Effective software testing : 50 specific ways to improve your testing

In Effective Software Testing Elfriede Dustin gave the software testing community their version of Scott Meyers' landmark Effective C++ which was in its first edition in 1992. Meyers created a style that software professionals have loved and other authors have emulated in which "items" are numbered which address specific and sometimes complex issues related to the subject at hand. Dustin applies this same style to the testing discipline with a high degree of success. Since the TOC is available for browsing on the product page, I won't repeat all of the high level topic areas in detail here. However, the items covered address a broad level of topics from foundations for all testing practices to specific areas in unit, functional, and non-functional testing. I recently became the manager for my company's automation and performance testing team after having spent 13 years in application development. I had some exposure to testing on the periphery of the projects that I've worked on, but there were aspects that I had not considered either fully or at all. While I don't have direct responsibility for functional testing, I found the material here beneficial to understand the big picture of testing organizations and how my team's work supports the functional testing. One way that Effective Software Testing differs from its C++ cousin is that it does tend to be more theoretical with general advice and guidelines. For managers looking for a good overview of testing along with good principles to abide by, this is a good place to start. However, there is a lot of detail or "rubber meets the road" type of material. Topics like equivalence partitioning and orthogonal arrays are described in a more qualitative way. I plan to look to other publications for a more detailed treatment of these topics. I didn't find any material that I disagreed with or that didn't resonate with my new role and responsibilities. I would recommend this book to managers new to software testing or managers and testers who are looking to improve their overall testing organization. With 50 items that span a mere 258 pages, it is very easy to read in spurts which is often necessary for the limited time that managers and other professionals have. Even at one item a day at the beginning of the day or over lunch, you can complete the book in 10 weeks. I think it will be worth your investment of time and money. Overall: A The knowledge of what constitutes a successful, end-to-end software testing effort is typically gained through experience. In this new book, noted testing expert Elfriede Dustin imparts the best of her collected wisdom. She presents fifty specific tips for a better testing program. These fifty tips are divided into ten sections, and presented so as to mirror the chronology of a software project. Using this book as a guide and reference, quality assurance professionals will be better able to insure the quality of their next application. While testing has historically been viewed as an afterthought in the grand scheme of software engineering, The success of an application, and possibly an organization, can rest on the shoulders of the testing team. That's because the testing program functions as the final "quality gate" for an application. Testing allows or denies the transition of an application into the market. There are a multitude of seemingly minor tasks that must be performed and managed by the testing team Effective Software Testing explores fifty critically important best practices, pitfalls, and solutions. Gleaned from the author's extensive practical experience, these concrete items will enable quality assurance professionals and test managers to immediately enhance their understanding and skills, avoid costly mistakes, and implement a state-of-the-art testing program.This book places special emphasis on the integration of testing into all phases of the software development life cycle - from requirements definition to design and final coding. The fifty lessons provided here focus on the key aspects of software testing: test planning, design, documentation, execution, managing the testing team, unit testing, automated testing, nonfunctional testing, and more. Effective Software Testing explores fifty critically important best practices, pitfalls, and solutions. Gleaned from the author's extensive practical experience, these concrete items will enable quality assurance professionals and test managers to immediately enhance their understanding and skills, avoid costly mistakes, and implement a state-of-the-art testing program. This book places special emphasis on the integration of testing into all phases of the software development life cycle - from requirements definition to design and final coding. The fifty lessons provided here focus on the key aspects of software test planning, design, documentation, execution, managing the testing team, unit testing, automated testing, nonfunctional testing, and more. With the advent of agile methodologies, testing is becoming the responsibility of more and more team members. In this new book, noted testing expert Dustin imparts the best of her collected wisdom. She presents 50 specific tips for a better testing program. These 50 tips are divided into ten sections, and presented so as to mirror the chronology of a software project. Emphasises on the integration of testing into various phases of the software development life cycle, from requirements definition to design and final coding. This book includes fifty lessons that focus on the key aspects of software testing: test planning, design, documentation, execution, unit testing, automated testing, and more.