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How to Deal with an Underperforming Employee (without Making It Awkward)Sometimes, an employee's ability just falls short of what your team needs. Talking to an employee about his performance can be uncomfortable, but it doesn't need to be. You need to make sure they know what’s expected of them, what kind of improvements you’re seeking, and how you’ll gauge their improvements. | 
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Who’s Responsible for What? Use a RACI Matrix to Keep It StraightAs projects get larger and more complex, roles and responsibilities can become confusing. To clarify, teams can create a RACI matrix: a chart that shows who is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed for any work product. Each role has a different level of authority, so everyone knows their duty. | 
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Why Your Test Efforts Should Tackle Data FirstAutomation projects often start by tackling the technical issues, but Linda Hayes says a specific data environment should be established first. If you can’t control, define, and predict your data, you won’t have the repeatability that makes test automation practical—but it makes sense for manual testing, too. | 
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Agile outside Software: How All Teams Can Benefit Better collaboration, adaptive planning, early delivery, and constant improvement—do any of these agile pillars sound like something a non-software team would want to avoid? Agile has its place in different companies and teams across a multitude of industries. |
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The Internet of Things Moves Software Testing into the Physical WorldThe explosion of the Internet of Things means the physical world of things we use and the logical world of software testing are blending. Software testers need to become familiar with hardware, and manufacturing companies have to consider software, maybe for the first time. Everyone has new skills to learn. | 
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Creating a Test Strategy and Design for Testing DataThese days, data comes from multiple sources, is transformed in many different ways, and is consumed by hundreds of other systems, so we must validate more data, more quickly. Mike Sowers shares his work in progress checklist for things to consider when developing a test strategy and design approach for data. | 
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Avoid Embarrassing Glitches: Proofread Your DocumentsTo avoid embarrassing errors in your emails, documents, and proposals, it's a good idea to proofread. But simply glancing over what you wrote isn't enough. Naomi Karten gives some tips for thorough proofreading, such as coming back to your document later, printing it out, and reading it out loud. |
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Agile Does Not Equal Scrum: Know the DifferenceSome people say “agile/Scrum,” as though they’re the same thing. They're not! Scrum is just one way to approach agile. Johanna Rothman defines each concept and also addresses kanban and Extreme Programming, two more approaches. Don't write off agile until you've explored different ways it could work for you. | 
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