The Merits of a Collaborative Manual and Automation Test TeamIn many organizations, the manual and automated test teams are separate. But the most successful test teams integrate manual and automation resources into a single, cohesive team. This allows them to fill in any gaps in the test case steps and to develop a more informed automation strategy.
Benefits of Riding the Bleeding Edge of Software

Acting as an early adopter isn’t inherently bad—if you look at this from a business context, it’d be like investing in a promising startup and hoping to double or even triple your money over time. But what’s critical here is avoiding pushing all your chips into the middle of the table early on.

Work Hard, Play Hard: How Fun Provides BalanceThere’s a role for playfulness in our jobs to serve as a counterbalance to the difficult, serious work we do. A lighthearted attitude can reduce the intensity of the demands and pressures. This doesn't mean formal, scheduled timeouts in the workday; instead, adopt some of these fun ideas for your team.
The Problem with Job TitlesJob titles are useful for giving a quick idea of a person’s skills and responsibilities. But nowadays in the tech world, a job title alone does not say as much as it used to. Some titles are ambiguous, and some can even encourage a kind of false hierarchy based on how fancy they are. Is there a better way?