I first heard about this book at a London Tester gathering which I sneaked into (I am after all a programmer, not a tester!). It's a fabulous collection of tips and hints and techniques for both the new and the experienced person working in a software test department. It covers obvious areas testing techniques, automated testing (the material about what automated testing can't do is very high grade material), documenting testing, and managing a test project.

But it also covers some less obvious issues such as thinking like a tester, bug advocacy, and how to interact with programmers. The style is to offer the advice in bite sized chunks, and, to my surprise, it works, making it easy to look up something only half remembered, in a moment.

Even more importantly, from my point of view, the book is easily useable if you aren't a professional tester. If you are a programmer, or even the CTO, in a small company that doesn't have a software testing department, you will still get a lot of new ideas out of the book. Many of the ideas are a nice fit with programmer test driven development - some of them will work for you, some won't. Happily, the book isn't dogmatic, it's much more of a 'this is what we have found can work in some of the projects we have been involved in' style. And it works very well indeed.

Highly recommended

Good tips in this book that I will put in to practise. A very good read that is relevant

This is a must have book for all aspiring software testers and anyone else within the development team. This book is going to transform you into a better all round tester within a short period of time. I'm only a few pages in and I've already jotted down a handful of tips and techniques that can help me improve my testing as a whole.

This book is full of tips that, unless you'd been a test analyst for a long time in different jobs, you may not have thought of; definitely worth reading if you're looking to open your mind a little to the world of testing.

Perfect little tricks and tips for software testing. If you knew to the game of testing, buy this book, you'll have it sitting at your desk, I know I do.

Absolutely a brilliant book.

This is the best software testing book I ever read. Sharing valuable experience and content are really helpful.

Although this is well written, I didn't really learn anything I didn't hknow. A good book for System Analysts who were involved in Testing for a short period

A 'must have' for anyone studying for the ISEB exams.

This is one of those rare finds that covers the whole spectrum of software testing - from the role of the tester to test design and planning.

Broken into 293 'lessons' it puts across many gems in an entertaining and easy to read style - unlike many books on testing which tend to be very dry.

The experienced tester and those just starting in the profession will find something of value in these pages.

Me lo estoy leyendo con tarjetitas al lado, para anotar cosas importantes o llamativas, y ya he escrito en unas cuantas. Tiene alguna que otra lección muy útil y aprovechable. Yo estoy empezando en esto del testing, y me está ayudando a acomodar la cabeza. Ahora, no sirve para aprender qué tipo de testing hay y cuándo usar cada uno, para eso hay otros muchos libros (e internet).

En fin, que lo recomiendo, para leer un par de "lessons" cada día. Además, como las secciones son temáticas, puedes irte a la que te esté dando más problemas cada día (¿qué hago con estos malditos desarrolladores que no me hacen caso? ¿automatizo esto?) y sacar algún consejillo. Es, de hecho, como hablar con alguien que controla y te aconseja.

Bon produit

"Lessons learned in software testing" provides 293 lessons the authors learned during their many years working as software testers, test managers and consultants. This book is perhaps one of the most insightful books on testing ever written. It covers a broad range of testing issues and most of the topics are relevant outside the world of testing. To give an example, the authors discussions related to documentation, standards or licensing are not limited to testing. They clearly explain their thinking behind their arguments and parts like these are useful reads for anyone!

The book is organized around 293 lessons which are a paragraph to a couple pages long. The lessons are organized around eleven chapters. At first, I was annoyed by the structure of the book, but as I got used to it, I started to appreciate the structure in different lessons. Especially since it helped the authors in expressing conflicting thoughts well.

The first chapters cover the most basic questions. The first is about the role a tester has and already here the authors present a perhaps controversial view on testing as a service as opposed to as a quality police, which is often seen in larger organizations. The second chapter relates to how to think as a tester. It provides interesting references in completely different knowledge areas which might help testers become better. The third chapter is somewhat misplaced in the book, though still useful. It's a chapter that covers different testing techniques. It doesn't cover it thoroughly, but that is not the purpose of this book. For more thorough coverage of testing techniques, its probably better to pick up another book.

The fourth chapter is about writing bugs. Its insightful since it especially clarifies a lot about the role of testing from the authors perspective. The fifth chapter covers test automation and makes important observations related to test automation... especially that test automation is not the same as automated manual testing. I found the wording insightful and again stresses the role of the tester and especially the skill of testers.

Chapter six is perhaps one of the more controversial ones about documenting testing. As a logical conclusion from the focus on the role of tester (mentioned earlier), it makes sense to limit the documentation somewhat. Documentation is not a substitute for skill. However, they provide a balanced view and do not recommend to throw your documentation out of the window, but instead analyze your particular situation and create only the documentation that is needed.

The next three chapters relate to working with other persons. First how to work with programmers, then how to manage a testing project and how to manage a testing group. Chapter ten relates to building a testing career. Also here, some of the advise is general to "a career", not specifically a testing one.

The last chapter about strategy seemed to me somewhat odd. The book would have ended well with the manage your testing career and its not totally clear to me why the authors added this chapter still. It's not useless, just doesn't seem to fit in very well.

All in all, the book is a good read! It's funny and very insightful and sometimes controversial. I was considering a rating of four or five stars. I was thinking about four since I did not always agree with the authors for example, on their views on test automation. Though, lots has been learned about that the last years! On the other hand, I do not know any more insightful book related to this subject. And, I'd even recommend it to people who do not do software testing at all! So, therefore I decided to go for five stars! Well worth reading!

Leitura essencial para testadores. Tem tudo que você precisa saber.

I have received the book on time which is very good. The paper of the book is not high quality.