You're Not the Only One Who Needs to Be Agile Why Quality Assurance Is
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Winter 2015 www.TechWell.com IS AGILE BREAKING PRODUCT MANAGEMENT? You're not the only one who needs to be agile QA IS A PROCESS Why quality assurance is more than a department MOVE YOUR TESTING FORWARD WITH TRAINING FROM SQE TRAINING M B I N O E C The more training you take TRAINING WEEK A N E the greater the savings! D S A V Maximize the impact of your training by combining courses in the same location. 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For 2information BETTER SOFTWARE on our 60+Winter Public 2015 and 40+ Livewww.TechWell.com Virtual Course Dates visit www.sqetraining.com MOVE YOUR TESTING FORWARD TESTING TRAINING LEARNING OPTIONS: WITH TRAINING FROM SQE TRAINING Public M B I N O E C The more training you take TRAINING WEEK A N E the greater the savings! V D S A Instructor-led training in Live, instructor-led Maximize the impact of your training by combining a city near you classes via your computer courses in the same location. Combine a full week of training for the largest discount! 2015 March 23–27, 2015 SPRING SCHEDULE Boston, MA eLearning April 27–May 1, 2015 Instructor-led training Self-paced San Diego, CA at your location TESTING learning, online Moving TRAINING June 1–5, 2015 Testing WEEKS Chicago, IL Forward Take advantage of the different “Ways to Save” on training using our discount programs ways tosave listed below. Purchase valuable software quality training for your whole team and save. MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDAY THURSDAY FRIDAY M B I N M B I N Software Tester Certification—Foundation Level Mastering Test Design O E O E EARLY C C TRAINING WEEK CONFERENCE A A N E N E DevOps Test Integration BIRD D S A V D S A V Security Testing for Test Professionals Integrating Test with a DevOps Approach Workshop Register 6 weeks Combine specialized Have a group and Bring any course Save when you Mobile Test Automation prior to any training training courses in want to save more? to your location combine any of Fundamentals of Agile Certification—ICAgile Mobile Application Testing Workshop week course and the same location Get details on our for team training. our pre-conference receive 10% off per and save. Discounts discount policy by On-site training is training courses registered course vary depending on contacting our Client both cost-effective with your conference Agile Test Automation— Agile Tester Certification day. 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For information on our 60+ Public and 40+ Live Virtual Course Dates For information on our 60+ Public and 40+ Live Virtual Course Dates visit www.sqetraining.com visit www.sqetraining.comwww.TechWell.com Winter 2015 BETTER SOFTWARE 3 Volume 17, Issue 1 • WINTER 2015 24 CONTENTS features 14 COVER STORY BEING AGILE, EVEN IF MY ORGANIZATION ISN’T Many of us work for organizations that claim adherence to agility, yet in practice aren't even close. Agile is definitely here to stay, and if you haven't caught the wave, it is only a matter of time before you do. Brian Rabon presents insightful techniques that can help you become more agile now. by Brian Rabon 18 QUALITY ASSURANCE IS A PROCESS, NOT A DEPARTMENT QA is often considered that lonely department of testers whose job is to find defects before the customer does. It's not always glamorous, but QA deserves to be recognized as a key cog in the testing machine. To achieve business 14 goals, it is Susan Bradley's view that the QA process needs to be embraced throughout the entire software development lifecycle. by Susan Bradley 24 MOTIVATING TEAMS IN A SELF-ORGANIZING ENVIRONMENT A key characteristic of agile is that a team self-organizes to best fit the work- load. This, according to Maria Matarelli, can be more difficult than the more traditional approach of a project manager simply telling the team what to do. by Maria Matarelli 28 IS AGILE BREAKING PRODUCT MANAGEMENT? It can be a challenge for a product manager to know how to lead an agile 18 software team. As product managers take on many different roles throughout a project lifecycle, there can be confusion, resulting in the product manager do- ing what nobody else wants to do. Steve Johnson offers a perspective