Managing the Testing Process: Practical Tools and Techniques for Managing Hardware and Software Testing
By admin • Dec 2nd, 2008 • Category: Uncategorized
Managing the Testing Process: Practical Tools and Techniques for Managing Hardware and Software Testing
by Rex Black, Rex Black
Managing the Testing Process: Practical Tools and Techniques for Managing Hardware and Software Testing
By Rex Black, Rex Black
Publisher: Wiley
Number Of Pages: 528
Publication Date: 2002-07-19
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0471223980
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780471223986
Binding: Paperback
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!
Amazon.com Review:
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. –Richard Dragan
Summary: great book
Rating: 5
I saw this book in my public library, and after reading it once i figured out that i can’t stay without it! so i decided to buy it, because you will always find a situation where this book can help you to plan testing processes or manage an existing process.
Either if you are a software tester or a lead/manager this book can help a lot; highly reccomended!
Summary: IT 645 College Book Review
Rating: 1
This book does not go well with the class, I would suggest to any university that is using this book for IT 645 class, to find a different author.
Summary: Straight forward guide to test management
Rating: 5
“Managing the Testing Process” is the book that I used as a guide when I started as a tester years ago. I found that, while it focuses on the bigger picture of test management, many of the tidbits included help me to report what I do to non-testers.
It may seem simplistic to use tools like Excel or Access to capture and report information. However, I have worked at companies that didn’t want to lay out any cash for testing and testing tools. But what comes installed on most corporate desktops? Excel and Access! They are tools that are easily used and readily available for capturing metrics and generating reports. Metrics and reports are the mainstay of the testing community and demonstrate to others that testing is a critical component of the software development process.
I have recently returned to using some of Rex’s reports to highlight the problems that exist in my own projects. Everywhere I have worked there seems to be a common theme that producing quality software is difficult, yet Rex’s methods for collecting and reporting project statistics give the most bang for the buck when dealing with people who don’t want to understand technical issues or read lengthy documents on the status of a software project.
If you are just setting up a test organization, or are new to testing yourself, this book provides everything you need in order to cover the basics. I also recommend “Managing the Testing Process” to testers just getting their feet wet, even if they’re not managing a test team. This book demonstrates why testing is important and gives a good “big-picture” understanding of the artifacts that a test team should be producing.
Summary: Rex Black explains clearly and deliberately
Rating: 4
My take on this book is that it`s more about creating organization within your test schedule and documentation. He goes through each step of the QA process, from documenting requirements to double-checking the results, and explains how you can spend hours upon hours of documentation for your QA efforts.
It`s useful if you have nowhere to start. It`s full of new ideas if you already have a system in place. It can help you get more out of your testing organization if you have your QA manager read it for homework.
Summary: Testcase Tracking in Excel?
Rating: 3
Black keeps on stating, that he has a lot of practical experience. The book is supposed to help me in my daily business as a (for me) testmanager. Well, it did not.
1) I can not take him serious (watching him give a presentation is fun and interesting, though), when he proposes to manage testcases in Excel. Of course I tried that (didn’t we all try that once?), in fact have seen it on several projects. It failed every single time. You need a database system for even medium sized projects. I actually found it very helpful to use a bugzilla like system to manage them.
2) He describes a bug tracking system. That might have been necessary a few years ago, but today there is Bugzilla (or Jira, or the like). They are cheap, very flexible and developed from a need. On the World Congress for Computer Quality in Munich (2005) I talked to several vendors of such testcase tracking systems. They were quite expensive and none could provide me some of the feautures possible with Bugzilla. Oh, they had all kinds of fancy wizards and automatic equivalent classes generators and the like. Too bad, that I never missed those things, might be because time is the single most contraining factor for me and my team.
So, the book gives a good theoretical overview. It is easy to read and beginners will certainly learn something from it. If you have any background book on testing and have some experience in testing, don’t bother.
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