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a year of STPedia

This month marks one year of the column Matt Heusser and I co-write every month for Software Test and Performance magazine, "STPedia". It was great to mark our anniversary in a double-length column on "Agile Testing in Practice" in July's newly redesigned print version of ST&P and to help out with the launch of ST&P's redesigned portal, stpcollaborative. ST&P are changing things around for the better.

The format of the column is that we have a paragraph or two introducing the topic for the month, then we define dictionary-style a set of terms related to the topic, then usually we draw some sort of conclusion from how the terms are related. ST&P has a 6-month editorial calendar, so at this point we've treated many subjects twice. And really, how much is there to say about source control? From here on out we're going to range a little more widely in our choice of topic.

A little Inside Baseball, for those who are interested in how the writing gets done: we have no set process. Some of the time one of us will write the whole draft for the other to edit. For instance, September's column is mostly Matt, and October (at this point at least) is mostly me. Other times one of us will start the column, run out of steam, and the other will finish it. I remember one column in particular where I just could not come up with a conclusion that made sense. Matt rewrote the last half so that it all made sense. Sometimes one of us will write some of the definitions, and the other will handle what's left over. Matt has a wider range of expertise than me, so he likely wrote the really technical stuff. If you read the column month to month, you probably get about 50% of each of us over time.

The fact that we've been at this a year with no end in sight speaks to our mutual respect. Matt is a bright, honest, motivated, dedicated guy. And fun to work with. I think we still have a lot to say, I hope you'll consider reading our stuff.