Books about Software Testing

Software Testing Books We Recommend.

Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.

Sir Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626)

Below are reviews I wrote of some books about software testing.
My opinion is that a book has a practical value if it helps you to:
a.	Find one more bug.
b.	Find new ideas which will save your time and money.
c.	Improve your documentation and/or templates.

Information without any practical value (except for specific exams 
and certifications) includes statements like:
a.      CMM has 18 KPA.
b.      John was a great tester.
c.      Testing is bla, bla

Buy now

How Google Tests Software by James A. Whittaker, Jason Arbon, Jeff Carollo, 2012
Review: You will learn about the Google process and describing the key roles at Google: SWE (Software Engineer), SET (Software Engineer in Test) and TE (Test Engineer). In the book are quite a few good ideas that cab be used and adapted to your specific situation including The 10-Minute Test Plan by James Whittaker. Also the book described a number of open-sourced tools Google uses for testing like BITE - Browser Integrated Test Environment and Bots.

Testing Data Warehouse Applications by Doug Vucevic and Jett Zhang, 2011
Review: The core of this book presents the strategies to ensure the quality of data warehouse applications. It comes with the really technical samples.

Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams by Lisa Crispin and Janet Gregory. , 2009
Review: this book is a practical guide for testers who ate planning to start an Agile project.

Implementing Automated Software Testing: How to Save Time and Lower Costs While Raising Quality by Elfriede Dustin; Thom Garrett; Bernie Gauf. , 2009
Review: this book is a basic guide about starting an Automated Software Testing program with emphasis on selecting how and what you test.
Read online: Implementing Automated Software Testing Table Of Contents.

Introduction To Software Testing by Paul Ammann and Jeff Offutt., 2008
The technical core of this book presents the coverage criteria that are available, describes how they are supported by tools (commercial and otherwise), explains how they can best be applied, and suggests how they can be integrated into the overall development process.
Read online: Introduction To Software Testing Table Of Contents and List of Figures.

Manage software testing by Peter Farrell-Vinay., 2008
Opinion: plan to read
Read online: Manage software testing Table Of Contents.

Performance Testing Guidance for Web Applications: Patterns & Practices by J. D. Meier; Carlos Farre; Prashant Bansode; Scott Barber; Dennis Rea., 2007
Opinion: plan to read
Find more on Performance Testing Guidance Table Of Contents and List of Figures.

Pragmatic Software Testing: Becoming an Effective and Efficient Test Professional. by Rex Black., 2007
Opinion: plan to read
Find more on Pragmatic Software Testing Table Of Contents and List of Figures.

The Art of Software Security Testing: Identifying Software Security Flaws by Chris Wysopal, Lucas Nelson, Dino Dai Zovi, Elfriede Dustin .,2007
this book includes white, grey, and black-box software testing, choosing and using the right tools during Secure Software Development Lifecycle (SSDL)
Read Chapter 3: Secure Software Development Lifecycle (SSDL)
Read Chapter 5: Shades of Analysis: White, Gray, and Black Box Testing

Software Testing Techniques: Finding the Defects that Matter (Programming Series) by Michael Shannon, Geoffrey Miller, Richard, Jr. Prewitt, Scott Loveland (Editor) .,2005
This book is a comprehensive guide to Mainframe Testers!

A Practitioner's Guide to Software test Design by Lee Copeland., 2003
This book covers all known test design techniques with examples! Chapter 15- Defect Taxonomies with review of SEI, ISO 9126, Beizers, Binders, Kaners, Whittakers and Vijayaraghavans taxonomies will be interesting to everyone.

Critical Testing Processes: Plan, Prepare, Perform, Perfect by Rex Black.,2003
Opinion: plan to read

Effective Software Testing: 50 Specific Ways to Improve Your Testing by Elfriede Dustin.,2002/b>
Opinion: plan to read
Find more on Effective Software Testing: 50 Specific Ways to Improve Your Testing Table Of Contents.

The Rational Unified Process Made Easy. A Practitioner Guide to the RUP. Foreword by Grady Booch.,2003
Chapter 18 "A Testers Guide to the RUP" was developed with Paul Szymkowiak.
These 20 pages begin with the quote:
And what is good, Phaedrus,
And what is not good-
Need we ask anyone to tell us these things?
(Plato, circa 370 B.C)
This is an excellent chapter that must be read.
It covers: Mission of the Tester, Concept of Quality, Paradigms of "Good Enough",Cost of Quality, RUP testing philosophy, etc.

Software Testing and Internationalization by Manfred Rätzmann and Clinton De Young. Lemoine Int., 2003
Good book with a lot of useful information for Gray Box software testers. Some definitions do not match the software testing certification requirements. The FREE PDF edition makes the book more valuable.

Introducing Software Testing: A Practical Guide to Getting Started. by Louise Tamres, 2002
Review: An impressive description of different approaches to creating and organization of test cases. With good examples. You can learn how to develop test cases using state transition diagram, state table, outlines, use cases etc. Other topics are covered too. Certainly is not for beginners.
Just Enough Software Test Automation. by Daniel J. Mosley, Bruce A. Posey, 2002
Review: This book is for testers who are seriously involved in test automation, especially with Rational Robot. On the first 90 pages you will find a good introduction to software testing.
Software Testing: A Craftsman's Approach, Second Edition by Paul Jorgensen, 2002
An excellent description of :
Boundary Value Testing
Equivalence Class Testing
Decision Table-Based Testing
Path Testing
Data Flow Testing
Integration testing
Thread Testing
Others types of testing are covered too.
Read online: Software Testing: A Craftsman's Approach Table Of Contents.
How to Break Software: A Practical Guide to Testing by James A. Whittaker, 2002
A must for testers without programming /development background (CD is not evaluated).
Lessons Learned in Software Testing. by Cem Kaner, James Bach, Bret Pettichord. John Wiley & Sons 2002.
Review: This book has 293 suggestions that can be used in everyday testing routines. Each lesson can be more or less useful or obvious, depending on your experience. Some of these lessons are very practical, others more theoretical.

