Methods & Tools Software Development Magazine

Software Development Magazine - Project Management, Programming, Software Testing

Scrum Expert - Articles, tools, videos, news and other resources on Agile, Scrum and Kanban


Methods & Tools - August 2020
Sharing global software development expertise since 1993


=== Sponsor ===


TimeShiftX - Travel in Time, Test with Ease

TimeShiftX lets you time travel your software into the future or past to temporal test date and time sensitive functionality and code such as year-end, daylight savings, billing, and policies. Employ instant time travel inside Active Directory & Kerberos without changing system clocks, editing code, or isolating servers. TimeShiftX is multi-platform, cloud & container compatible, and supports all applications and databases.

Start your free trial today!


*** Updates ***


Last Articles Published on Methods & Tools Website

5 Major Problems With Synchronous Code Reviews A synchronous code review is performed together in front of the coder screen after the coder finished coding. In contrast, the asynchronous review is done by the reviewer on his own screen, on his own schedule. The reviewer uses some tools to write comments, that are then forwarded to the coder to improve the code. This article presents five issues with synchronous code reviews. Read more...


*** From The Archives ***


Articles from Methods & Tools' Archives

Practical Experience in Automated Software Testing Test automation can add a lot of complexity and cost to a test team's effort, but it can also provide some valuable assistance to software testing if its done by the right people, with the right environment and done where it makes sense to do so. I hope by sharing some pointers that I feel are important that you'll find some value that translates into saved time, money and less frustration in your efforts to implement test automation back on the job. Read more...


=== Sponsor ===


STARWEST Virtual+, October 5-8 2020, Streaming Live 10AM-6PM ET

Bringing the software testing community together and streaming over 75+ talks - including keynotes, tutorials, and sessions all in an engaging and interactive premium virtual atmosphere. Plus, with 3 pass options to choose from, you can select the conference package that fits your needs and your budget—including the FREE pass!

Register Now!


*** Quote of the Month ***


Refinement is about creating a shared understanding (between PO and DT) of the value and intent of the items on the Product Backlog. Shared understanding sounds good, but why is it so important?

Some scenarios I have seen in practice:

We don't do refinement.

In Sprint Planning the Dev Team just sits blank at first. After some explanation of the Product Owner discussions start taking place about the content, the value, the size and the order of the work. In the end, we just pull some items of the Product Backlog to start working, because the timebox expires. There is no belief in the reliability of this plan, or there is no plan at all.

We do too little refinement as a team.

Sprint Planning in this case often seems to start fruitfully. The items on top of the Product Backlog look relatively clear and the Dev Team feels confident to pull these in the Sprint. Then, going through item X, you notice a shift in the team. Not everyone has seen this before, some don't agree with the splitting, others don't agree with the proposed solution. The PO proposes to skip this item, but there aren't many items that the teams thinks are ready. Finally we create a plan, but you feel the commitment "has been better".

Way too much refinement.

We get situations where we refined some items a few weeks or months before. In Sprint Planning one of two things usually happens. One, people are unsure if these items are really necessary. An item that seemed pressing back then, but no one can tell why this was valuable. Or two, people have no idea what these items are about. Since we prefer talking over writing, a conversation we had a few months ago is hard to recollect. In the end, we have to do another refinement to get this clear. What a waste.

We need just in time collaboration on the Product Backlog to answer "do we understand what we are likely to do in the future?", and "do we have just enough information to start working on it". It is about finding a balance that works for you and your team, in order to prevent situations like this!

Source: Refinement Revised, Bjorn van den Einden, https://www.scrum.org/resources/blog/refinement-revised


=== White Papers ===


8 Benefits Of Agile Nearshore Development For Your Company: Agile software development refers to methodologies and principles of effective, iterative, and collaborative programming. It becomes more and more popular nowadays as suggests a more affordable and client-oriented process. Agile nearshoring means delegating programming tasks to dedicate teams in a nearby country to increase business success and get a project released faster.

How pCloudy continuous testing platform enables high speed and qualitative mobile app testing: pCloudy is a cloud based continuous testing platform designed to enhance the quality of the mobile application under test. In this white paper, we will discuss how we can increase the speed of testing mobile apps by enabling continuous testing. We will have an overview of how we can perform manual and automation testing and list the latest features of pCloudy at the end.

Contact us if you want to publish a white paper with ScrumExpert.com or SoftwareTestingMagazine.com.


