5 Books on Software Testing Every Tester Must Read

In order to carry out successful tests to prevent bugs a Software tester should be experienced and educated.We have short listed some of the highly recommended books for beginners and advanced testers. These software quality assurance books may help you get the best out of you.

1. A Practitioner’s Guide to Software Test Design, Lee Copeland, 2003

A comprehensive, up-to-date and practical introduction to software test design. This book presents all the important test design techniques in a single place and in a consistent and easy-to-digest format. An immediately useful handbook for test engineers, developers, quality assurance professionals and requirements and systems analysts, it enables you to: choose the best test case design; find software defects in less time and with fewer resources; and develop optimal strategies that help reduce the likelihood of costly errors. It also assists you in estimating the effort, time and cost of good testing. Numerous case studies and examples of software testing techniques are included, helping you to fully understand the practical applications of these techniques. From well-established techniques such as equivalence classes, boundary value analysis, decision tables and state-transition diagrams, to new techniques like use case testing, pairwise testing and exploratory testing, the book is a usful resource for testing professionals seeking to improve their skills and a handy reference for college-level courses in software test design.

2. The Art of Software Testing, 2nd edition, Glenford Myers, et. el., 2004

This long-awaited revision of a bestseller provides a practical discussion of the nature and aims of software testing. You’ll find the latest methodologies for the design of effective test cases, including information on psychological and economic principles, managerial aspects, test tools, high-order testing, code inspections, and debugging. Accessible, comprehensive, and always practical, this edition provides the key information you need to test successfully, whether a novice or a working programmer. Buy your copy today and end up with fewer bugs tomorrow.

3. Software Testing Techniques, 2nd edition, Boris Beizer, 1990

Software Testing Techniques by Boris Beizer is an absolute must for anyone who has a serious interest in software testing. This 549-page book covers nearly every aspect of the process of finding errors in computer programs, moving from basic definitions and terminology through detailed and easy-to-understand explanations of most testing strategies in use today, finishing with a chapter on implementing
testing strategies in a development organization.This book is written with the practitioner in mind, but can equally well be used by students in software engineering curriculum’s. It presents both theory and practice in a thorough and clear manner, illustrating both concepts
and practical techniques with numerous realistic examples.

4. How to Break Software: A Practical Guide to Testing, James Whittaker, 2002

How to Break Software is a departure from conventional testing in which testers prepare a written test plan and then use it as a script when testing the software. The testing techniques in this book are as flexible as conventional testing is rigid. And flexibility is needed in software projects in which requirements can change, bugs can become features and schedule pressures often force plans to be reassessed. Software testing is not such an exact science that one can determine what to test in advance and then execute the plan and be done with it. Instead of a plan, intelligence, insight, experience and a “nose for where the bugs are hiding” should guide testers. This book helps testers develop this insight. The techniques presented in this book not only allow testers to go off-script, they encourage them to do so. Don’t blindly follow a document that may be out of date and that was written before the product was even testable. Instead, use your head! Open your eyes! Think a little, test a little and then think a little more. This book does teach planning, but in an “on- the-fly while you are testing” way.

5. Testing Object-Oriented Systems: Models, Patterns, and Tools, Robert V. Binder, 1999

More than ever, mission-critical and business-critical applications depend on object-oriented (OO) software. Testing techniques tailored to the unique challenges of OO technology are necessary to achieve high reliability and quality. Testing Object-Oriented Systems: Models, Patterns, and Tools is an authoritative guide to designing and automating test suites for OO applications.

This comprehensive book explains why testing must be model-based and provides in-depth coverage of techniques to develop testable models from state machines, combinational logic, and the Unified Modeling Language (UML). It introduces the test design pattern and presents 37 patterns that explain how to design responsibility-based test suites, how to tailor integration and regression testing for OO code, how to test reusable components and frameworks, and how to develop highly effective test suites from use cases.

Effective testing must be automated and must leverage object technology. The author describes how to design and code specification-based assertions to offset testability losses due to inheritance and polymorphism. Fifteen micro-patterns present oracle strategies–practical solutions for one of the hardest problems in test design. Seventeen design patterns explain how to automate your test suites with a coherent OO test harness framework.

Happy Reading Testers !!. And do not forget to mention the book you liked the most in the comments below.