Articles
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7 Strategies to Build High-Performing Teams As leaders, we need to consider the structure of the team and the alignment and purpose of the work the team does. This is to ensure that we have clarity on the value the team creates. In my opinion, a high-performing team flourishes in an environment where they know exactly how they contribute to the organization's purpose. |
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What Does It Mean To Be An Agile Organization So, what exactly does it mean to embody the agile mindset? Well, simply put, to be agile means to empower your employees with maximum flexibility within a clear structure. Read on for six attributes of successful agile organizations. |
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You’re Ready for DevOps—but Is Your Workplace? In order to adopt DevOps, organizations need to be able to embrace the openness it requires, encourage experimentation and innovation, and work across departmental silos. You may be ready to encourage collaboration and communication to reap the benefits, but what if your company culture isn't? Here's how you can influence your organizational dynamics to lay the groundwork for DevOps. |
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Agile Managers: Trust Your Team and Encourage Innovation In order to fully embrace agile and create an environment where individuals want to work together as a team, managers have to move from a role of dictation to one of direction and mentorship. Instead of making all the decisions, managers need to trust their team members and empower them to solve problems on their own, innovate, and fail—or succeed. |
Better Software Magazine Articles
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Scrum: Back to Basics So you think you know Scrum? Using the whimsical notion of farm animals and light-hearted visuals, take a refreshing review of the entire Scrum lifecycle as an intuitive set of roles, responsibilities, and handoffs. Particular attention is placed on what the ScrumMaster and product owner are expected to do at each handoff. |
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Scaling Agile Thinking through Empowered Teams Just because a software team adopts agility doesn’t mean they’ll see results. Being flexible has its benefits, but ensuring that the team is given total responsibility to make decisions may be more important. |
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Achieving Success through Servant Leadership Regardless of whether you are working with a stellar team or one that struggles, your style of management can influence the success of the project. Josh Dawson wants you to consider adopting servant leadership. |
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Hire the Right Developer Wondering why—with all the jobs you've applied for—you aren't getting noticed? Take it from Xojo CEO Geoff Perlman; it isn't just your programming or testing skills that will land you a job. Far from it. Geoff knows from experience that hiring the right individual is a careful blend of skill, fit, and passion. |
Interviews
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Strategic Leadership in Agile: An Interview with Bob Galen
Video
In this interview, Bob Galen, principal agile coach at Vaco Agile, talks about the importance of getting rid of silos by breaking down the barriers of “them and us” and becoming “we.” He also discusses the need for agile managers to steer away from a tactical management view toward a more strategic leadership view. That means leading their teams by setting expectations and guidelines and being available to help if needed, but ultimately just trusting their teams to get the job done. |
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Leadership Lessons to Bolster Your Software Team: An Interview with Selena Delesie
Video
In this interview, visionary speaker Selena Delesie explains how successful teams embrace specific principles, including listening deeply, believing people truly matter, having an addiction to learning, serving others, flowing through change, moving through fear, and following joy. |
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The Keys to a Successful Software Team: An Interview with Andy Kaufman
Podcast
In this interview, Andy Kaufman, the founder of the Institute for Leadership Excellence & Development, explains why team chemistry is often an afterthought, how enthusiasm can often trump skill, and how to deal with conflict. |
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The Effective Change Manager's Handbook: An Interview with Dan Skelsey
Podcast
In this interview, Dan Skelsey, one of the editors for The Effective Change Manager’s Handbook, talks about all things change management, why it's important to focus on what is not changing, and where a good place to start is for your inevitable changes. |
Conference Presentations
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Providing Value as a Leader: More Than Just Being the Boss
Slideshow
Being a test manager is more than just being the boss. Sure, there is direction to set, issues to address, hiring, performance reviews, and status updates. |
Jeff Abshoff
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Scaling Quality through Community Leadership
Slideshow
Modern software development organizations often build teams around features. Unfortunately, these teams tend to become siloed, building tools and processes without being aware of how other teams have solved the same problems. |
Philip Daye
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Are You the Best Leader You Can Be?
Slideshow
We are all leaders. At a minimum, we must lead ourselves every single day, but many of us also have teams that we lead and serve. Have you ever stopped to analyze yourself to determine if you are the best leader you can be? Amy Jo Esser has had the joy of learning from many great leaders outside the testing arena, including John C. Maxwell, Tony Robbins, Mel Robbins, Brendon Burchard, Michael and Megan Hyatt, and Rachel Hollis. She continues to learn from leaders in our testing community, including the inspiring leaders and speakers who have been a part of the Women Who Test community. Join Amy Jo as she shares ways to be the best leaders we can be by employing approaches from these leaders, including “Win the Morning, Win the Day,” “The Continuous Learning and Growing We All Must Do,” and “Honoring and Embracing Your Fears,” as well as tips from other favorite leadership books, blogs, and podcasts. |
Amy Jo Esser
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Brainwriting: The Team Hack to Generating Better Ideas
Slideshow
Brainstorming has long been held as the best way to get ideas from teams. The purpose is to solicit large amounts of ideas in a short timeframe. |
Chris Murman
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