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August 2009 - Posts

Learning and Thinking

Posted Sunday, August 30, 2009 12:10 PM by alanpa
I’ve been meaning to write a few more posts about The Passionate Programmer . So, before I forget, here is one of those posts. When I first read The Pragmatic Programmer 5 or 6 years ago, one of the many suggestions that stuck with me was the idea of Read More...
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Planning the next 10 months

Posted Wednesday, August 26, 2009 10:37 PM by alanpa
It’s “commitment” time at Microsoft – which means that employees across the company are plotting out what they’ll be doing over the next 10 months (the weird thing about commitments is that we set them in August / September, but we review them in June. Read More...
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Look past the bug

Posted Wednesday, August 19, 2009 10:26 PM by alanpa
I have a couple of stories based on a bug I was passively investigating the last few days (“passively”== an “issue” showed up on an alias I was on and I took a closer look). The lessons learned, as far as I’m concerned, come from the investigation (or Read More...
1 Comments

Where are we going?

Posted Tuesday, August 18, 2009 9:49 AM by alanpa
I’m depressed this morning. That doesn’t happen often with me – especially when it comes to thoughts about software engineering and software testing. But today, I’m down in the dumps. I’m frustrated, annoyed, tired, and completely lacking luster. Why? Read More...
5 Comments

The Passionate Tester

Posted Monday, August 17, 2009 8:16 AM by alanpa
I’ve been reading The Passionate Programmer , and so far it’s been a great read. It often feels that parts of the book are written by a much more talented and successful version of me (the author is a pro-level saxophone player, a successful speaker, Read More...
0 Comments

Meeting Types

Posted Wednesday, August 12, 2009 8:25 PM by alanpa
Those of you who follow me on twitter may have noticed I’ve been in a lot of meetings lately (actually, I don’t know if I’ve griped as much as I thought I have, so just trust me). Anyway – when I attend meetings, I try to ignore my laptop and phone and Read More...
1 Comments

More stuff that bugs me

Posted Tuesday, August 11, 2009 10:31 AM by alanpa
I had a late morning meeting today in a MS building nowhere near the one where I normally work. To cut down on wasted time driving, I went directly to the building where my meeting was, got some coffee and opened my laptop to book a conference room (there Read More...
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Patterns on the MSPress blog

Posted Monday, August 03, 2009 10:10 PM by alanpa
I guest-posted on the MSPress blog today. Check it out for an article on test patterns. Read More...
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Growing your career as a tester

Posted Sunday, August 02, 2009 11:51 AM by alanpa
Every month, I send a newsletter to all testers at Microsoft. About six months ago, I started asking a “question of the month” in the newsletter. The questions vary from yes / no to long essay-ish answers. Each month, I write a short follow up on the Read More...
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