ISBN:0849325242Book Description
The Second Edition of this volume provides a detailed, step-by-step plan for implementing quality assurance programs that emphasize software testing. This focus on software QA techniques enables organizations to minimize the high cost of IT maintenance. The summary of software testing and maintenance tools has been completely updated. New chapters include discussions of the on-shore/off-shore testing model, continuous quality improvement techniques that are exclusively for software testers, a review of the testing life cycle, and a detailed discussion of methodology used for the evaluation of maintenance tools. The appendices contain new testing checklists and templates, which are invaluable tools for improving quality and performance./p>
Reviews From AMAZON.COM
Most complete source of SW quality info in one place
This book represents the most complete and comprehensive approach to total quality of any I've read on either software testing or software quality assurance.
Highlights include:
- A structured quality cycle based on Plan-Do-Check-Act. This cycle is the foundation of continuous improvement, which is the theme of the book.
- Complete description of testing techniques - in this respect the book is an encyclopedia for software test professionals and a definitive reference.
- Comprehensive resource for forms and checklists (I wish these were also provided in soft copy on a CD ROM or author's web site, but they are not).
- Full view of metrics across every aspect of the development life cycle. In the same manner that the testing techniques are encyclopedic, the metrics are also an encyclopedia for SQA professionals.
I've used this book as a reference, and it had a heavy influence on a reference chart a colleague and I developed for depicting life cycle key metrics. It does not confine itself to testing alone, and in fact, has something for production services and service delivery professionals, as well as project managers involved with large scale development and implementation projects. You would have to buy at least a dozen books or download thousands of documents off the Internet to get the information contained between the covers of this book.
Perfect balance of information and techniqies
You'd have to download over a gigabyte of internet resources, then cross-reference them to come anywhere close to having a resource as valuable as this book. Lewis has taken proven techniques spanning both software testing and SQA, wrapped them into a quality process based on the PDCA model and places all of the information you need to master testing and SQA between the covers of this outstanding book.
All you need to add is the ability to think. If you can do that you'll be able to transform the incredible amount of information in this book into action. If you do that I guarantee you that you'll be able to develop a world class quality organization.
Of course, you can mine the publicly available resources and sort through them. Before you do, think carefully about how much your time is worth and just how much you can absorb. If you're intelligent enough to understand this book, you'll quickly see that you'll save thousands of manhours. If not, you still need this book because approach will make you think in terms of cost/benefit.
The forms and checklists in this book alone are worth many times the price.