Everyone has a role to play in software testing -- even people outside a project team. Testers, developers, managers, customers, and users shape the process and results of testing, often unwittingly. Rather than continue to generate stacks of documents and fuel animosity, testers can cultivate rich opportunities and relationships by integrating an effective testing mentality into any process.
Perfect Software sets out to disprove destructive notions about testing and testers. With a blend of wit, storytelling, and jaw-dropping insight that has won him fans around the world, Weinberg deftly separates what is expected, significant, and possible in software testing. He destroys fallacies and steers readers clear of common mistakes.
We test because people are not perfect, and simply testing "more" does not guarantee better quality. This book guides test strategy development that's scalable for any project.
Perfect Software answers the questions that puzzle the most people:
Why do we have to bother testing?
Why not just test everything?
What is it that makes testing so hard?
Why does testing take so long?
Is perfect software even possible?
Why can't we just accept a few bugs? Topics include:
* Information Immunity
* What Makes a Test "Good"?
* Major Fallacies About Testing
* Determining Significance of Failures
* Testing Without Machinery
* Testing Scams
* and much more
This book is one of the 6 (not 5) books highlighted in Bruce F. Webster's Baseline Magazine article, "The 5 Books Every IT Manager Should Read Right Now" It's not just a book for QA engineers whose business is testing software, but one that contains useful lessons for anyone engaged in developing or testing anything, especially intangible objects like software and processes. It's interesting and entertaining to read. You don't have to be a computer programmer or QA engineer to enjoy this book. Randy Rice said "As a software testing consultant, I have had the same mentoring session about a thousand times with different IT, development and testing managers. These conversations are on the same topics as Jerry covers in this book and the insights he gives are ones I will be adding in my consultations. The value of this book in my view is that it concisely cuts to the key issues in getting software right. I highly recommend it to testers and the people who manage them—all the way up to CIOs Dwayne Phillips, a project management consultant said, "I love this book. Its contents will last beyond the current and next 3 generations of test tools and techniques. It cuts to the heart of testing in a timeless manner. I can give it to a manager at any level and trust that if they read it, they have the potential to be a much better manager. I can give it to just about anyone—especially people who have nothing to do with software or testing software. It contains much about how people gather, communicate, consider, and use information" Adriano Comai said "A really useful book. Testing is the most misunderstood of software related activities. Even by software development professionals. The book explains what we can expect from testing, what are the main challenges, and what is wrong with common practices and attitudes. Short, well written (always with Weinberg's books), easy to read, without technical details, this book is a good introduction to the realities of software testing, for every stakeholder of software projects and of software products" James Bach, the famous software testing guru, says, "Read this book and get your head straight about testing."
