Software Testing In The Real World provides the reader with a tool-box for effectively improving the software testing process. The book gives the practicing software engineer a menu of techniques with guidance on how to create a strategy for continuous, sustainable improvement within their organization--whatever its size or level of process maturity. Ed Kit addresses the most frequently asked questions about methodologies, tools, technology and organizational issues being posed in the testing community today. Pragmatic in its approach, the book confronts the problem of the relative immaturity of the software engineering discipline in most organizations with practical guidance on cost and risk, standards, planning testing tasks and testing tools. Test and Quality Assurance Specialists, Developers and Project Managers alike will benefit from the practical, proven techniques for improving testing as well as the specific "best of breed" software testing tools information. Visit the Author's Home Page

Table of Contents:
PART I: Software testing process maturity Chapter 1: The six essentials of software testing Essential 1: The quality of the test process determines the success of the test effort Essential 2: Prevent defect migration by using early life-cycle testing techniques Essential 3: The time for software testing tools is now Essential 4: A real person must take responsibility for improving the testing process Essential 5: Testing is a professional discipline requiring trained, skilled people Essential 6: Cultivate a positive team attitude of creative destruction Chapter 2: The state of the art and the state of the practice The short eventful history of a very new discipline Where exactly are we now? How should testing be positioned? Chapter 3 The clean-sheet approach to getting started PART II: The framework for test process improvement Chapter 4 Establishing a practical perspective What are we aiming for? All you ever wanted to know about errors So what is testing really? Some definitions Good testers have a testing attitude How testers do itWhat can we do now? Chapter 5 Critical choices: what, when, and how to test Risk and risk management Start testing early Basic forms of the testing process - verification and validation Testing, the development cycle, and the real world of contracts Effective testing......and cost-effective testing What can we do now? Chapter 6 Critical disciplines: frameworks for testing Planning Software engineering maturity and the SEI Configuration management Standards Formal documents Testware Measurement Tools What can we do now? Part III: Testing methods Chapter 7 Verification testing Basic verification methods Getting leverage on verification Verifying documents at different phases Getting the best from verification Three critical success factors for implementing verification Recommendations Chapter 8 Validation testing Validation overview Validation methods Validation activities Recommendation strategy for validation testing Chapter 9 Controlling validation costs Minimizing the cost of performing tests Minimizing the cost of maintaining the tests Minimizing validation testware development costs The testware library Recommendations Chapter 10 Testing tasks, deliverables, and chronology Master test planning Verification testing tasks and deliverables Validation testing tasks and deliverables A testing orphan - user manuals Product release criteria Summary of IEEE/ANSI test related documents Life-cycle mapping of tasks and deliverables References Chapter 11 Software testing tools Categorizing test tools Tool acquisition Chapter 12 Measurement Measurement provides answers Useful measures Other interesting measures Recommendations Part IV: Managing test technology Chapter 13 Organizational approaches to testing Organizing and reorganizing testing Structural design elements Approaches to organizing the test function Selecting the right approach Chapter 14 Current practices, trends, challenges GUIs: What's new here? Usage testing Tester-to-developer ratios Software measures and practices benchmark study Chapter 15 Getting sustainable gains in place Getting gains to happen Getting help Follow-up Appendix A Standards relevant to software engineering and testing Appendix B Verification checklists Appendix C Verification exercises Appendix D Validation exercises (solutions) Appendix E Bibliography Appendix F Sources: conferences, journals, newsletters, DOD specifications Appendix G Specific tools and tool selection Appendix H Sample lists of improvements to be implemented Index