IT leaders need to creatively confront operations and development when they are not working together effectively. DevOps enables new, innovative approaches to communication and collaboration that can be considered disruptive—but sometimes, shaking things up is the most critical step in the journey to adopting better behaviors and interactions.

Agile and DevOps teams, which emphasize continuous improvement, can benefit greatly from effective retrospectives. However, retrospectives can get monotonous, and that’s when they become ineffective. Using gamification in your retrospectives brings a completely different dimension of thinking—and even makes the process fun.

Mind maps can encourage a new perspective in your test team and promote collaboration. These maps make it easier for colleagues to grasp your work process, your progress, and your understanding of the project. How do you get started? Here are four steps that will help you implement mind maps successfully in your testing efforts.

Mind maps have several applications, but few QA teams are aware of their usefulness when applied to testing software. Visual, fun to play with, and free to use, mind maps can spur creativity and group collaboration. This article helps explain how to use mind maps to organize your testing efforts, supporting the rapid rate of delivery inherent in a successful DevOps organization.