Customer Reviews

Effective Methods for Software Testing

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

We've been developing a testing group and I wanted a practical reference for software testing. This is not it. The text presumes you're in an extremely mature environment (CMM 3 or higher) and have requirements, design, adequate resources, etc., etc.. I think the book needs more examples, better organization, and practical solutions to the difficulties you're likely to face in managing large-scale testing organizations to be truly effective. If you want LOTS of arcane procedures, though, and are going to work for a gov't. agency--this is your book!

There are a few things to say in favour of this book:
1. It does walk through on how to approach testing in your organization (however, it is definitely oriented towards organizations with established testing principles).
2. It does give you some background information on software testing. Sadly, these are mainly explained in a textbook like manner, making them hard to digest.
3. It provides a thorough, detailed and tested methodology for software testing throughout the various life cycles. Yet again, due to the book's textbook like manners, I found it hard to actually implement the offered methodologies.

Whatever positive attributes the book has to offer, they pale in comparison to the book's negative aspects:
1. Total unreadability: The book written in such a boring manner, you will find yourself reading every page thrice, and still lack the satisfaction of being able to quote the meaning of what you just read.
2. Lack structure: Paragraphs are thrown in one after the other; it's hard to decipher what leads where.
3. Repetitiveness: Items like "building the test plan" repeat themselves for no particular reason.
4. No examples: It's hard for the text to find any foundation in your mind when there are no examples to help the reader relate to. Given its monotonous descriptions, nothing could hinder the reader's efforts to understand and implement the book's ideas more than that.

The final verdict: Look for another software testing book.

For several years, I have recommended Bill Perry's Effective Methods for Software Testing, 2nd Ed to people who are looking for testing processes they can customize and apply quickly. I have also included this book as a reference text in many of my testing courses. Obviously, I feel that the book is very helpful to software testers.

In the third edition, there are two fewer chapters, but the coverage of topics has been revised to include areas such as agile testing, the role of testing in software development methodologies, testing internal controls, and an expanded discussion on security testing.

The eleven-step testing process in the second edition has been streamlined to seven steps in this edition. In this process, you will find everything you need to design and customize your own testing process all the way from test planning, through the various phases of testing (static testing, unit testing, integration testing, system testing and acceptance testing), and even through post-implementation testing. The process also addresses analyzing and reporting test results, which also discusses test metrics.

The reasons I'm such a fan of the book are: 1) You get complete templates and examples, including checklists (although the CD contains PDF versions of the forms which would still need to be re-created in a word processor to be usable in electronic format). 2) The book is process-oriented as opposed to a collection of techniques. Collections are fine, but you still need a way to apply them. That's where the processes come in helpful. Also, the workbench process framework is helpful in defining your own processes. 3) These are practical and proven processes that have been used in a variety of organizations worldwide. There is very little theory and a lot of practical application as shown by the examples. 4) You don't have to be a highly mature organization to start applying these techniques. Whether you are CMMi Level 1 or 5, you can still find this information useful. 5)The book also addresses specific topics such as testing commercial-off-the-shelf software and data warehouse applications.

This is a thick book, but then again, it is not designed to be read from front to back. I use it as a desk reference and a collection of processes to help get the job of testing done. I can save hours of work in designing processes by checking here first. My attitude is to tailor the processes to meet my needs. It's also my first stop when doing research. Personally, I like processes because I can transfer them to others and have something tangible to study and improve. However, I will say that if you are "process averse" you will probably not find this book as helpful as someone who does process-based work. The processes described in the book are not heavy ones, though.

This is a good resource for software testers written by someone who has been writing and working in this profession for many years.

Readability - 4

Coverage of topics - 5

Depth of coverage - 5

Credibility - 5

Accuracy - 5

Relevance to software quality - 5

Overall - 5

Reviewed by Randy Rice

This is a very good book, despite what the other reviewers say. It is aimed at the professional software developer, consistent with good software engineering practices. Unfortunately, those who still work ad hoc in software development do not understand the value of formal processes and the resulting reduction of risk or increase in quality. This book assume that readers, and their organizations, have the required discipline to formalize their testing methods. One of the key principles in the book is that requirements must be validated and traced throughout the software life cycle - garbage in garbage out.

Consider whether or not you would like to fly in a plane or have your bank account managed by software that has not been as rigorously tested as the author requires it to be.

Excellent book that covers testing in a lot of detail. It provides excellent ready to use test processes if you don't have any established already. Very comprehensive but you can still pick out the bits that are going to be of immediate value to your organisation. If you don't have a lot of experience you may need some help doing this though.

Highly recommended

The book is full of hypothesis. Till now nobody would have implemented all the checklists/templates/procedures mentioned in this book, in their real environment and I can bet on this.

Checklists are needed if the task of review/testing is very critical and the organizational processes shall demand that. An attempt to define a checklist/template to make it global is real childishness.

The definition of Verification and Validation itself is written wrong in this book. I dont know if these terms had such definitions during the past years.

Summary: We are in 2003 now. If somebody wants to go back to 1970 then this book will be very useful for them. A wise decision for normal readers would be to move away from this page. Thanks.

The Perry text will serve as a solid basic text for academic settings (thus the 4 star rating) but needs to be updated for client/server testing situations.

William Perry hits on many aspects of software testing and how it is impacted by other phases within the software development life cycle. This is one book that anyone involved in the testing arena needs to read. The success of test group cannnot continue without Perry's ideas.

I read the first chapter, and am tempted to throw the book out. The author cannot write a clear English sentence to save his life.

i find the book too advance to understand