Download a free copy of the Lesson #289 and read it online

An example of obvious statements is:
-Lesson 88 Improve your reporting skills.
-Lesson 96 Bug report should be closed by testers.
-Lesson 138 Start test automation early.
-Lesson 178 Do not ask for items unless you will use them.

Testing Applications on the Web. By Nguyen, Hung Q. Canada: Robert Ipsen, 2001.
Review: Every tester must read this book, and if working in the MS environment, this book is more valuable. How muh does one bug cost? I think more than any book! I am sure that after reading this book your will find a couple more bugs, and will use other information from this book as well. This book gives a lot of information that is necessary for every tester, particularly all the different fields of technology, with an appropriate level of details and additional bibliography.

Automated Web Testing Toolkit: Expert Methods for Testing and Managing Web Applications by Diane Stottlemyer, 2001
I do not know the type of readers the book is aimed at. This is not about test automation.
Practical Guide to Testing Object-Oriented Software. by McGregor, John D. and Sykes, David A. Canada: Addison-Wesley, 2001.
In the book describes a set of techniques for white box testing. From my point of view the intended audience for this book: programmers, white box testers and university students.
Software Testing. by Patton, Ron. Sams Publishing, 2000 and 2006.
This is one of the best from books for beginners who would like to know what software testing is all about. Software Testing is written in an easy to understand language. There is also a quiz at the end of each chapter, making the book more valuable. "Recommended Book"
TABLE OF CONTENTS AT A GLANCE
Software Testing and Continuous Quality Improvement by William E. Lewis, 2000
Review: This book has a lot of QA information and overview of different test techniques. Appendixes include templates and checklists that can be useful.
Client Server Software Testing on the Desktop and the Web by Daniel J. Mosley, 2000
The author is expert in testing automation with Rational Robot and some code is provided. Some information particularly references to Web may be not valid any more. The book is difficult to read and use.
Software Test Automation: Effective Use of Test Execution Tools by Dorothy Graham, Mark Fewster, 1999
This book describes everything you need to know about automation from the basics. It has a part that includes some samples of failure implementation of automation. Very few books describe negative experience. The book has many other interesting fundamentals for software testers.
Testing Object-Oriented Systems: Models, Patterns, and Tools (The Addison-Wesley Object Technology Series)by Robert V. Binder. October, 1999) Addison-Wesley Pub Co
The intended audience for this book is programmers, white box testers and university students. If you are tester and want to understand testing of OO systems ?start from McGregor.
Test Process Improvement : A Practical Step-By-Step Guide to Structured Testingby Tim Koomen, Martin Pol, 1999.
See http://www.iquip.nl/tpi/ recommendations: The intended audience for this book: test managers with team over 10 members.
Testing Computer Software. by Kaner, Fank, and Nguyen USA: International Thomson Computer Press, 1998, 2nd edition
This is the classics of software testing. That's all I can say.
Visual Test 6 Bible by Thomas R. Arnold, 1998
Review: This book is directed mainly to Visual Test users, but Chapter 14- Black Box Monkey Testing will be interesting to everyone.
Handbook of Software Quality Assurance by G. Gordon Schulmeyer (second edition), 1998
Recommendations: I recommend this book only for ASQ certification or to trace the history of SQA standardization.
Automating Specification-Based Software Testing. by Poston, Robert M. USA: IEEE Computer Society Press, 1996.
Recommendations: This book covers different historical aspects of software testing and automation.
Black-Box Testing: Techniques for Functional Testing of Software and Systemsby Boris Beizer, 1995
I do not know the intended audience for this book.
C++ and C Debugging, Testing, and Reliability : The Prevention, Detection, and Correction of Program Errors/Book and Disk by David A. Spuler (Paperback - December 1994)
It is very useful to look through. You will see how many ways developer has to create a bug.
Software testing techniques by Boris Beizer, 1990
Was excellent at the time of publishing.
The Art of Software Testing by Glenford J. Myers 1979
Review: This is a very good book (if not the price - $140). I can suggest it being read by every tester. Very useful for certification exams preparation. Despite being 21 years old, the material is still mostly relevant to modern-day testing.
Find more on The Art of Software Testing Table Of Contents and List of Figures, Second Edition, 2004 by Glenford J. Myers
A list of recommended books from The Examination Study Guide and Common Body of Knowledge (CBOK) for Certified Software Test Engineer ? QAI, Orlando, 2000 CSTE books
Do not forget the March 2000,2001 issues of Dr. Dobb's Journal http://www.ddj.com/ if you interesting in white, grey box testing! Software Tools

G. Altshuller. And Suddenly the Inventor Appeared: TRIZ, The Theory of Inventive Problem Solving. ISBN 0-9640740-2-8
Describes the algorithmic methodology that helps solve different problems and create the predictable pattern.

Weinberg, Gerald M. The Secrets of Consulting. ISBN 0-932633-01-3, 1985.

Approach from the book: 'Become rational about irrationality' can be the first law of any tester.

On this page I put review and recommendations of 30 books for QA and software testers.

© 2001-2005 Alex Samurin www.geocities.com/xtremetesting/ 2009 www.extremesoftwaretesting.com
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