Author: Tom Gilb
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional (January 1, 1988)
ISBN: 0201192462
Paperback: 464 pages
I hold the opinion that good software testing and quality principles will, of necessity, change the way that software is engineered.
Tom Gilb addresses some of the methods and key thinking required to produce quality products in an elegant and pragmatic way in this easy to read book.
I have had the pleasure of meeting Tom as a student in one of his workshops in Washington. I recognise him to be someone worth listening to in the realm of software engineering and quality. He is a keen and active thinker and doer.
This book did not disappoint. It is divided into three parts.
Part 1: Explains the critical success factors for projects and includes discussions on:
Part 2: Offers guidelines and a case study to help the reader implement the methods.
Part 3: Demonstrates that the methods can improve motivation, deadline pressure, productivity, and reliability. Also particularly helpful in this section, are ways to quantify non-functional system attributes such as availability, maintainability, usability, integrity, and others.
Building software? Get this book. But you will have to take ownership of the thinking behind it, and then extend the thinking into some of your own ideas.