Software Testing in the Real World: Improving the Process

by Edward Kit

Software Testing in the Real World provides the reader with a tool-box for effectively improving the software testing process. The book contains many testing techniques and guidance for creating a strategy for continuous, sustainable improvement within the organization - whatever its size or level of process maturity.
Ed Kit addresses the most frequently asked questions about methodologies, tools, technology, and organizational issues being posed in the testing community today. Pragmatic in its approach, the book confronts the problem of the relative immaturity of the software engineering discipline in most organizations with practical guidance on cost and risk, standards, planning, testing tasks, and testing tools.
Test and Quality Assurance Specialists, Development and Project Managers, and Developers will benefit from the practical, proven techniques for improving the specific "best of breed" software testing tools information.

Genres: Nonfiction, Computers, Business

252 pages, Hardcover

First published November 17, 1995

Reviews

[Sherri · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was leant to me by my father in law, who gave it a solid recommendation for someone who is looking into breaking into the software testing field. This book was relatively quick to get through — the chapters are relatively short and well-organized, and the information is relayed in a way that someone who has little to no experience can follow along with.

That said, it's clear that the author intended this book's audience to be towards people who are at least somewhat familiar with software testing, and there are definitely places where it shows. The chapter on methodology, for example, was predicated on the understanding of certain concepts which made the exercises unworkable for me.

This is, however, still a very informative read and I highly recommend it for people who want to learn more about testing.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book is heavy on IEEE standards and is probably too heavy-weight for a small company. It is also seriously old-school with respect to the development process, since it assumes in all its examples on a waterfall model of development. It pays only lip-service to eXtreme programming methods and test-first methodology. Nor does the book address the different testing requirements associated with different business models. A firm producing a product destined for a volume architecture is very different than a product destined for a complex systems architecture.

One useful piece of advice is to have the QA Dept. review MRDs from Marketing as well as Engineering so that they can front-load the test development and have a plan in place before the product hits the QA Dept.

Most of the content is "motherhood and apple pie". There are probably better books on actual testing methodologies not grounded in the 1980s.

[Nathan]

I largely skimmed this book. It attempts to give you a toolset for implementing a useful testing plan and while the details were probably excessive for our small company, it was a good reminder to keep the pressure on that side of things.

[Coral Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won't bore you all with a description of a technical book about something you don't care about. Instead, I'll just say that if you are involved in software testing, this book has some good insights into making internal processes better.

[Jonathan]

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