Who Says Writing Documentation is Dry?

Here is a great story about how not all computer documentation is dull reading (or writing).

Enjoy!

http://www.ironicsans.com/2010/02/they_dont_make_computer_manual.html

Free Seminar on User Stories, March 2nd.

The link to sign up is http://app.en25.com/e/es.aspx?s=1156&e=13096&elq=e6632e0b731a40f2b08b0e622e3b26b9

Here's an excerpt from the description

"Do you want more practical agile training on planning your iterations? Are your teams trying to get into flow but struggle to get answers to tactical questions on user stories? Join agile coach Ken Clyne as he shares successful tactics for writing value-focused stories; sizing, splitting, tasking, and accepting user stories; and strategies for working across teams from iteration to iteration. He also explains the differences between stories and tasks, how to update the backlog, ways to chart and track story point burn-up, write acceptance criteria, and understand when a story is done."

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@redearthqa

My Review of "Modeling Software Behavior"

A few weeks ago, I read "Modeling Software Behavior" by Paul Jorgensen for StickyMinds.com.

If you haven't been there, it's an excellent resource for not only book reviews :) , but also lots of other information on tools and techniques. This is produced by the same company that puts on The Star Conferences.


http://www.stickyminds.com/s.asp?F=S1203_BOOK_4

New Meeting Location for February.

We will be meeting at the FIS/Metavante offices at 1200 Sovereign Row. The meeting is still from 4:30pm to 6pm.

Directions

• From I-40, take Meridian South
• Turn Left at Will Rogers Parkway
• Turn Left at Sovereign Row
• The FIS/Metavante offices are on the right just before the curve in the road.

Free parking is available!

Meeting Announcement- Evening Meeting 4:30pm-6pm Thursday, February 18th

NEWS
- We're moving to evenings to accommodate your busy work schedule!

Time and Location

The Red Earth QA's meeting will be held on the 3rd floor of 100 N. Broadway from 4:30pm -6pm on Thursday, February 18th. Look for the signs to direct you to the correct room.

Topic

We will be discussing 'Test Plan - Best Practices - Bring a Sample'

Randy Rice of Rice Consulting has agreed to lead the discussion!

Directions

• You can park in Main Street Parking on Main or you can find street parking.
• From I-40, take the Robinson Exit. Go North on Robinson to Main. Right on Main. You can either go to Main Street Parking or continue to Santa Fe Parking. You will see 100 N Broadway on your left across Broadway. The building says 'Chase' at the top.

Was your last project successful?

I was thinking about how the same project can be rejected or approved depending on who you ask. This flowchart is the result, enjoy.

Online UI Mockup Tool

A small company called Balsamiq is making an online version of their product to create screen mockups available.

http://www.balsamiq.com/demos/mockups/Mockups.html

It pops up a dialog every 5 min or so to suggest using a paid version. Even if you don't get licenses for this, it may be useful for small projects.

Details of the features are here:
http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mockups

Agile Technique Proposed in 1968

I ran across an article, "Iterative Multi-Level Modeling - A Methodology for Computer System Design" from 1968 that essentially talks about the benefits of an agile approach to system design.

"The paper presents a method of modelling a computer system design as it evolves, so that evaluation can be made an integral part of the design process. The paper introduces the concept of concurrent existence, within a single model, of several representations of the system being modelled, at differing levels of abstraction. Thus important design decisions are expressed directly in terms of appropriately abstract quantities, facilitating understanding, validation, and modification of the system design. The paper includes brief details of an experimental implementation of the modelling technique and of the use of the technique to model both hardware and software components of a multi-processing system."