Managing the Testing Process: Practical Tools and Techniques for Managing Hardware and Software Testing
by: Rex Black
Topics include: defect detection percentage, quality risk coverage, your test effort, bug triage, suite summary, test subproject, bug tracking database, change management database, test case level, system test phase, test dashboard, lead test engineer, defect removal models, bug isolation, test granularity, stable test environment, your test system, test exit criteria, tracking spreadsheet, test case library, logistics database, continuation criteria, test plan template, opened curve, component test phase
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For a practical guide to software testing, readers can look to Rex Black's Managing the Testing Process, a compendium of real-world advice on managing software testing successfully. It is a veritable hodge-podge of sample test documents and is filled with recommendations from an old hand at test management.
Early sections examine the design of test plans, along with strategies for assessing and prioritizing risk as well as catching bugs through effective testing. Sample case studies include a network hardware device and a Java word processor.
Throughout this book, a variety of documents (including Excel spreadsheets and Access databases) are presented to get you started on your own testing projects. (Though reproduced here in truly microscopic print, all sample documents are included on the accompanying CD-ROM.) The book also looks at metrics for measuring the performance of your testing operation.
Managing the Testing Process shows how a bug-tracking database is the most effective model for managing the testing cycle. This book is chock-full of advice on testing management. The author also presents dozens of tips for succeeding in the software Q/A job market.
Sections on designing a lab and staffing it, including a valuable discussion on when to use consultants and when to outsource testing, provide a practical guide to today's testing management. After an introduction to working with other players in today's software organizations, a final chapter looks at managing testing across different locations.
Many developers spend time in Q/A as a stepping stone to careers in software design. And as the author points out, the job of test engineer is growing in popularity. Read this book to find out the often harsh realities of software testing along with strategies for improving the effectiveness of your software testing team.
Book Description
An updated edition of the best tips and tools to plan, build, and execute a structured test operation
In this update of his bestselling book, Rex Black walks you through how to develop essential tools and apply them to your test project. He helps you master the basic tools, apply the techniques to manage your resources, and give each area just the right amount of attention so that you can successfully survive managing a test project!
Offering a thorough review of the tools and resources you will need to manage both large and small projects for hardware and software, this book prepares you to adapt the concepts across a broad range of settings. Simple and effective, the tools comply with industry standards and bring you up to date with the best test management practices and tools of leading hardware and software vendors. Rex Black draws from his own numerous testing experiences-- including the bad ones, so you can learn from his mistakes-- to provide you with insightful tips in test project management. He explores such topics as:
* Dates, budgets, and quality-expectations versus reality
* Fitting the testing process into the overall development or maintenance process
* How to choose and when to use test engineers and technicians, contractors and consultants, and external test labs and vendors
* Setting up and using an effective and simple bug-tracking database
* Following the status of each test case
The companion Web site contains fifty tools, templates, and case studies that will help you put these ideas into action-- fast!
A basic, but effective, approach to test management
The approach and techniques given in this book will get the new test manager and his or her team quickly started with basic techniques for managing testing. The key strengths of this book include:
(1) Instructions for developing test plans, and associated test cases and reports - the material is fairly basic, but complete and consistent with good practices.
(2) An excellent discussion of, and advice for, effective management of a test team, setting priorities and managing budgets.
(3) Practical advice for setting objectives and scope within the testing process.
While this book will give the in-the-trenches test professionals a view of the 'big picture', it's more suited to managers and QA leads who are seeking guidelines for establishing the foundation of a test process, and who want to quickly implement standards for test documentation and a workflow. The book's accompanying web page provides over 50 templates, case studies and tools that can be downloaded and immediately used within your organization. In addition, the website contains a small (but growing) collection of articles, presentations and links that augment the material in this book.
Although there are a handful of other books on test management that are equal to this one, each has strengths and weaknesses - but all provide sound advice and a structured approach to managing the test process. This particular book's strengths include the downloadable documents that will save much time and effort, and the straightforward approach to basic test management. If you are trying to get a basic test process in place you won't go wrong if you select this book.
Reviews:
Good book - recommended for everyone who manages testing --
I very much liked the book. Rex Black has written about the process and management side of testing. This makes it an ideal complement to Cem Kaner's "Testing Computer Software" (which deals with testing technique) and Boris Beizer's "Software Testing Techniques" (which deals with the fundamentals).
I found the templates useful, mostly because I never worked my way around Excel to get those metrics in an automated manner. But don't expect them to be replacement for commercial test management tools.
This should be a required reading for anyone who plans or manages testing.