Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Most complete book on web testing - best-of-breed, July 3, 2001
Of the growing number of web testing books that are being published this is the most complete, and the only one that I've read that tightly aligns testing to the development life cycle. More importantly, this book addresses the realities of web development and testing, which are completely different from those of traditional systems.Some of the key areas in this book that make it so valuable are: (1) Addressing the plethora of web models (B2B, B2C, intranet, Internet, etc.), each of which presents developers and testers with unique challenges. (2) Showing the vast differences between testing traditional code, which is typically in the form of binaries, and web code, which is in the form of mark-up languages and scripts. An added wrinkle to web testing that is thoroughly covered here is graphics and font types. Traditional testing does not dwell much on these areas, but web testing demands that these software configuration items receive considerable attention during test cycles. (3) Covering every nuance of the one area that differs most from traditional testing compatibility. The authors thoroughly cover issues and factors here, which are important because for web systems in the Internet you have no control over client configurations. Other chapters in this book that those new to web testing need to carefully read include: navigation, user interaction and usability and accessibility. These are typically given little attention during test cycles of host-based and client/server systems, but are of paramount importance in web-testing. One topic, readability, in Chapter 6 underscores this fact. I especially liked the three chapters on performance, scalability, and reliability and availability. These are areas that are usually lightly addressed in most testing books, but are covered in a great deal of depth in this book. The chapter on post implementation was also particularly strong and emphasized the fact that web-based systems are, by their nature, dynamic from a configuration and change control point of view. This book is best-of-breed. It's not only a "must-read" for testing professionals,. It will also provide web system project managers and developers with a wealth of ideas related to their roles, as well as operations and support people who need to also understand the role they have in web system quality assurance.
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18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Web Testing Handbook, February 12, 2001
If you are a beginner or intermediate tester/developer and work on internet-based applications or web sites, GET THIS BOOK for your reference shelf and USE IT! Take advantage of the authors' expertise--and save your company money--not to mention increase your knowledge!The authors have presented basic technical information required for testers and developers to test web sites and internet-based applications. They also give specific strategies, test plans and various checklists to give the reader a jumpstart on testing (especially if you're not sure where to start). They present coherent examples throughout the book. There are also many useful URLs (for further reference) throughout the book. Everyone will find something in this book they didn't know--or something they didn't think about when doing test planning for their web site. For example, if you don't know which tools to use or why you would need a given tool, or even when to automate your test process, check the references on tools throughout this book. It might just save your company money--and you could look like a hero! They also give many "heads-ups" throughout the book. Watch for these. Learn--and learn why. This book will be a ~MUST HAVE~ for everyone who works on web sites and internet-based applications, because anyone that doesn't know this information ~and use it~ cannot create or maintain a successful web site/application.
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40 of 46 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not worth the [$$] pricetag, August 20, 2002
When looking into books for any tech-related topic, I look for two qualities to assess the value of the book. The first is the depth of the subject matter of the work. I look for books that teach me new technologies, technique, or process. The second is the book's lasting value as a reference for future work. When spending money, I'd like to be sure that the lasting value of the book is at least potentially there. This book has neither of those qualities, here's why:- Depth of Subject Matter -
It's difficult to determine who this book is written to educate. The forward identifies the audience as existing software testers looking for education in the finer points of web software testing. That's legitimate, but it falls far short of this or any other unstated goals. The delivery of material in this work is quick and dirty. There's no topic that extends beyond a single-digit number of pages. This makes plenty of sense in the early chapters where the discussion of things like hardware compatibility are discussed. Other areas deserve far better coverage. The topics of browser compatibility, performance testing, and scalability testing, for example, are scantly explained. It's a disservice to the reader, since these are paramount topics for the intended audience. Another downfall to this approach is its failure to discuss the organizational differences between an IT team deploying software frequently versus one deploying incremental releases on a yearly timeframe. To be fair, the authors touch on this topic, but it's nothing comprehensive. - Reference Value -
The reference value of this book is almost zero. I run a test team for a web based business of considerable size, and I have to say I found some actually misleading advice in the work. A lot of the explanations of what's smart and what's avoidable fall completely off the mark. Even worse, and this is actually enough of a reason to start looking for a different book right away, is the poor quality of the references throughout the book. While they spend some considerable time explaining the difference between the time in a normal software development cycle and one that operates under 'web time', they cite sources from two and three years ago that are completely irrelevant considering the widespread and fundamental changes to the online software development domain. They establish 'web time' as an accelerated, hectic calendar where nothing is the same after two months of churning, but then cite references from 1999 market research studies to back up their points. Though definitely not intentional, it's very neglectful. I turned to the front of the book at one point to re-verify the copyright date. ... So, for me and for my needs, this book is essentially worthless and I'm sad to have spent [$$] to learn this. The topics are covered only as summaries, but those that deserve and in some cases completely require a much deeper explanation are treated similarly. Regarding the intended audience, it's still a head scratcher because of the delivery of the material. It's not heavy in any one area, so it's difficult to determine if this is for a QA manager (can't work, not enough attention to process), the new tester (can't work, not enough detail on the actual testing), the converting tester (might work, but the high-level descriptions coupled with the indescriminate delivery of the subjects would confuse anyone without due insight), or the experienced web tester (can't work, too much of the data is elementary to those already functioning as a tester in the web space). I don't suggest it, and I wouldn't suggest it in a future edition if they work to update the references.
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