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Inspiring Girls to Code: Role Models from Star Wars and CodeGirl

Where are the strong female role models that will inspire girls to embark on a technology career path? How can we make more young girls see that taking STEM classes can lead to important—and cool—professions? Several programs aim to answer the challenge.

Pamela Rentz's picture
Pamela Rentz
The Motivation Value of a “Done List”

There are hundreds of tips about how to create a to-do list and prioritize the items in it. While those lists help you plan what you’re going to do, they don't help you appreciate what you’ve done. Enter the "done list"—every time you complete something, write it down and get a little jolt of satisfaction.

Naomi Karten's picture
Naomi Karten
Calculating the Cost of Failure

What is the cost to your business of an outage due to a major bug? Usually it's calculated as mean time between failures multiplied by mean time to recovery. But what if you could deploy to a limited number of users and monitor effects? Then the equation includes a third variable: number of users impacted.

Matt Heusser's picture
Matt Heusser
Designing Data-Driven Tests with Keywords for Automation Success

When automated tests are well-organized and written with the necessary detail, they can be very efficient and maintainable. But designing automated tests that deal with data can be particularly challenging. Tests need certain base data to be available and in a predictable state when they run.

Hans Buwalda's picture
Hans Buwalda
You’ll Only Create Bottlenecks if You Become Too Agile

If your goal is to do everything agile, bottlenecks will begin to rear their ugly heads. Not every aspect of the business lends itself to an agile structure, so it’s important to evaluate each situation in order to determine the method that suits it best.

Josiah Renaudin's picture
Josiah Renaudin
How to Create a Team Charter for Success

Do you find yourself working on a team that lacks initiative except for the things each individual finds useful? Making a team charter may help your team find their core values and purpose in the organization. Linda Cook tells you how to create a team charter that will point your team in the right direction.

Linda Cook's picture
Linda Cook
Weasel Words: Translating Deceptive Corporate Language

We've all heard some clever corporate phrases. Just think of all the euphemisms we have for firing someone, such as "downsizing" or "streamlining operations." The goals of such weasel words, of course, are to obfuscate, deceive, and soften the meaning. How can you get to the heart of what's really being said?

Naomi Karten's picture
Naomi Karten
The Evolution of a Product Owner

The practical application of agile in organizations is still difficult. The role of product owner has changed, and today a PO has to be tech-savvy, aware of the market, and accountable for execution, innovation, and quality. Tim Wise shows the evolution of a product owner and details what it should be now.

Tim Wise's picture
Tim Wise