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My blog is dead – long live my blog

Posted Monday, November 02, 2009 12:00 PM by alanpa
I started blogging about five years ago while I was working on Windows CE. I started the blog as a place to share my conference materials, but it quickly turned into something else. Soon, I was writing this blog to work on my writing skills – practicing Read More...
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PNSQC Slides

Posted Tuesday, October 27, 2009 1:10 PM by alanpa
Thanks to everyone who attended my talk today. Feel free to fire more questions here if you have them. Slides are available here . Read More...
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I’m overflowing

Posted Wednesday, October 21, 2009 9:25 PM by alanpa
…literally, I suppose. It’s been a hectic few weeks for me, but some big announcements may be on the horizon… In the meantime, I strongly encourage you to check out http://testing.stackexchange.com . The cool kids among my readers will know that stackexchange Read More...
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HWTSAM in China

Posted Monday, October 19, 2009 5:48 PM by alanpa
I’m excited to see that the Chinese version of HWTSAM is out (and soon to be followed by a Korean translation). You can find information here: http://www.china-pub.com/196002 and on Amazon . Read More...
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One last virtualization post

Posted Saturday, October 17, 2009 2:38 PM by alanpa
We (Microsoft, M$ or however you’d like to refer to us) are trying to gather some data on how testers are using virtualization – specifically in the area of lab management of virtual machines. We’re working with independent analyst firm, voke, to conduct Read More...
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My STAR talk

Posted Thursday, October 08, 2009 9:21 AM by alanpa
My talk’s over – I’ve received a lot of positive feedback (although the people who hate my talks never track me down). I did have fun though, so at least one person in the room had a great time. My slides (which are nothing like the slides I submitted) Read More...
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Plane Thoughts and Plain Books

Posted Monday, October 05, 2009 4:01 PM by alanpa
I’m somewhere over California on my way to Orange County, home of movie stars, beaches, Disneyland, and a wee bit of the Microsoft mother ship. The flight is half full, and I’m using the increased elbow room to clean out some old email, work on my presentations Read More...
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Why bugs don’t get fixed

Posted Wednesday, September 30, 2009 10:11 AM by alanpa
I’ve run into more and more people lately who are astounded that software ships with known bugs. I’m frightened that many of these people are software testers and should know better. First, read this “old” (but good) article from Eric Sink. I doubt I Read More...
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7 Influential Books

Posted Thursday, September 24, 2009 7:18 PM by alanpa
Phil Kirkham recently posted a list of 7 Influential Books and encouraged some of his fellow bloggers to follow suit. Of course, Phil’s list overlaps mine, so instead, I’d like to present: 7 Influential Books that Phil doesn’t Mention The Feiner Points Read More...
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Niche Professions

Posted Tuesday, September 22, 2009 9:12 AM by alanpa
I have been thinking about “niche” professions – those that only appeal to a relatively small number of people in the world. Often, these professions are looked down upon by those in similar professions – or by those who don’t know much about the profession Read More...
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Fun with Code and TestApi

Posted Monday, September 21, 2009 6:59 AM by alanpa
I took an opportunity to write some code last week. I’ll spare you the full background – short story is that the school my kids go to needed a small web app written. It ended up  being 100 lines or so of javascript and about 3 lines of html. The Read More...
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Who Owns Quality?

Posted Thursday, September 17, 2009 11:29 PM by alanpa
On request from Adam Goucher – another excerpt from How We Test Software at Microsoft .  BTW – Adam wrote a review of HWTSAM here – although Linda Wilkinson beat him to the clever title . This is from a section on quality in chapter 16. It’s something Read More...
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Looking for the “L” word

Posted Sunday, September 13, 2009 10:03 PM by alanpa
Although my anniversary is coming up, this post is about another “L” word: Leadership. “Senior” people at Microsoft (and I assume at other companies) are expected to exhibit it. This is true for managers and non-managers alike (because, of course, management Read More...
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Flashback

Posted Friday, September 11, 2009 1:51 PM by alanpa
I had a bit of a surreal experience this week. One of the groups I work with sent some mail asking me to review an internal report. They noticed an issue and had made some changes. I checked out the report, but it was incorrect. I let them know and got Read More...
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Organizing my Life

Posted Tuesday, September 08, 2009 11:55 AM by alanpa
aka – The secrets of my so called success, part 23. It’s Tuesday after a long weekend, and my todo list is long. The good news is that I know exactly how long it is, since (for better or for worse), I let outlook drive my daily schedule. Since I’ve mentioned Read More...
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