Articles

Cloud-Driven Development: Four Things You Need to Know

With immediate availability, scalability, and dramatic cost savings, cloud computing is revolutionizing the way business works. While the economic justifications for this new technology cover a broad range of IT initiatives, developing software is perfect for the elasticity offered by the cloud.

Anders  Wallgren's picture Anders Wallgren
How to Lose a Customer

Giving your clients the opportunity to voice their opinions after conducting business with you is a great way to express your interest in continuing to work with them. Just make sure you're earnest in hearing their thoughts and that you don't simply think this is accomplished with a survey alone.

Naomi Karten's picture Naomi Karten
Dynamics of a Small Team When Implementing CM and ALM

Small teams can have big dynamics that threaten the team’s success in terms of productivity and effectiveness. This article will examine some of the essential people issues that arise when implementing software configuration management (SCM) and application lifecycle management (ALM) with small teams.

Leslie  Sachs's picture Leslie Sachs
How to Manage the Hurly-Burly Hubbub of Change

Giving yourself, and your team, the necessary time to adapt to and move on from change is the healthiest way to make sure that everyone is back on the same page in a timely manner. Learn how to avoid prolonging the necessary time to "heal" by minimizing turbulence.

Naomi Karten's picture Naomi Karten
Simulation Games: A Way to Improve Communication in the Team

One of the hardest daily tasks developers, QA, ScrumMasters, and product owners encounter is effective communication with others. Sound implausible? According to many articles, research, and personal observations, the main cause of project failure is not technology or hardware, but inefficient communication stemming from lack of effective communication between team members, incomplete business analysis, imprecise requirements, and vaguely formulated business objectives.

Monika Konieczny's picture Monika Konieczny
How to Make People Feel (Un)Welcome

The age-old expression "you never get a second chance to make a first impression" is still true to this day. So often the way we greet people, or fail to greet them, sets an irreversible path of leaving others feel completely unwelcome, even if that wasn't the intention.

Naomi Karten's picture Naomi Karten
Test-Driven Design for the Project Manager

Many developers and testers are familiar with test-driven design (TDD), but how can managers use it to drive project implementation? In this article, John Goodpasture offers a guide to TDD design from the project manager’s perspective.

John C. Goodpasture's picture John C. Goodpasture
Building a Competitive Software Capability: Creative Destruction

In this excerpt from Leadership, Teamwork, and Trust: Building a Competitive Software Capability, Watts Humphrey and James Over explain why these changes must be a high priority for software companies and other organizations for whom knowledge is a valuable asset.

Watts S. Humphrey James W. Over
Effective Leadership Communication

In most workplaces, there’s an institutional hierarchy that may influence how we react in situations that require us to step up. Navigating effective communication means knowing when we should listen quietly to leaders and when we should challenge or question.

Payson Hall's picture Payson Hall
Essentials for Small Team Dynamics in CM Practices

Personality matters a great deal when you need to be able to help a small team implement essential software configuration management practices. Small teams have dynamics just like any other team and you need to know what it takes to help your team achieve success. SCRUMs may have a maximum size of nine members, but you will likely find yourself in organizations where successful teams grow and you have to deal with the dynamics implicit in a successful team that now has new requirements for communicating and working together successfully. In this column, we will take a look at some of the essentials required for small teams.

Leslie  Sachs's picture Leslie Sachs

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