Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)First, this book is not primarily for software test and QA professionals who are working in 'typical' organizations. As noted by others, the approach this book provides is best suited to organizations that are at least at CMM level 3. Moreover, unless software engineering practices across the organization are mature the approach will probably fail. However, that does not prevent even a Level 1 organization from selecting best practices and tasks set forth in this book and applying them. The net result will be an incremental improvement, and may be the catalyst for larger improvements with a small win.
That said, this book is invaluable to mature organizations that are committed to software engineering at the defined, managed or optimizing levels of maturity. It distills formal test practices drawn from a variety of sources and the author's experience into a succinct, process-oriented guide. The model itself is presented in IPO (Input-Process-Output) diagrams that start at a high level to describe the process itself, and drill down into successive levels of detail in level 2 and 3 IPO diagrams. This process-oriented structure gives a great deal of clarity to a complex set of processes that touch all milestones in any SDLC.
I like the fact that the model proposed is not rigid, but can be tailored to development life cycle approaches ranging from waterfall to agile approaches. Chapter 8 gives advice on how to accomplish the tailoring without breaking the integrity of the process. I also found the appendices useful, especially Appendix B (preferred practices) and the plans and templates provided, and Appendix C (testing processes evaluation questionnaire).
If your organization is pursuing CMM level 3 or above, or are contractually required to have a formal software engineering process or process capability, this book will address the software testing process areas of a larger initiative. However, do not overlook some of the small wins a chaotic organization can achieve by using many of the ideas in this book.
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Testing is not a phase.Software developers should not simply throw software over the wall to test engineers when the developers have finished coding.A coordinated program of peer reviews and testing not only supplements a good software development process, it supports it.A good testing life cycle begins during the requirements elucidation phase of software development, and concludes when the product is ready to install or ship following a successful system test.Nevertheless, there is no one true way to test software; the best one can hope for is to possess a formal testing process that fits the needs of the testers as well as those of the organization and its customers.A formal test plan is more than an early step in the software testing process -- it's a vital part of your software development life cycle.This book presents a series of tasks to help you develop a formal testing process model, as well as the inputs and outputs associated with each task.These tasks include * review of program plans * development of the formal test plan * creation of test documentation (test design, test cases, test software, and test procedures) * acquisition of automated testing tools * test execution * updating the test documentation * tailoring the model for projects of all sizesWhether you are an experienced test engineer looking for ways to improve your testing process, a new test engineer hoping to learn how to perform a good testing process, a newly assigned test manager or team leader who needs to learn more about testing, or a process improvement leader, this book will help you maximize your effectiveness.
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