20 October 2011

Go mobile

So you have a website, you update it regularly with interesting content, you're linked to social media sites and you've even analysed your Google Analytics profile. But then you realise that while you were busy tweaking your website to look good in Internet Explorer on a desktop, a tenth of your traffic actually comes from mobile devices!

So what do you do? You whip out your iPhone or Blackberry, frenzily type in your URL and hit 'Go' - only to see your website looking like a bad bowl of alphabet soup!

If this sounds all too familiar, then you may need to go mobile.

According to MobiThinking, the...



Read the full article in the Fall 2011 issue of Work Your Way



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800 words
Nonfiction/Corporate

UK publication

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Words from the Wise

"Thank you very much for such a well written and well researched article."
Mary Cummings
Editor
Work Your Way

15 October 2011

We need to talk


Formal and automated communication is usually described in the context of large, widely distributed teams made up of specialists. For many testers reality is different. I work with a small company whose development arm consists of a project manager, a tester (me) and about six programmers. This team handles all new projects. We work closely in an unstructured, informal environment to very tight deadlines.

Tight focus, tunnel vision

Earlier this year, the company was commissioned to deliver a web application. The PM and I had a meeting with the customer's representatives. We went over...



Read the full article in the October 2011 issue of Professional Tester



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1800 words
Nonfiction/Corporate

Europe publication

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Words from the Wise

"Your wonderful writing style would be a fine asset to the magazine. Thank you for sending this: I like it very much. I remain a big fan of your writing ability and style and I want it to appear in PT very much. I want your opinions, stated in your wonderfully clear and descriptive way. I think readers will like this article. I think the article is great and will resonate with many readers. It has the weight needed to balance the last two issues where the agile and automation crews have tended to have things their own way due to HP's influence."
Edward Bishop
Editor
Professional Tester

10 October 2011

Developing the right attitude

"A degree of tact and diplomacy is an essential tool in the tester's arsenal. A tester must be aware that his/her task is, in its baser nature, finding faults in another person's work and nobody likes that. It is important to learn how to avoid confrontational situations."

"Testers must try to make their bug reports impersonal and unbiased. Focus on reporting the bug in the most comprehensive way not on placing the blame on the developer."

Sound advice. And one that is familiar to all testers. The ubiquitous phrase of "conflict resolution" crops up regularly and often in the tester's day to...



Read the full article in the October 2011 issue of TEST Magazine



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2920 words
Nonfiction/Corporate

Europe publication

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Words from the Wise

"Love the feature!"
Matthew Bailey
Editor
T.E.S.T. Magazine


"I think that the topic you’ve chosen is a strong one, and your opening paragraph reflects this. It really got me excited about reading more on developer-tester conflicts and how to resolve them."
Joey McAllister
Editor
StickyMinds.com

1 October 2011

Games gods play

‘Let us churn the ocean together,’ said the Gods to the Demons.

The Gods and the Demons were always at war. Neither side had the upper hand consistently, for they were always evenly matched in strength and valour.

One day, the king of Gods was riding his mount, an elephant, in Heaven. The air was sweet and fresh, the birds were chirping and the environment was alive and vigorous. In this jaunt, a great sage appeared before the king and offered him a garland as a mark of his esteem. The king accepted the garland and placed it on the trunk of his elephant. But the noble beast was irritated by the smell of...



Read the full story in the October 2011 issue of Bards And Sages Quarterly



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1216 words
Drama/Fantasy

US publication

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Words from the Wise

"This was pretty interesting to read. I truly believe that this would work for a role-playing game."
Adam
Manuscript Reader
Bards and Sages Quarterly

"There was some good imagery here, and the world building had me really interested, the past history of Gods and Demons, a sage who could curse the gods, etc."
Samuel Montgomery-Blinn
Editor
Bull Spec

"Your piece was quite good"
D. L. Russell
Editor
Strange, Weird and Wonderful magazine

"It is well written"
Alexander Korovessis
Editor
Kasma

"It's a good story overall"
J. E. Taylor
Assistant Editor
Allegory

"I thought this was a good flash, interesting"
Anonymous
Editor
Silver Pen