Recent Articles
Article by Sheryl Smith |
Comments (6) |
Aug 25 2003 - 12:57am "What could have been a scaffolding became a bubble of baseless IPOs that floated away and popped." That's what Sheryl says in this week's column about "lessons not learned" in software testing. Sheryl points out useful approaches to testing that grew in the 1980s, but were dropped as later generations approached testing in an ad hoc vacuum. Read More
Article by Naomi Karten |
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Aug 7 2003 - 1:27pm A potentially serious impediment to success in software projects is false assumptions. Both yours and everyone else's. If you act on false assumptions as though they're true, such as by assuming you understand exactly what your customers want, you may find yourself faced with flawed software and failed projects. In this column, Karten explores false, conflicting, and hidden assumptions, and how you can "surface" them. Read More
Article by Sheryl Smith |
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Jul 31 2003 - 9:14pm As you move from project to project, have you ever marveled at how the meaning of the word "schedule" seems to change? This is not a delusion! "Schedule" is an emotionally charged word. At present there's no agreement about what a schedule is, or what it's supposed to do. All we know for sure is that the word is supposed to get people excited. Read More
Article by Akash Banerjee |
Jul 30 2003 - 2:04pm Business Intelligence (BI) has emerged as a main technology driver. There are lots of enabling technologies that can be taken as an alternative to implement a BI solution. In this article the author discusses using SQL Server 2000 as a database for building a BI solution. Details are also given for using SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services and accessing them through a web presentation layer using ASP.NET. Read More
Article by Esther Derby |
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Jul 23 2003 - 6:57pm When I visit software organizations, I often hear complaints that we spend too much time in meetings! Many people spend a significant portion of each day in meetings. Wouldn't it be great to give some of that time back? You can return time to your staff by eliminating unnecessary meetings and improving the ones that remain on the calendar. And when staff has more time, it means your group is more likely to meet its goals. Read More
Article by Johanna Rothman |
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Jul 10 2003 - 6:48pm Many managers believe that overtime, even extended overtime is a good thing, and will help a project make progress. However, most technical people who try to work more than two weeks of overtime make huge numbers of mistakes. Often, they don't realize the mistakes and have already wasted a lot of time and money. Read More
Article by Linda Hayes |
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Jul 10 2003 - 4:32pm One of the most pervasive, and often justified complaints coming from QA professionals is that senior corporate management seems unaware of their existence, let alone their value. All too often perceived as a necessary evil or discretionary expense, QA is often a target of budget and schedule cuts. But all that could change with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. In this week's column, Linda Hayes explains what this new legislation could mean for your QA team. Read More
Article by Robert Glass |
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Jul 2 2003 - 5:28pm Hype is not unknown in the software field. The advocates of every new software idea exaggerate the benefits of using that idea. Those exaggerated claims generally have no basis in reality. In this week's column, Robert Glass explains his theory about Open Source Software. Read More
Article by Naomi Karten |
Comments (5) |
Jun 12 2003 - 1:32pm It's important to be honest when dealing with customers, no matter what that honesty entails. You may not always be able to deliver your product on time, but not communicating that truthfully with your customer can be devastating to your business. Dare to tell your customers the truth. They don't like to hear bad news, but they'll appreciate you for giving it to them straight and giving it to them as soon as possible. This article will help motivate you. Read More
Article by Sheryl Smith |
Comments (15) |
Jun 4 2003 - 1:22pm Due to shrinking budgets, organizations have scaled back testing beyond the point of acceptable risk. Some companies have eliminated QA resources altogether, pushing testing responsibilities back onto programming staff, which is itself spread too thinly to get it done. Unfortunately, this means that software (and even some hardware) is being released in an untested state. It's important to ask who is doing the testing on your project to ensure the testing is being done at all. Read More
