What if you had a picnic and no one brought potato salad? Find out what picnic planning and steam engines have to do with project success and not just satisfying your customers but delighting them.

You can't get your manager to give you what you want if he won't listen to you. Naomi suggests some strategies-including being methodical, gathering data, properly timing your requests, and practicing what you plan to say-that can help you make your case to the powers that be.

You work in an organization with incredibly smart and diligent software engineers. Deadlines are tight and everyone is busy. But when developers outnumber testers by ten to one and the code base is growing exponentially, how do you continue to produce a quality product on time? Google addressed these problems by creating the Testing Grouplet—a group of volunteer engineers who dedicate their spare time to testing evangelism. They tried various ideas for reaching their audience. Weekly beer bashes were fun but too inefficient. New-engineer orientation classes, Tech Talks by industry luminaries, and yearly “Fixit” days became successful and continue to this day. But no idea caught the attention of engineers like Testing on the Toilet. This weekly flyer, posted in every Google bathroom, has sparked discussions, controversy, jokes, and parodies.

A good working relationship with your human resources department can help you simplify your recruitment process. Learn to work together to find the candidates who are best suited for the position rather than relying on the "skill-list shotgun."