Lessons Learned in Software Testing

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 352 pages
• Published by: Wiley
• Edition: 1st Edition December 15, 2001
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0471081124
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0471081128
• Book Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.1 x 0.7 inches
• Weighs: 15.2 ounces

Product Review
"a refreshing and enjoyable book…it will not be 'shelf-ware', but a well-used reference" -- Software Testing, Verification & Reliability, March 2003

"will make fascinating reading…highly recommended" -- CVu, Dec 03

"If testing is something that is going to be an important part of your career buy this book and read it carefully." (CVu - Jnl of the Association C & C++ Users, February 2002)

"a real gemfor me, this book is one that I shall find usefuleach and every test department should have several copies availablebe prepared to be inspired, or at the very least to have your ideas challenged" (Professional Tester, September 2002)

"a refreshing and enjoyable bookit will not be 'shelf-ware', but a well-used reference" (Software Testing, Verification & Reliability, March 2003)

"will make fascinating readinghighly recommended" (CVu, Dec 03)

a refreshing and enjoyable book; it will not be 'shelf-ware', but a well-used reference -- Software Testing, Verification & Reliability, March 2003



"If testing is something that is going to be an important part of your career buy this book and read it carefully." -- CVu - Jnl of the Association C & C++ Users, February 2002

Product Review
"part of a rare breed of informative books which are both accessible to beginners whilst still being of great use to experts. No matter how much you know about software testing, Kaner, Bach and Pettiford still have a few lessons to teach you" (M2 Communications, 7 June 2002)

Reader Reviews
This book contains 293 "Lessons". Each seems to be meant for people with certain experiences and certain problems; some very broadly defined, others more tightly. So, how do I grade 293 lessons? One way would be to average them, another to pick on the worst (from my point of view). I choose to pick out the ones that hit me the hardest; the best from my point of view. I've been a developer, a tester, a test manager, and am now a grad student studying testing with Dr. Kaner. This book was the proximate cause of the last. If I had had this book a couple of years ago, I believe I would have done a much better job as test manager, and my project would have succeeded better with our customer. This is the second best book on testing that I've ever read. By the time I saw Lesson 31, I had already learned it the hard way. "A Requirement is a quality or condition that matters to someone who matters." It doesn't matter what the requirements document says; you ignore the opinion of someone who matters at your peril. I did. Lesson 57: "Make your bug report an effective sales tool." My bug reports developed a pretty good reputation with most of the developers, so I quit paying as much attention to putting convincing arguments in them. Then, we got some new senior developers. I was back at square one without quite realizing how I got there. Don't do that. Lesson 235: "Staff the testing team with diverse backgrounds." When I became test manager, I looked for people like me: computer science degree with developer experience. Well, such people don't work as testers, especially for the location and money we offered. I first hired a young woman with Army training. Later, I figured out how lucky I had been; she was one of the two best testers who worked for me. I learned a lot about my blind spots from her pointing them out to me. I'd hate to have tried to do the job without her or many of the other people very different from me (and her) that I hired. Lesson 240 "During the interview, have the tester demonstrate the skills you're hiring for." After having a lot of bad results from traditional interviewing, we wrote a series of tests and gave the appropriate one (testing, SQL, C++, etc.) to each candidate. Afer that, we found our rate of bad hires was down sharply. We hired several people whom we would not have hired based on our traditional interview questions; almost all turned out well. What am I learning? Lesson 17: "Studying epistemology helps you test better." I hope so; I'm studying it. Lesson 76: "Always report nonreproducible errors; they may be time bombs." I'm keeping more lists of these now. No good results yet. Lesson 266: "Learn Perl." Yep, there's more than one way to do it. (BTW, the best book on testing I've ever read is Testing Computer Software, 2nd. Kaner, Falk, Nguyen.)