News and Events

Production Support Sits at the Nexus of Multiple Powerful Forces ~ by Randy Wagner Each department wants to see their outstanding technical debt resolved. And they want to respond to the market with new or updated functionality. And they want to see new production defects resolved. Oh, and vendors may change their integrations. IT leadership wants to streamline systems. It can be ...

~ by Randy Wagner People, Process, and Procedure Running Production Support teams in an agile environment across multiple streams and lines of business can be challenging. How do we deliver quality functionality on time and consistently with so many plates spinning? It really comes down to three things: People, Process, and Procedure. The three Ps. #3 Procedure - Repeatable Steps Let’s start ...

~ by Randy Wagner Production support, production maintenance, whatever you call it, is usually the least sexy team. It gets squeezed the hardest, is given the highest expectations for turnaround time, and still has to manage work from every functional direction. But despite all the demands, it must deliver quality as economically as possible. So how do we balance budget, timeline, and ...

~ by Randy Wagner We did not arrive at our current processes by chance. Whatever the process—whether it is how we use the agile methodology for our project, defect management, or any of the other major and minor processes we follow on a daily basis—it is a result of best practice, team experience, and management priorities. However, that’s not to say we ...

~ by Randy Wagner Which is More Important—Efficiency or Predictability? It depends. All of us make decisions in our work, regardless of our role in projects or our level in our careers. We endeavor to do the best we can, over-deliver on our promises, and manage our workloads. Some work can be done individually; other work depends on teammates or even other ...

~ by Randy Wagner How to Think about QA to Promote Success Some concepts are perceived in black and white - binary terms. Justice, for example, denotes that a wrong has been righted. What about the quality aspects of justice? Was the punishment severe enough? Was the process fair to both parties along the way? The innocent went free but at what ...