Customer Reviews

Software Testing In The Real World: Improving The Process

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Edward Kit does an excellent job with his "hit-the-ground-running" approach to key software test concepts and techniques, and he does so in easy-to-read conversational English. I've been testing software for 22 years, and use Mr. Kit's book almost daily in corporate Software Verification & Validation (SV&V) presentations & training courses, with great success.

The book is LOADED with practical info, and is NOT just for software testers. It's also a big help to programmers (of all levels), and to "non-software" management personnel (who need to learn the basics of the SV&V process, but don't have time for the "nitty-gritties").

Mr. Kit's book has something for everyone, including great software test & project management checklists, descriptions of common (but subtle) BIG project mistakes to avoid, test planning exercises, and plenty of IEEE Standards & SEI-CMM references to back it all up.

If you really want to break out of the self-destructive "quick-code-hacking/fixing-and-testing-for-next-week's-deadline" cycle, and get into true Software Development & Testing for LONG-TERM Customer Satisfaction & profitability, then start with this book!

Previous reviews have given this book poor marks because it did not live up to expectations that it would provide information on "how" to test. Well, that's because it is not this book's purpose to do that. I found the book useful because it helped me to get my hands around the issues related to establishing testing organizations and improving the testing process. I was a software tester for 12 years, from 1987-1998, and this book helped to validate many of my opinions. It was great for giving me ammunition in the fight to establish and defend the discipline of testing within the company I work. If you too are looking to establish a better testing process, to understand why it is important to implement testing the "right" way, or to prepare to fight those in your organization that downplay the importance of independent testing or good testing process, this book will definitely help.

This book is not about the actual procedures and techniques for software testing. If you are looking for this kind of information there is an array of other books from which to choose. I am not, nor will I ever be a software tester (my career as a service delivery consultant suits me fine). I bought this book to fully understand the software testing process that precedes bringing an application into production, hoping to use this information to bridge the relationship between my side of the fence, service delivery, and my colleagues on the application delivery side.

This book gave me some keen insights into the testing process and what constitutes best practices. Prior to reading this book I had a vague idea about the challenges of software testing. In fact, I had some unreasonable expectations, such as expecting applications to be 100% tested before they were released into production. The authors gave some excellent reasons why this is technically unfeasible, and also why such coverage did not make sense from a cost/benefit point of view. This risk management approach appealed to me and made perfect sense.

Another valuable insight I gained from this book is what constitutes good testing and what I should be expecting in the form of deliverables from the test organization. This information gave me some excellent ideas about how to frame entry criteria for change control in view of the fact that any change to a production environment needs to go through testing before it is implemented and released into production.

I also learned a great deal about standards with which a mature testing organization must comply, and how to measure the quality of deliverables that are provided to production services by testing.

This book is easy to read, if as much focused on business requirements as it is on the testing process itself, and offers a wealth of advice to IT managers and test/QA managers. I can attest that it is also valuable to service delivery practitioners who want to fully understand and appreciate software testing. It would also be invaluable to developers who want to understand how they can closely work with the testing group in a less adversarial way.

This is an excellent companion book into the world of software testing. What it does do is highlight analytical techniques in how to perform tests. I frown at some who gave this book bad reviews in that they didn't understand the precondition for this book:

1) This book does NOT teach the aspects of how to manage software testing or implement the procedures necessary to do so. This is a more detailed way of looking at things.

2) Buy a book that teaches you how to implement the procedures and deal with all aspects of the organization in making sure these procedures are scoped out. Then, use the techniques in this book to implement the procedures.

I find it extremely funny that the bad reviewers didn't see this - as they should know something about managing projects and communicating with users/management/programmers in a software test environment.

then buy and read this book. It won't tell you *how* to test, but it will help you create an effective testing strategy for your current and future needs to help you test more effectively. This book is rather short (read:not one of those 1000 page monstrosities you see packing the shelves of your local bookstore) but it packs enough punch to allow you to become an effective tester/manager. Don't be fooled by the low scoring reviews. This book is invaluable. 5 stars!

The title of this excellent book is appropriate with respect to real world issues are addressed. It's unfortunate that the real world rarely reflects what's in this book, but that is offset by the good fortune that you can establish and manage a mature, effective test organization by following the well thought out advice that the author provides. Since other reviewers have highlighted many of this book's key strengths I am going to touch upon what I like most and why.

First, the author doesn't confine himself to testing in a vacuum - he gives a framework that recognizes the dependencies between and among other software engineering processes, such as configuration management, issue management and how testing fits within the development life cycle.

Second, the underlying themes are risk management, cost containment and metrics.

Chapters that I especially like are 1, the six essentials of software testing (in many respects this is the heart of the book and everything else is commentary), 5, critical choices: what, when and how to test (these are the eternal questions of software testing - the answers given are on the mark), and 10, testing tasks, deliverables and chronology (a deliverables-based approach is the only viable way to plan and estimate realistically in my opinion).

While the above are my personal favorites, that does not diminish the value of the rest of the book. They merely reflect parts of this book that most influenced me. I cannot recommend this book highly enough - it's realistic, covers all of the important issues, and if you're like me you'll find yourself reaching for it when you have an issue to resolve or want to borrow a best practice.

Simple. Practical. Readily available thought frameworks for software testing. I consider this book to be a fundamental building block in testing community; not because it is high-end clean-room software engineering, but because it makes sense to the general person trying to understand, improve and apply. As with any facet of evolving software, this book is nicely complimented by reading some of Cem Kaner's works, in particular Testing Computer Sofware .. as well as.. look at James Whittaker's books and moving on from there by complimenting it with Glenford Myers historical work on testing .. but if you're simply looking for a clue .. start here and move to Kaner thereafter.

Here is what I appreciated about Kit's book the most ... he diligently worked to talk to me where I am.

This no non-sense approach makes a book that you can hand off to a green bean tester to introduce them to concepts, education, practices .. what works, what may not work, etc. You don't need to be a 10yr sw/test vet to understand and use his assertions and facts in your world. That, in my mind, makes the book purchase worth the cost.

For example, discussing "..the quality of the test process determines the success of the test effort..". Seems obvious doesn't it? Now explain it to someone in such a way that they understand what behaviors they need to change/include to get from "nowhere" to "somewhere". Kit does it.

Buy the book. When I recommend books to green bean testers, or testers with experience but no industry exposure, this is one of books I put on the "must purchase" list for them.

I manage a large development group for a Fortune 100 company; this group includes hundreds of testers. This is the first, and only, book I found that outlines the basic, core principles of software testing as they should be applied in a fast moving, ever-changing environment such as ours. I've made this book mandatory for every one of our testers and every development and test manager in my organization.

This book is an easy read, and gives the uninitiated like myself a good understanding of the basics behind softrware testing. Each chapter is short, well written, and to the point.

As a subject matter expert on a software team developing a specific application, I found that this book gave me the background and information that I needed to have discussions with the testing team as they developed test cases for the functional verification of the application.

This book has a thorough coverage of testing techiniques and methodologies. It is a good book for college students, testers, test designer.