Exploratory software testing : [tips, tricks, tours, and techniques to guide test design]

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Whittaker, James A, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Computer software--Testing.

Computer software.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xx, 224 p.) : ill.

Edition:

1st edition

Place of Publication:

[Place of publication not identified] Addison Wesley 2010

Language Note:

English

System Details:

text file

Summary:

How to Find and Fix the Killer Software Bugs that Evade Conventional Testing In Exploratory Software Testing , renowned software testing expert James Whittaker reveals the real causes of today’s most serious, well-hidden software bugs--and introduces powerful new “exploratory” techniques for finding and correcting them. Drawing on nearly two decades of experience working at the cutting edge of testing with Google, Microsoft, and other top software organizations, Whittaker introduces innovative new processes for manual testing that are repeatable, prescriptive, teachable, and extremely effective. Whittaker defines both in-the-small techniques for individual testers and in-the-large techniques to supercharge test teams. He also introduces a hybrid strategy for injecting exploratory concepts into traditional scripted testing. You’ll learn when to use each, and how to use them all successfully. Concise, entertaining, and actionable, this book introduces robust techniques that have been used extensively by real testers on shipping software, illuminating their actual experiences with these techniques, and the results they’ve achieved. Writing for testers, QA specialists, developers, program managers, and architects alike, Whittaker answers crucial questions such as: • Why do some bugs remain invisible to automated testing--and how can I uncover them? • What techniques will help me consistently discover and eliminate “show stopper” bugs? • How do I make manual testing more effective--and less boring and unpleasant? • What’s the most effective high-level test strategy for each project? • Which inputs should I test when I can’t test them all? • Which test cases will provide the best feature coverage? • How can I get better results by combining exploratory testing with traditional script or scenario-based testing? • How do I reflect feedback from the development process, such as code changes?

Contents:

Cover

Table of Contents

Foreword

Preface

Chapter 1 The Case for Software Quality

The Magic of Software

The Failure of Software

Conclusion

Exercises

Chapter 2 The Case for Manual Testing

The Origin of Software Bugs

Preventing and Detecting Bugs

Preventing Bugs

Detecting Bugs

Manual Testing

Scripted Manual Testing

Exploratory Testing

Chapter 3 Exploratory Testing in the Small

So You Want to Test Software?

Testing Is About Varying Things

User Input

What You Need to Know About User Input

How to Test User Input

State

What You Need to Know About Software State

How to Test Software State

Code Paths

User Data

Environment

Chapter 4 Exploratory Testing in the Large

Exploring Software

The Tourist Metaphor

"Touring" Tests

Tours of the Business District

Tours Through the Historical District

Tours Through the Entertainment District

Tours Through the Tourist District

Tours Through the Hotel District

Tours Through the Seedy District

Putting the Tours to Use

Chapter 5 Hybrid Exploratory Testing Techniques

Scenarios and Exploration

Applying Scenario-Based Exploratory Testing

Introducing Variation Through Scenario Operators

Inserting Steps

Removing Steps

Replacing Steps

Repeating Steps

Data Substitution

Environment Substitution

Introducing Variation Through Tours

The Money Tour

The Landmark Tour

The Intellectual Tour

The Back Alley Tour

The Obsessive-Compulsive Tour

The All-Nighter Tour

The Saboteur

The Collector's Tour

The Supermodel Tour

The Supporting Actor Tour

The Rained-Out Tour

The Tour-Crasher Tour

Chapter 6 Exploratory Testing in Practice

The Touring Test.

