Software Testing in the Real World
Author: Edward Kit Publisher: Addison Wesley
1995, reprinted 1999 - 252 pages.
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Ed Kit's book is well organized and easily readable. It is penned by someone in testing who knows what he is talking about, but it has also been refined by students who attended the courses upon which the book is based.
Ed lists six essentials of software testing which ring true with my own 12 years of real-world software testing experience:
Essential 1: The quality of the test process
determines the success of the test effort.
Essential 2: Prevent defect migration by
using early life-cycle testing techniques.
Essential 3: The time for software testing tools is now improving the
testing process.
Essential 4: A real person must take responsibility
for improving the testing process.
Essential 5: Testing is a professional discipline requiring trained, skilled
people.
Essential 6: Cultivate a positive team attitude of creative destruction.
The author lists plenty of early life-cycle testing techniques which are so important to building quality into a product, rather than testing later to confirm that the product is of poor quality.
Methodology, test management, key practices and a myriad of important testing considerations are competently dealt with in a practical way.
Some of the test methods, such as cause-effect mapping and equivalence class partitioning, have been dealt with at a very high level and could have included more detail.
A wealth of resources are included in the eight appendices including very useful checklists, review exercises and resource lists. These alone make the book a worth-while purchase.
No company involved in software testing should be without this book in their resource centre. The seven re-prints since the 1995 edition are testimony to it's worth.
Wayne Mallinson
What do other reviewers say?
In general they reach a consensus that this book is not on the technicalities of "how to test", but rather on how to create effective testing strategies. There are lots of extras including checklists, planning exercises, IEEE Standards and SEI CMM references to back it up. They found it an easy to read, no-nonsense book.