Testing Very Big Systems (Software Engineering Series)

Rating:
Summary: Mining for gold
Review: After you've peeled back the layers of testing techniques that are better documented and more refined in more recent books, and archaic language that characterized the mainframe lingo that was dying out when this book was first written a decade ago you'll find gold.

First, the way test case management is presented stands the test of time. The author is obviously well versed in managing complex system testing and it shows in his detailed approach to developing a test strategy and managing a large array of test cases. As good as this material is, it isn't a sufficient reason to track down a copy of this book because Rick Craig and Stefan Jaskiel have a more modern book, "Systematic Software Testing" that accomplishes the same goal.

The real gold is in the way that this book integrates testing, issue management and metrics. Although there is a large body of knowledge on these topics, this book manages to sort out the complexities in the clearest terms I've encountered. I also think that the approach change management is excellent, and especially the way this is linked to issue management. On the subject of issue management, the taxonomy of issue types has served me as a model during numerous consulting engagements for service delivery and software engineering process development, and have been proven in the field.

Additional gold is in the chapters on test documentation (especially the treatment of status reporting) and managing management. I also like the way that the author takes economic considerations into account, which was not much in vogue when this book was written in 1992.

If you're an SQA or applications delivery practitioner I strongly recommend tracking down a copy of this book. Look past the archaic parts and you will find one nugget after the other of useful information. I wish this book would be rewritten to reflect today's environment and the lessons that the author learned in the decade since this book was first published because there is much in this book that you will not find elsewhere.