Customer Reviews

Lessons Learned in Software Testing: A Context Driven Approach

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
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When I first skimmed through the book I thought, oh great a whole bunch of incomplete views that they couldn't make a book out of, then realising they'd made a book out of it, sneaky.

As I read through some of the individual lessons, made easy as all 293 are listed out under handy topic headings in the table of contents, I realised that what this book actually provides. It gives you 293 across the desk brief mentoring sessions that you wish you could with some guru like character. This book is like having Kaner, Bach or Pettichord sat there working with you, answering your questions in a thought provoking and considered way. You may not agree completely with the authors views and that's a good thing, lesson 294.

Typical lessons are ones such as number 32, "You discover requirements by conference, inference and reference", provide useful insight over a few paragraphs that will help you approach this area with more options for getting requirements in hand. However, the whole book isn't like this and in fact the end of chapter three's Addendum to Techniques is 19 pages of step by step examples, usable lists and definitions that reminded me of content in Kaner et al Testing Computer Software.

This book isn't a comprehensive guide to software testing. If you're totally green some of the content might appear to lack a cohesive structure, you may not find links you expect. If however you've got some background in this domain it'll serve to compliment and possibly challenge your views. Sometimes this book serves to tell you that in fact you're approach is right in your testing context, make that lesson 295.

If you're in need of guidance and looking for a lightweight collection of ideas around a particular topic such as test techniques, automation or test documents then this is a great book to get a useful idea of the topic. If you want to get some thoughts clear in your mind or get extra vocabulary for discussing topics you already know, then again this book will provide that and some new perspectives to boot.

An enjoyable, readable and useful book that wont disappoint.

I first heard about this book at a London Tester gathering which I sneaked into (I am after all a programmer, not a tester!). It's a fabulous collection of tips and hints and techniques for both the new and the experienced person working in a software test department. It covers obvious areas testing techniques, automated testing (the material about what automated testing can't do is very high grade material), documenting testing, and managing a test project.

But it also covers some less obvious issues such as thinking like a tester, bug advocacy, and how to interact with programmers. The style is to offer the advice in bite sized chunks, and, to my surprise, it works, making it easy to look up something only half remembered, in a moment.

Even more importantly, from my point of view, the book is easily useable if you aren't a professional tester. If you are a programmer, or even the CTO, in a small company that doesn't have a software testing department, you will still get a lot of new ideas out of the book. Many of the ideas are a nice fit with programmer test driven development - some of them will work for you, some won't. Happily, the book isn't dogmatic, it's much more of a 'this is what we have found can work in some of the projects we have been involved in' style. And it works very well indeed.

Highly recommended

This book was recommended to me by a colleague. From the first page I realised what a great book this is. Having this in my desk at work is so useful, I can always find a lesson that can give me extra guidance while I'm working.

When reading it you know you are learning but it doesn't feel like you are reading a study guide because it is easy to read. The lessons are applicable to most situations so you can always find the help or guidance you need.

This book is a must-have for software testers!

Although this is well written, I didn't really learn anything I didn't hknow. A good book for System Analysts who were involved in Testing for a short period

This book is without a doubt one of the best software testing books I own. I constantly use it for reference and can't recommend it enough. They carefully balance arguments for and against certain topics (such as IEEE829) and provide reasoned and well balanced thought.

Very good read for experienced profesionals. Simple language, full of examples, reference of many books, tips...

A 'must have' for anyone studying for the ISEB exams.

This is one of those rare finds that covers the whole spectrum of software testing - from the role of the tester to test design and planning.

Broken into 293 'lessons' it puts across many gems in an entertaining and easy to read style - unlike many books on testing which tend to be very dry.

The experienced tester and those just starting in the profession will find something of value in these pages.

This book's great, nearly 300 'bite-sized' practical lessons about testing! The wonderful thing is, you can dip in at any time and take away something useful - I recommend this for anyone involved in testing (or anyone concerned about quality!).