Videos
No Silver Bullet? Silver Buckshot May Work
It seems that someone is always promising a cure all—the proverbial "silver bullet"—for software woes. Still, the most common request Gregory Pope gets from software developers and managers is to "look at our development process and tell us how to make it better." Greg's goals for this presentation are for us to understand what "better" really means, to discuss common problems and potential solutions, and to become empowered to make our personal and our group's practices better. Although there may not be a silver bullet for your software woes, perhaps there is "silver buckshot"—a collection of techniques and tools to solve common problems.
What's Surgery Got to Do with Improving Software Practices?
It is fascinating to see what real life lessons we can learn from successful process improvement programs adopted by another group of professionals: medical surgeons. Many practices of early surgeons—trial and error, lack of standards, failure to measure and share outcomes, and more—bear a striking resemblance to software professionals and practices today. Ed Kit looks back at the important lessons learned from more than 150 years of key improvements that surgeons adopted and how these lessons relate to our young industry.
Anyone Can Test
In this STAREAST lightning talk, Rob Sabourin makes the case that good testers can come from many walks of life and highlights some of the attributes that add up to great testers.
5 Things Your Development Teams Should be Doing Now
In this ever-changing world of software development, it's important to keep up with technologies, methodologies, and trends. This video covers five practices that your team can utilize to accelerate software delivery.
Mission Critical Agility
Whether we're controlling interplanetary spacecraft, managing medical records, or merely staying in business, it seems that more of us are facing the pressure of building and managing mission-critical systems and teams. Although it's tempting to think that reliability is all that matters, we're also forced to adapt to constantly advancing technologies, shifting priorities, and relentless competitive pressures. What can we learn about agility from great inventors like Alexander Graham Bell and the pioneers at NASA who risked everything to change the world? Is it wise to embrace innovation and take risks when so much is at stake? Can you afford to be agile when failure is not an option, or can you afford not to? Jeff Norris explores key principles of agility from a fresh and entertaining perspective by drawing on inspiring stories of people who demonstrated agile work practices long before anyone had heard of a ScrumMaster. Come take a break from the rulebooks and taxonomies of the modern agile zoo and reflect on core traits that we all should embrace as we seek better ways of working.
