Many teams are embracing new practices, and several of last year's most-read stories reflect that, with topics such as AI, DevOps, and continuous testing. But it looks like lots of teams also want to get back to basics, because guides to tried-and-true agile and testing methods also ranked high. Check out the roundup.
Making the transition into a management role is a huge step—but also one fraught with opportunities to make mistakes. Having an inkling of some of the more common mistakes new managers make might help in avoiding them. Here are four mistakes to be on the lookout for so you don't make them as a new manager. By Freddie Tubbs
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No single person on the team knows much about test coverage at a high level. Developers might understand it for parts of the code base they worked on. Testers might understand it for the last handful of features they tested. But neither is able to talk about test coverage in a meaningful way. We need a holistic view. By Justin Rohrman
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Continuous testing started when DevOps got hot as organizations began trying to figure out how to make everything in the software delivery process more continuous and testers felt they were being left out of the DevOps movement. If you want to get started with continuous testing, here are three things you should know. By Jeffery Payne
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The Scrum Guide talks about an ordered backlog, not a prioritized one. While order and priority are related, they are not the same, and understanding the difference and why people focus on one over the other can help your team be more effective at delivering business value. By Steve Berczuk
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Estimating testing in the contemporary world of agile and DevOps demands some new rules. Gone are the days of using project planning software and work breakdown structures to define and estimate each category of work and the associated tasks. Here are some modern rules, prerequisites, and advice for test estimation. By Michael Sowers
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In the world of agile, people often think of test strategy documents as outdated or unnecessary. But having a defined plan of action for how you're going to test a system, application, or business function is always useful. Here's how to break that down into what, who, and how so you can understand your tests' purpose. By Adam Satterfield and Janna Loeffler
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The quality engineering approach differs from QA in that quality teams partner with business users and product managers to better understand requirements and to catch problems as products are being built—not after the fact. There are two pillars to building a true quality engineering organization: culture and process. By Sumeet Mandloi
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Negative feedback has the greatest potential to help people change in areas that can have a lasting impact. But sharing negative experiences and criticism can often be a challenge and may cause more harm than good. Here are six tips for sharing negative experiences effectively and building trust along the way. By Alan Crouch
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The growing list of internet-connected devices bring amazing benefits, but the sharing of valuable information that brings this convenience also brings security concerns. The Open Web Application Security Project has released its Top 10 Internet of Things 2018 list of the highest-priority issues. By Pamela Rentz
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Technical leads can be useful, both within the dev team and as a go-between. But is that a good idea on a Scrum team, which should be self-organizing? There is nothing wrong with having a technical lead on your team, as long as the role doesn’t impede the team. Here's where a tech lead can help or hurt a Scrum team. By Steve Berczuk
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