of the agile product manager that every software developer should know. in every issue by Steve Johnson Mark Your Calendar 4 Editor's Note 5 columns Contributors 6 7 TECHNICALLY SPEAKING THE LEAN TEST CANVAS Interview with an Expert 9 Taking lessons from the lean business model, Matt Heusser explains how a TechWell Spotlight 12 tester can present different values and properly set expectations with the team using the lean test canvas. His approach starts with defining who the customer Product Announcements 32 is and ends with key qualitative measures that will be used to ensure success. FAQ 35 by Matt Heusser Ad Index 37 36 CAREER DEVELOPMENT PAINFUL LESSONS I LEARNED FROM BOOTSTRAPPING A STARTUP Better Software magazine brings you the If you are considering leaving the nest to self-fund your own endeavor, you hands-on, knowledge-building information you need to run smarter projects and deliver may want to read about Mike Botsko's experience creating a cloud-based, better products that win in the marketplace bug-tracking app called Snowy Evening. What started out as a lot of fun quickly and positively affect the bottom line. Subscribe today at BetterSoftware.com or turned into a tough journey. Don't worry—it has a happy ending! call 904.278.0524. by Mike Botsko www.TechWell.com Winter 2015 BETTER SOFTWARE 3 MARK YOUR CALENDAR SQE TRAINING software tester Advanced-Level Certification February 23–27, 2015 Publisher certification San Francisco, CA Software Quality Engineering Inc. http://www.sqetraining.com/certification April 20–24, 2015 President/CEO Atlanta, GA Wayne Middleton Foundation-Level Certification February 24–26, 2015 Director of Publishing San Francisco, CA training weeks Heather Shanholtzer Editorial March 2–4, 2015 Testing Training Week Denver, CO http://www.sqetraining.com/trainingweek Better Software Editor March 23–27, 2015 Ken Whitaker March 3–5, 2015 Boston, MA Charlotte, NC Online Editors April 27–May 1, 2015 Josiah Renaudin March 10–12, 2015 San Diego, CA Beth Romanik Nashville, TN Philadelphia, PA June 1–5, 2015 Production Coordinator Chicago, IL Donna Handforth March 16–18, 2015 Vienna, VA Design Agile Training Week http://www.sqetraining.com/agileweek Creative Director March 17–19, 2015 Catherine J. Clinger Los Angeles, CA February 23–26, 2015 Atlanta, GA Advertising March 23–25, 2015 Boston, MA May 11–14, 2015 Sales Consultants Toronto, ON Daryll Paiva March 24–26, 2015 Kim Trott Toronto, ON Sales Coordinator Alex Dinney conferences Marketing Marketing Manager Mobile Dev + Test Conference Better Software Conference West Kim Bryant http://mobiledevtest.techwell.com http://bscwest.techwell.com Marketing Assistant April 12–17, 2015 June 7–12, 2015 Kelly Radell San Diego, CA Las Vegas, NV Manchester Grand Hyatt Caesars Palace STAREAST STARCANADA http://stareast.techwell.com http://starcanada.techwell.com CONTACT US May 3–8, 2015 June 21–25, 2015 Editors: [email protected] Orlando, FL Vancouver, BC, Canada Subscriber Services: Gaylord Palms Resort Westin Bayshore [email protected] Phone: 904.278.0524, 888.268.8770 Agile Development Conference West STARWEST Fax: 904.278.4380 http://adcwest.techwell.com http://starwest.techwell.com Address: Better Software magazine June 7–12, 2015 September 27–October 2, 2015 Software Quality Engineering, Inc. Las Vegas, NV Anaheim, CA 340 Corporate Way, Suite 300 Caesars Palace Disneyland Hotel Orange Park, FL 32073 4 BETTER SOFTWARE Winter 2015 www.TechWell.com Editor’s Note A BRAND-NEW YEAR BRINGS NEW CHANGES Happy New Year! Just when we think there’s nothing left for software developers to invent, we enter 2015 with more software innovation than ever before. Wearables just got a jolt in the arm with numerous smartwatches; standalone apps are giving way to app families that collaborate with most any device (phones, tablets, desktops, and the web); and Internet of Things devices are surrounding us with sensors and cloud connectivity. Where teaching software development used to begin in high school or college, children are now being encouraged to learn how to code through the magic of innovative books, visual programming languages, coding camps, and videos. But in the real world, just because you know how to code doesn’t mean you know how to get past the hurdles to releasing a finished product to market.