*** Software Development Linkopedia ***


Text: "No Estimates" is not the (only) Answer or: Moving towards Predictability

Text: Modern JavaScript Explained For Dinosaurs

Text: UX Roadmaps: Definition and Components

Text: My Series on Modern Software Development Practices

Text: Testing and creating CI/CD pipelines for AWS Step Functions

Text: 80% of communication is non-verbal

Text: A Guide for Software Testing in Scrum

Video: Does Agile Make You Less Secure?

Video: A Guide to Software Security Practices

Video: Modern Enterprise Java Applications

Video: Software Testing in DevOps for Engineers

Video: Do Not Get Rid of All the Managers!

Video: Assuring or Not Assuring Software Quality?

Tools: Rest.li is an open source REST framework for building robust, scalable RESTful architectures using type-safe bindings and asynchronous, non-blocking IO. Rest.li fills a niche for applying RESTful principles at scale with an end-to-end developer workflow for building REST APIs, which promotes clean REST practices, uniform interface design and consistent data modeling.

Tools: Meteor is a simple open source environment for building modern web applications. With Meteor, you write apps in modern JavaScript that send data over the wire, rather than HTML using your choice of popular open-source libraries like React or Angular.

Tools: Free Retrospective Tools for Distributed Scrum Teams. Even if Agile approaches favor collocated teams, distributed Scrum teams are more common that what you might think. Many Agile software development teams are based on a virtual organization. This article presents some free online tools that can be used to facilitate retrospectives for distributed Scrum teams.


*** Promoted Software Development Conferences ***


jconf.dev, September 30 2020, Online, Chicago, USA

STARWEST Virtual+, October 5-8 2020, Streaming Live 10AM-6PM ET

Pacific Northwest Software Quality Conference, October 12-14 2020, Portland, USA

CONNECT.TECH, October 14 2020, Online, Atlanta, USA

Agile Tour London, October 21-23 2020, Online + London, UK

Agile + DevOps Virtual, November 9-12 2020, Streaming Live 10AM-6PM ET

UIArchConf, November 19-20 2020, New Orleans, USA


Contact us if you want your software development conference promoted here.
Find more upcoming conferences on SoftDevConferences.com, ScrumExpert.com, SoftwareTestingMagazine.com

 
November 2022
October 2022
September 2022
August 2022
June 2022
May 2022
April 2022
March 2022
February 2022
January 2022
December 2021
November 2021
October 2021
September 2021
August 2021
June 2021
May 2021
April 2021
March 2021
February 2021
January 2021
December 2020
November 2020
October 2020
September 2020
August 2020
June 2020
May 2020
April 2020
March 2020
February 2020
January 2020
December 2019
November 2019
October 2019
September 2019
August 2019
June 2019
May 2019
April 2019
March 2019
February 2019
January 2019
December 2018
November 2018
October 2018
September 2018
August 2018
June 2018
May 2018
April 2018
March 2018
February 2018
January 2018
December 2017
November 2017
October 2017
September 2017
August 2017
June 2017
May 2017
April 2017
March 2017
February 2017
January 2017
December 2016
November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
August 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016
December 2015
November 2015
October 2015
September 2015
August 2015
June 2015
May 2015
April 2015
March 2015
February 2015
January 2015
December 2014
November 2014
October 2014
September 2014
August 2014
June 2014
May 2014
April 2014
March 2014
February 2014
January 2014
December 2013
November 2013
October 2013
September 2013
August 2013
June 2013
May 2013
April 2013
March 2013
February 2013
January 2013
December 2012
November 2012
October 2012
September 2012
August 2012
June 2012
May 2012
April 2012
March 2012
February 2012
January 2012
December 2011
November 2011
October 2011
September 2011
August 2011
June 2011
May 2011
April 2011
March 2011
February 2011
January 2011
December 2010
November 2010
October 2010
September 2010
August 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
November 2009
October 2009
August 2009
May 2009
April 2009
February 2009
January 2009
November 2008
October 2008
August 2008
May 2008
April 2008
February 2008
January 2008
November 2007
October 2007
August 2007
May 2007
April 2007
February 2007
January 2007
November 2006
October 2006
August 2006
May 2006
April 2006
February 2006
January 2006
November 2005
October 2005
August 2005
May 2005
April 2005
February 2005
January 2005
November 2004
October 2004
August 2004
May 2004
April 2004
February 2004
January 2004
November 2003
October 2003
August 2003
May 2003
April 2003
February 2003
January 2003
November 2002
October 2002
May 2002
April 2002
February 2002
January 2002
November 2001
October 2001
May 2001
April 2001
February 2001
January 2001
Winter 2000
Fall 2000

Methods & Tools
is supported by


Testmatick.com

Software Testing
Magazine


The Scrum Expert