Book: Software Testing Foundations : Foundations – A Study Guide for the Certified Tester Exam - Foundation Level - ISTQB compliant
Author/s: Andreas Spillner, Tilo Linz, Hans Schaefer
Publisher: dpunkt.verlag GmbH (2006)
Language: English
ISBN: 3-89864-363-8
Pages: 266 pages
Software testing is now a pro-fession taken seriously by management in successful and competitive nations. The determination to ensure good and reliable Information Technology products and support is visible in the in- creasing uptake of international test certification by testers in these nations.
Thankfully, ‘Software Testing Foundations – A Study Guide for the Certified Tester Exam - Foundation Level - ISTQB compliant’ has now been published in English. This makes it a handy reference work for the tens of thousands of testers who are certified at the Foundation Level, and to the many more who are currently urgently seeking to be similarly credentialed.
This first English translation of the book parallels the third printing of the German equivalent. The book conforms to the International Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB) syllabus published in July 2005. This book is a treasure trove of testing principles, substance, and techniques that convey the depth of experience of the three authors. Readers can pick up years of testing experience by reading and thinking through the contents of each chapter.
After a brief introduction, chapters 2 to 7 reflect the main syllabus of the internationally recognised Certified Tester Exam - Foundation Level.
Chapter 1 - Introduction
Chapter 2 - Fundamentals of testing
Chapter 3 - Testing throughout the software life cycle
Chapter 4 - Static testing techniques
Chapter 5 - Dynamic testing techniques and test design
Chapter 6 - Test management
Chapter 7 - Tool support for testing
I liked the examples used to illustrate specific sections of the material. Real code fragments appeared from time-to-time, and a useful case study added realism to testing issues throughout the book.
Unfortunately, the act of translating from German to English does detract from the ease of reading this first English edition more than once. I found my thoughts ‘lost in translation’ rather than concentrating on the testing topic at hand. This is a pity as the book is otherwise very useful in covering vitally important matters. However, I am confident that the publishers will correct this for subsequent editions.
Part A of the Appendix contains a useful explanation of each of the test plan sections of the IEEE Standard 829.
Part B is a very short section on the Certified Tester exam. The authors advise the use of the official curriculum for exam preparation as the book often goes into more depth than is necessary. They also note that the size of the chapters do not necessarily correlate with the contents of the exam, as the book sometimes covers topics outside of the scope of the exam. I would advise my students to be very conservative and consider the actual curriculum contents prior to taking the exam. In my opinion, it would be a good idea to read the ‘Certified Tester exam - Foundation Level’ curriculum in tandem with the reading of this book.
Part C has exercises for each of chapters 2 to 7 of the book. These take the form of single sentence questions or tasks; unfortunately, no model answers are given. This means the student would have to focus while re-reading sections of the relevant chapters to check their answers. Although this extra work is not a bad idea, having model answers for those genuinely uncertain or under tighter time constraints, could be of great value.
Part C further contains the September 2005 version of the ‘Standard Glossary of Terms used in Software Testing’ produced by the ‘Glossary Working Party’ of the ISTQB. It also contains a useful set of book, standards, and web literature references.
Would I recommend buying the book? Yes! I would recommend the book for all those studying towards the ISTQB Certified Tester Exam - Foundation Level. For the best results, one would have to download a free copy of the syllabus (http://www.istqb.org/fileadmin/media/SyllabusFoundation.pdf), and read the book and syllabus together.
Those who have already passed the exam should consider buying the book as it is a good reference guide by very experienced authors who are intricately involved in software testing. However, you might wish to wait for the second printing of the English version that is sure to follow soon.