Books on Testing - Recommendations?

I've read the following books dedicated to the subject of testing:

• Testing Computer Software (Kaner, Falk, Nguyen)
• Lessons Learned in Software Testing (Kaner, Bach, Pettichord)
• Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams (Crispin, Gregory)
• Exploratory Software Testing: Tips, Trcks, Tours, and Techniques to Guide Test Design (Whittaker)
• Foundations of Software Testing (Graham, Van Veenendaal, Evans, Black)
• Software Testing (BCS)
• Automated Software Testing (Dustin, Rashka, Paul)
• Effective Software Testing: 50 Ways to Improve Your Testing (Dustin)
• How to Break Software: A Practical Guide to Testing (Whittaker)
• How to Break Web Software: Functional and Security Testing of Web Applications and Web Services (Andrews, Whittaker)
• The Art of Software Testing (Myers)
• Managing the Test People (McKay)
• Managing the Test Process (Black)
• TMAP Next for Result-Driven Testing (Koomen, Aalst, Broekman, Vroon)
• TPI NEXT, Business Drovem Test Process Improvement (Sogeti)

Obviously, if I search for "software testing" on Amazon, quite a number of books are returned.

Any recommendations?

Why Invest In Test Process Improvement?

Test Process Improvement is the continuous improvement of the quality and the efficiency of the testing process, in the context of the whole software development life cycle.

But, test process improvement is not testing. Why should you invest in it? Aren't you wasting time that you could be using to find bugs?

• Reduce overhead
  
• Increase test efficiency & effectiveness
  
• Allow test to embrace change (key to agile testing)
  
• Focus is on delivering results
  
• Improve Test's influence in order to deliver better quality
  
• Participating in a TPI program motivates & empowers test engineers
  

My organization invested in continuous TPI.

One major outcome was to increase the efficiency of the automation execution and analysis process. In many projects, this decreased from a 5 day duration to 1 day! This has freed up time for more manual and customer-like testing.

So yes, time was invested in TPI, but at the end of the pipeline, we now have more time to invest in more effective testing.

TPI is a cost but spending that cost in the right area will produce a return. The key is to pick the right test area to improve!

Rapid Software Testing, Dublin, September 2010 - places limited!

Rapid Software Testing is a three-day, hands-on class that teaches testing as a sophisticated thinking art.

The philosophy presented in this class is not like traditional approaches to testing, which ignore the thinking part of testing and instead advocate never-ending paperwork. Products have become too complex for that, time is too short, and testers are too expensive. Rapid testing uses a cyclic approach and heuristic methods to constantly re-optimize testing to fit the needs of your clients.

The Rapid approach isn't just testing with a speed or sense of urgency; it's mission-focused testing that eliminates unnecessary work, assures that everything necessary gets done, and constantly asks what testing can do to speed the project as a whole. This class presents an approach to testing that begins with developing personal skills and extends to the ultimate mission of software testing: lighting the way of the project by evaluating the product. One important tool of rapid testing is the discipline of exploratory testing-essentially a testing martial art. Exploratory testing combines test design, test execution, test result interpretation, and learning into a seamless process that finds a lot of problems quickly.

If you are an experienced tester, you'll find out how to articulate those intellectual processes of testing that you already practice intuitively. If you're a new tester, hands-on testing exercises help you gain critical experience.

 

MICHAEL BOLTON
Michael Bolton is an established and recognised leading-edge expert in the area of Software Testing. Michael has extensive experience in delivering workshops, tutorials, and conference presentations on the topic of Rapid Software Testing. He has over 20 years of experience in the computer industry testing, developing, managing, and writing about software.

Contact susan@isa-skillnet.com to book your place