Touring the Dynamics AX Client

Useful Tours for Exploration

The Collector's Tour and Bugs as Souvenirs

Tour Tips

Using Tours to Find Bugs

Testing a Test Case Management Solution

The FedEx Tour

The TOGOF Tour

The Practice of Tours in Windows Mobile Devices

My Approach/Philosophy to Testing

Interesting Bugs Found Using Tours

Example of the Saboteur

Example of the Supermodel Tour

The Practice of Tours in Windows Media Player

Windows Media Player

The Garbage Collector's Tour

The Intellectual Tour: Boundary Subtour

The Parking Lot Tour and the Practice of Tours in Visual Studio Team System Test Edition

Tours in Sprints

Parking Lot Tour

Test Planning and Managing with Tours

Defining the Landscape

Planning with Tours

Letting the Tours Run

Analysis of Tour Results

Making the Call: Milestone/Release

In Practice

Chapter 7 Touring and Testing's Primary Pain Points

The Five Pain Points of Software Testing

Aimlessness

Define What Needs to Be Tested

Determine When to Test

Determine How to Test

Repetitiveness

Know What Testing Has Already Occurred

Understand When to Inject Variation

Transiency

Monotony

Memorylessness

Chapter 8 The Future of Software Testing

Welcome to the Future

The Heads-Up Display for Testers

"Testipedia"

Test Case Reuse

Test Atoms and Test Molecules

Virtualization of Test Assets

Visualization

Testing in the Future

Post-Release Testing

Appendix A: Building a Successful Career in Testing

How Did You Get into Testing?

Back to the Future

The Ascent

The Summit

The Descent

Appendix B: A Selection of JW's Professorial "Blog".

Teach Me Something

Software's Ten Commandments

1. Thou Shalt Pummel Thine App with Multitudes of Input

2. Thou Shalt Covet Thy Neighbor's Apps

3. Thou Shalt Seek Thee Out the Wise Oracle

4. Thou Shalt Not Worship Irreproducible Failures

5. Thou Shalt Honor Thy Model and Automation

6. Thou Shalt Hold Thy Developers Sins Against Them

7. Thou Shalt Revel in App Murder (Celebrate the BSOD)

8. Thou Shalt Keep Holy the Sabbath (Release)

9. Thou Shalt Covet Thy Developer's Source Code

Testing Error Code

Will the Real Professional Testers Please Step Forward

The Common Denominators I Found Are (In No Particular Order)

My Advice Can Be Summarized as Follows

Strike Three, Time for a New Batter

Formal Methods

Tools

Process Improvement

The Fourth Proposal

Software Testing as an Art, a Craft and a Discipline

Restoring Respect to the Software Industry

The Well-Intentioned but Off-Target Past

Moving On to Better Ideas

A Process for Analyzing Security Holes and Quality Problems

Appendix C: An Annotated Transcript of JW's Microsoft Blog

Into the Blogoshere

July 2008

Before We Begin

PEST (Pub Exploration and Software Testing)

Measuring Testers

Prevention Versus Cure (Part 1)

Users and Johns

Ode to the Manual Tester

Prevention Versus Cure (Part 2)

Hail Europe!

The Poetry of Testing

Prevention Versus Cure (Part 3)

Back to Testing

August 2008

Prevention Versus Cure (Part 4)

If Microsoft Is So Good at Testing, Why Does Your Software Still Suck?

Prevention Versus Cure (Part 5)

Freestyle Exploratory Testing

Scenario-Based Exploratory Testing

Strategy-Based Exploratory Testing

Feedback-Based Exploratory Testing

The Future of Testing (Part 1)

The Future of Testing (Part 2)

September 2008

On Certification.

The Future of Testing (Part 3)

The Future of Testing (Part 4)

The Future of Testing (Part 5)

October 2008

The Future of Testing (Part 6)

The Future of Testing (Part 7)

The Future of Testing (Part 8)

Speaking of Google

Manual Versus Automated Testing Again

November 2008

Software Tester Wanted

Keeping Testers in Test

December 2008

Google Versus Microsoft and the Dev:Test Ratio Debate

January 2009

The Zune Issue

Exploratory Testing Explained

More About Test Case Reuse

I'm Back

Of Moles and Tainted Peanuts

Index.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9786612432729

9781282432727

1282432729

9780321647788

0321647785

OCLC:

1027164623