Software Testing and Agile

In Celebration of Agile’s 20th Anniversary, Executive Vice President Mike Sowers reflects on how software testing and testing professionals have been influenced by agile principles and practices.

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Architecting Your Test Automation Platform

As another year begins and we look forward, many teams use this time to reflect on all that they’ve accomplished—reviewing things that are working well and things they’d like to improve. A key challenge continues to be automating our testing. Most of us are running to catch up in the test automation space and aggressively […]

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Quality Engineering in Agile and DevOps

Early in the software engineering journey, there were primarily developers. Developers had a wide array of accountabilities: designing, coding, testing, deploying, maintaining, and more. Quality was inherently built in and championed by the triad of the customer, the business, and the developers. As we scaled, we segmented these responsibilities across roles, which came with both […]

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Rethinking Your Measurement and Metrics for Agile and DevOps

One of the key conversations organizations and teams forget about in their transition to agile and DevOps is updating their measurement and metrics plan. Many companies are still using measurements and metrics from the traditional waterfall software development lifecycle. While some of these remain useful, many may not provide value to the team or organization—and […]

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Career Options for Testers in the Age of Agile and DevOps
Team of business professional looking at laptop

I’m often asked about the future of the testing role. Should I change my career direction? What’s in store for testing roles? Will there be a need for quality and testing expertise in the future? As a quality engineer, or tester, or testing leader, where do I go from here? No one has a crystal […]

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Where Are All the Great Software Testers?

It can be difficult to find great software testers for senior roles; often, the people you want to hire are the ones who are already gainfully employed. Michael Sowers gives his suggestions for identifying qualified and experienced software engineers who can deliver on senior testing role accountabilities.

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Agile and DevOps Bring the Focus Back on Quality
Magnifying glass on colored paper

I’ve had the privilege (and the many challenges) of working in IT for more than three decades. Early in my career I tended to accept things as they were presented, following the techniques, processes, guidelines, and approaches I was taught by my peers and managers. As I gained experience and wisdom, I became a better independent thinker and started to connect the dots and ask questions.

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The Importance of Goal Alignment in Agile and DevOps

I work and interact with multiple software development teams. Some are just beginning their agile and DevOps journeys and others are well on their way, but they have many of the same questions or concerns: How do we get all team member roles on the same page? How do we communicate and collaborate more effectively […]

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