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A Day At StarEast 2014 – 05/07/2014
Northway Solutions Group attended StarEast in Orlando today. The keynote by Randy Rice was interesting. Randy spoke about using principles before practices. Grasping the principle is more important than just jumping into practice. Without understanding principles, they tend to be misapplied.

In the general session, the topic was about “Testing in the Age of Distraction”, meaning Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, and other distractions we testers face while while trying to be productive. It’s important t Read Entire Entry

Part 17 in a series of 17. To start at the beginning, first read Agile vs Fragile: A Disciplined Approach or an Excuse for Chaos.
Undoubtedly, some of you have made the determination that your team is not Agile, but is indeed Fragile.  Some of you knew it before you even read any of the blog, but now are even more convinced.  But what are you willing to do about it?  Are you ready to break down that façade and begin the journey to changing from Fragile to Agile?  If your answer to this question is yes, then I recommend the Read Entire Entry

Part 16 in a series of 17. To start at the beginning, first read Agile vs Fragile: A Disciplined Approach or an Excuse for Chaos.
In the traditional development space we are all very familiar with the testing tools that are available. We know about industry leaders such as HP Quality Center, QuickTest Professional and Performance Center.  We understand the value they add to large projects and how they are essential to ensuring that the testing process is well managed and delivered.  But what about Agile?  Do these same tool Read Entire Entry

Part 15 in a series of 17. To start at the beginning, first read Agile vs Fragile: A Disciplined Approach or an Excuse for Chaos.
Often times teams make the argument that Agile means that there is no longer a need for  “independent” teams of testers that verify that the solution was built correctly according to the requirement specifications.  They argue that this is now the role of the “super developer”, and the business representative, who are both embedded into the team.  After all, the business knows what they Read Entire Entry

Part 14 in a series of 17. To start at the beginning, first read Agile vs Fragile: A Disciplined Approach or an Excuse for Chaos.
If you were to survey a group of very frustrated testers about why they have problems with their Agile teams, you would find that in almost all cases they get frustrated trying to get any documentation that helps them identify what to test.  Every time they request even minimal documentation, the development team pushes back and says that documentation isn’t needed because Agile eliminates the need Read Entire Entry

Part 13 in a series of 17. To start at the beginning, first read Agile vs Fragile: A Disciplined Approach or an Excuse for Chaos.
The last Agile principle is all about retrospectives. This is one area where a lot of teams have dropped the ball. They don’t take the time to do retrospectives because people don’t understand the value they bring. They are perceived as a waste of time that could be spent on the next development sprint.  What they fail to realize is that on a long marathon, it is the small corrections in the Read Entire Entry

Part 12 in a series of 17. To start at the beginning, first read Agile vs Fragile: A Disciplined Approach or an Excuse for Chaos.
Agile principle eleven deals with the team itself. This principle focuses on the enablement of the team to leverage their unique position as the closest people to the problem manage the work.  It also enables the team to safely take risks. The team is typically creating new solutions, and doing it in a rapid fashion. Agile promotes the team trying new things without worrying about being chastised for Read Entire Entry

Part 11 in a series of 17. To start at the beginning, first read Agile vs Fragile: A Disciplined Approach or an Excuse for Chaos.
The tenth Agile principle focuses on keeping the solution as simple as possible while maximizing value and quality. Agile processes focus on finding the simplest way possible of solving a business problem with quality, not finding the fastest way to code the solution.  Sprints are kept as simple as possible to ensure that all work gets prioritized by using the backlog as the gatekeeper.  In the Read Entire Entry

Part 10 in a series of 17. To start at the beginning, first read Agile vs Fragile: A Disciplined Approach or an Excuse for Chaos.
Principle nine is all about good design and technical excellence.  One of the biggest challenges facing teams that are attempting to do Agile development is the natural urge to just jump in and start coding based on a lose set of requirements, without any real design.  This is natural, but almost always results in negative impacts to the project timelines, because the team has to go back and do Read Entire Entry

Part 9 in a series of 17. To start at the beginning, first read Agile vs Fragile: A Disciplined Approach or an Excuse for Chaos.
Agile principle 8 deals with managing a fresh team.  This is one of the most telling characteristics of Agile and Fragile teams.  Agile teams see projects as a marathon made up of individual sprints.  For the team to make a sprint at the expense of the overall marathon is not acceptable.  Agile teams ensure that the amount of work that the team takes on is realistic and paces the effort of the team Read Entire Entry