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Exciting changes at SD Times


By Alan Zeichick
April 1, 2008 — 
Where’s David Rubinstein? The usual denizen of IndustryWatch has moved on to a new adventure: leading the launch of BZ Media’s newspaper for IT managers, Systems Management News.

Not only that, but Dave has taken Mara Leonardi, Alex Handy and Jeff Feinman with him.

The first issue of Systems Management News, or SMN, will be published April 15. The newspaper, which will look and read very much like SD Times, is written for the IT professionals who manage their organization’s IT systems administration.

The readers of SMN manage their organization’s IT operations’ life cycle. That encompasses everything from data center management to LAN/WAN admin, from storage management to DBAs, from infrastructure to help desk and support. The newspaper will be published twice per month in both print and digital editions, and subscriptions to qualified IT professionals are free—just like with SD Times.

We’re excited for Dave, but we’re certainly going to miss him on SD Times. He joined BZ Media in late 1999, as part of SD Times’ launch team. He served as executive editor and editor, taking the editorial reins as editor-in-chief in late 2005. His mark on SD Times can be seen everywhere.

Mara Leonardi, SD Times’ art director, as well as senior editor Alex Handy and assistant editor Jeff Feinman, are also moving over to SMN. Mara is bringing her considerable design skills to creating SMN’s unique graphical appearance. Joining them on SMN are Michelle Savage, senior editor, and Dan Olawski, managing editor.

The SD Times team is now a mixture of established voices and new writers. I’m returning to an active role as chief editor, working closely with executive editor P.J. Connolly, managing editor Greg Lupion, associate editor David Worthington and associate copy editor Adam LoBelia. Erin Broadhurst, formerly our art/production assistant, is now SD Times’ art director. We’ve been joined by new senior editor Robert Mullins, best known for his work at IDG News Service and IDG’s Network World newspaper.

Very few media companies are starting new publications. BZ Media is bucking the trend with Systems Management News, but given the success of SD Times, we believe that SMN will earn the support of operations managers and the IT industry. (One measure of that success: SD Times was listed as the fastest-growing IT publication of 2007, according to Media Business Magazine.)

Sadly, we’ve seen a lot of other well-regarded IT publications shut down or cut back over the past few years. In 2006, CMP Media closed Software Development Magazine. One year ago, IDG stopped printing InfoWorld and downsized ComputerWorld into a smaller format. And Ziff-Davis Enterprise reduced the publication frequency of eWeek to 39 issues in 2008. Last month, Ziff-Davis Media, the publisher of PC Magazine, declared bankruptcy.

There’s no doubt that these are tough times for publishers, but clearly we’re doing something right with SD Times, and with our test/QA magazine, Software Test & Performance. We’re confident that Systems Management News will do well.

If you’d like to spread the word about SMN, tell your IT operations colleagues that they can sign up for a free subscription at sysmannews.com. Thank you for your support.

Transforming software testing
BZ Media’s Software Test & Performance Conference starts soon, April 15-17 in San Mateo, Calif. Please forgive me for having testing on the brain—and for sharing highlights from our FutureTest 2008 conference, held in February in New York City.

FutureTest focused on the big-picture question of how to transform today’s software testing—whether in an enterprise or an ISV—to be better positioned for tomorrow’s challenges. Three talks stood out:

• Voke analyst Theresa Lanowitz said that the most important transformation that test managers can do is change from acting as gatekeepers, or “quality policemen,” to customer advocates. That change might be as simple as altering the name of the test department or rephrasing how issues are reported. Or, it might be as complicated as messing with organizational structure. The perception of test/QA’s role is to be critical in its broad success.

• McGill lecturer Rob Sabourin taught that the question isn’t always what to test, but also what not to test. In a hectic, turbulent environment, you can’t test everything. Instead, figure out what you need to test based on the question, “If I find a problem, do I need to fix it?” After all, you don’t need to fix every bug in order to have a successful product. Instead, look at how products will be used and test accordingly.

• Blogger Joel Spolsky reminded us that software testing means more than ensuring that the software meets the stakeholders’ formal requirements. Our job is to create quality products, successful products, products that customers want to use. Quality means more than many features and a low bug count. It also extends to the aesthetics and emotional feel. If a product makes the user feel that he or she is safe and in control, that product will succeed more than the one that just takes the user along for a ride.

Alan Zeichick is editorial director of SD Times.


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