A reader wrote me to ask: I know what metrics to use to manage a traditional phased project. But what metrics do you use on Agile projects? I started drafting my answer in a private email but I decided that it was time to put my answer on the record. This is a great question. [...]

Dale Emery has taught me an enormous amount about using resistance as a resource. I’m grateful. I use his ideas every time I set foot in a classroom or start consulting with a new client. In particular, I channel my inner Dale whenever discussing any of the various controversial things I advocate, such as: The [...]

Happy New Year! A funny thing happened on my way to inbox 0 last week: I wrote a book in 4 days. I didn’t mean to. And actually it’s not true to say that I wrote it in just 4 days. I assembled it in 4 days; I wrote it over 15 years. Allow me [...]

In 1935, physicist Erwin Schrödinger proposed a thought experiment to explain how quantum mechanics deals only with probabilities rather than objective reality. He outlined a scenario in which a cat is placed inside a sealed chamber. Inside the chamber is a flask containing a deadly substance. There is a small bit of radioactive material that [...]

This is a guest blog post by Daniel Frank, my assistant. Daniel took on the challenge of updating the QA/Test job study for 2011, just in time for making New Year’s resolutions. Enjoy! Elisabeth It’s been a little over a year since Elisabeth published “Do Testers Have to Write Code,” the results of an in-depth [...]

I’ve been writing a lot lately. Writing for long stretches leaves me mentally drained, nearly useless. The words dry up. I stop making sense. I find it increasingly difficult to form coherent sentences that concisely convey my meaning. Eventually I can’t even talk intelligibly. I recall attending a party after a week of solid writing [...]

When I moved my blog, I didn’t do a good enough job of verifying that all the assets moved over. Several folks have contacted me asking for their favorite content to be restored. Whoopsie! Many many thanks to everyone who contacted me. Please accept my apologies both for breaking links and also for taking so [...]

This week, I’m investing a bunch of hours on my side project. Today, I’m working on a feature where a field is supposed to remain invisible until a user enters a combination of values. There are a variety of ways to test this code including testing the javascript with something like Jasmine. However, in this [...]