Computing Reviews
Today's Issue Hot Topics Search Browse Recommended My Account Log In
Review Help
Search
Optimize quality for business outcomes : a practical approach to software testing (3rd ed.)
Golze A., Sarbiewski M., Zahm A., Wiley Publishing, Indianapolis, IN, 2008. 304 pp. Type: Book (9780470404669)
Date Reviewed: Jul 15 2009

Although this book is easy to read, it misleads the reader with incomplete, inaccurate, and confusing content. Even though its publication date is recent, the book does not reflect the breadth of current best practices for testing, in a full testing life cycle. These best practices have been in the public domain for at least five years, due to professional testing certification organizations such as the International Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB). (I should note that I currently serve on the board of directors of the American Software Testing Qualifications Board (ASTQB), which represents the ISTQB in the US.)

The title is about software quality, but the book is not. The title strongly implies a basic relationship between quality and testing. While a basic relationship does indeed exist, the book does not explore it until the last chapter. Quality is mentioned first in the title, but nine out of ten chapters are about testing--the software quality topic is inadequately covered. The authors do the reader a genuine disservice with their superficial treatment of software quality. They devote only two pages (11 and 12) to nominally introducing the concept of software quality as it relates to business and testing. Software quality involves significantly more time, effort, and resources than those two pages and chapter 10 portray.

Quality terminology is incorrectly defined. On page 11, the authors state that quality goals are nonfunctional requirements. Following this statement, they list correctness among the nonfunctional requirements. This is a significant instructional error, as both the term “correctness” and the associated explanation describe what is internationally recognized as a primary functional requirement for business.

Terminology is borrowed without due credit. The authors borrow the term “key performance indicator” (KPI), on page 192, without giving credit to the source of this term and concept--the Information Technology Integrated Library (ITIL).

Software testing topics are also inadequately covered. The ISTQB certification, briefly acknowledged by the authors on page 1, has apparently grown in professional acceptance since the authors checked their references; at the end of 2008--the book’s publication date--there were over 120,000 ISTQB-certified professional testers worldwide. Comparing the ISTQB best practices foundation syllabus with the book’s table of contents and the testing life cycle discussions around Figure 5, it appears that the authors do not address three important areas of testing:

(1) ISTQB Section 1, “Fundamentals of Testing,” which includes the psychology of testing, testing roles, and the test team dynamics with developers;
(2) ISTQB Section 5, “Test Management,” which includes test organization structure and full life cycle test planning (the book only has a superficial planning discussion); and
(3) ISTQB Section 6, “Test Tools,” which includes categories of tools available--management, functional, performance, analysis, and reporting--along with the advantages and disadvantages of using tools.

The case study on page 17 is underutilized: it is not used in chapter 2, the very next chapter, to demonstrate testing business requirements; it is not used to demonstrate balancing business risk by testing, in chapter 5; and it is not used to demonstrate security testing, in chapter 7. An alternate case study that uses an automated teller machine (ATM) is mentioned, in passing, on page 61. With a little deeper understanding of both testing and the travel industry, the case study on page 17 could have been used as an excellent demonstration of all chapter topics; this would have added significant depth to the concepts and provided continuity to the demonstration.

A major opportunity to demonstrate cost savings in testing is missed. On page 2, the authors state that testing is all about saving IT costs. They correctly choose for illustration what has become the classic graph for the cost of defect correction, on page 9, but fail to capitalize on the power of the graph to demonstrate, with numbers, where exactly in the software life cycle continuum better testing could realize the most savings in the defect correction effort. They could have also used the graph to demonstrate how to measure the financial gains after having implemented better testing. Both demonstrations would have substantially reinforced the goal of better testing to save money.

In conclusion, I do not find this book sufficiently broad or complete for professional use by either novice or experienced testers.

Reviewer:  Gerald Everett Review #: CR137101 (1007-0650)
Bookmark and Share
  Reviewer Selected
 
 
Testing And Debugging (D.2.5 )
 
 
Program Analysis (F.3.2 ... )
 
 
Program Verification (I.2.2 ... )
 
 
Software Quality Assurance (SQA) (D.2.9 ... )
 
 
Management (D.2.9 )
 
 
Semantics Of Programming Languages (F.3.2 )
 
  more  
Would you recommend this review?
yes
no
Other reviews under "Testing And Debugging": Date
Software defect removal
Dunn R., McGraw-Hill, Inc., New York, NY, 1984. Type: Book (9789780070183131)
Mar 1 1985
On the optimum checkpoint selection problem
Toueg S., Babaoglu O. SIAM Journal on Computing 13(3): 630-649, 1984. Type: Article
Mar 1 1985
Software testing management
Royer T., Prentice-Hall, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1993. Type: Book (9780135329870)
Mar 1 1994
more...

E-Mail This Printer-Friendly
Send Your Comments
Contact Us
Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited.   Copyright 1999-2024 ThinkLoud®
Terms of Use
| Privacy Policy