No Functional Testing for the Dumb Developer ?
Published August 31st, 2009 Under Numbers | Leave a Comment
A recent Methods & Tools survey tried to evaluate the usage of tools to automate execution of functional software tests. A similar poll was conducted in 2005 and it was interesting to compare the results. Read more
September Software Development Conferences
Published August 27th, 2009 Under Conferences | Leave a Comment
Here is a list of software development related conferences that will take place in September and that are partners with Methods & Tools:
* Software & Systems Quality Conference, September 14, Zurich, Switzerland
* The Ajax Experience 2009, September 14-16 2009, Boston, USA
* Conquest 2009, September 16-18, Nuremberg, Germany
* REConf CH, September 22-24 2009, Zurich, Switzerland
* Software & Systems Quality Conference Nordic, September 24-25 2009, Stockholm, Sweden
* Software & Systems Quality Conference, September 29 – October 1, London, UK
* STARWEST 2009 Software Testing Analysis & Review Conference, October 5-9 2009, Anaheim, USA
Find more conferences on SoftDevConferences.com
Agile Coaching
Published August 21st, 2009 Under Books | Leave a Comment
There was a time when software developers worked with consultants that will do things for their company or teach some technical knowledge. Agile approaches have brought forward another type of people: coaches. According to Rachel Davies and Liz Sedley, a coach doesn’t tell you what to do, rather she shows you how she thinks you might do things and hope that it will help you to improve your situation. She leads by example. It is not easy to write a book on this type of topic. The authors recognize this situation and manage to achieve a good balance between general advice and practical usage reports.
The first part of the book is concentrated on the basics of coaching and communicating in software project. The software development curricula are often weak on “people” skills and you are not always lucky to find the right person as a supervisor when you get out of school. I think I was lucky, thank you Claude ;o) The second part goes through the different activities of a typical Agile project (daily meeting, user stories definition, planning, etc.) and discuss how coach can help a project team to achieve its goals. Each chapter has a final checklist and the book is also full of “personal stories” from the authors that enhance the theoretical advice, applying it on real situations.
Although the title of the book and some of its content might make you think that its value is limited to an agile context, I will recommend this book to every person that has some supervision function in software development organizations and to every developer who believe than acquiring additional “people” skill might improve its work environment. Just changing the way you talk with colleagues could lead to having more sunnier days at the office.
Disclaimer: Rachel Davies has been a (valuable) contributor to Methods & Tools since 2005
Reference: “Agile Coaching”, Rachel Davies and Liz Sedley, Pragmatic Bookshelf, 250 pages, to be released August 28, 2009
Get more details on this book or buy it on amazon.com
Get more details on this book or buy it on amazon.co.uk
Linkopedia August 2009
Published August 19th, 2009 Under Links | Leave a Comment
Unit Testing Has Changed How I Write Software
Every Tuesday at 1 PM EST Robert Dempsey answers your questions about Agile, live.
Sonar enables you to collect, analyze and report metrics on source code
Agavi is a powerful, scalable PHP5 application framework
Article: Practical Architecture in Impractical Times
Article: Patterns + GWT + Ajax = Usability!
Video: Good Test, Better Code – From Unit Testing to Behavior-Driven Development
Video: Empowering the Agile Team
Find more interesting links on the software development links directory, the software development tools directory, the software development articles directory, the software development blogs aggregator or the software development videos directory.
SpringSource Acquired by VMware for $420 Million
Published August 14th, 2009 Under News | Leave a Comment
August 10, VMware announced a definitive agreement to acquire SpringSource. VMware and SpringSource plan to deliver compelling new solutions that enable companies to more efficiently build, run and manage applications within both internal and external cloud architectures. Read more
keep looking »