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Resources

There are many resources available related to software quality and the craft of software testing. I have decided to provide a listing of my favourite books, a listing of individuals I highly regard in the space, and a compilation of all the testing mnemonics I have heard of over the years.

If you know of a valuable resource I do not have listed, please contact me.

  • Books
  • People
  • Mnemonics

Books

The following is a listing of books related to software quality and the craft of software testing. There are many books listed that have been referred to me as excellent reads. If you know of an excellent book I do not have listed, please contact me.

If you are looking for used, rare, or out-of-print books, consider checking out AbeBooks, www.abebooks.com.

Software Quality & Testing

  • An Introduction to General Systems Thinking by Gerald M. Weinberg
  • Quality Software Management, Vol. 1: Systems Thinking by Gerald M. Weinberg
  • Quality Software Management, Vol. 2: First-Order Measurement by Gerald M. Weinberg
  • Quality Software Management, Vol. 3: Congruent Action by Gerald M. Weinberg
  • Quality Software Management, Vol. 4: Anticipating Change by Gerald M. Weinberg
  • Becoming a Technical Leader by Gerald M. Weinberg
  • Lessons Learned in Software Testing by Cem Kaner, James Bach, Bret Pettichord
  • Perfect Software – and Other Illusions About Software Testing by Gerald M. Weinberg
  • Bad Software: What to do When Software Fails by Cem Kaner, David L. Pels
  • Secrets of a Buchaneer Scholar by James Bach
  • Exploratory Software Testing by James A. Whittaker
  • The Art of Software Testing by Glenford J. Myers
  • A Practitioners Guide to Software Test Design by Lee Copeland
  • Beautiful Testing by Tim Riley, Adam Goucher
  • Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams by Lisa Crispin, Janet Gregory
  • Testing Computer Software by Cem Kaner, Jack Falk, Hung Quoc Nguyen

 

Communication & Leadership

  • Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Kim Scott
  • Behind Closed Doors, Secrets of Great Management by Johanna Rothman, Esther Derby
  • Secrets of Consulting by Gerald M. Weinberg
  • More Secrets of Consulting by Gerald M. Weinberg
  • The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
  • Managing Expectations by Naomi Karten
  • Communication Gaps and How to Close Them by Naomi Karten
  • Changing How You Manage and Communicate Change by Naomi Karten
  • Presentation Skills for Technical Professionals by Naomi Karten
  • Amplifying Your Effectiveness: Collected Essays Edited by Gerald M. Weinberg, James Bach, Naomi Karten
  • Measuring and Managing Performance in Organization by Robert D. Austin
  • Powerful Project Leadership by Wayne Strider
  • The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering by Frederick P. Brooks
  • GUT – How to Think From Your Middle to get to the Top by Karen Salmansohn
  • Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono

 

Metrics & Measurement

  • Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Generalized Causal Inference by William R. Shadish, Thomas D. Cook and Donald T. Campbell
  • Measuring and Managing Performance in Organization by Robert D. Austin
  • How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff

 

Miscellaneous Interesting Reads

  • The No Asshole Rule by Robert I. Sutton
  • Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
  • Play as Exploratory Learning: Studies of Curiousity Behavior by Mary Reilly
  • Tools of Critical Thinking: Metathoughts for Psychology by David A. Levy
  • Cognition in the Wild by Edwin Hutchins
  • Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious by Gerd Gigerenzer
  • Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts by Carol Tavris, Elliot Aronson
  • Blink by Malcolm Gladwell
  • Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner
  • The Black Swan Nassim Nicholas Taleb
  • A Sense of Urgency by John P. Kotter
  • Why We Make Mistakes by Joseph T. Hallinan
  • Wrong by David H. Freedman
  • Weinberg on Writing: The Fieldstone Method by Gerald M. Weinberg

People

The following is a listing of people who I believe are tremendous resources for their contributions to the software quality community and craft of software testing. If you know of a fabulous individual I do not have listed, please contact me as I welcome the opportunity to get to know them.

Canada

  • Michael Bolton – www.developsense.com
  • Gil Broza – www.3pvantage.com/
  • Fiona Charles – http://quality-intelligence.com
  • Selena Delesie – www.selenadelesie.com
  • Adam Geras – LinkedIn Profile
  • Janet Gregory – http://janetgregory.ca
  • Adam Goucher – http://adam.goucher.ca/
  • Jonathan Kohl – www.kohl.ca
  • Sherry Heinze – LinkedIn Profile

 

United States

  • James Bach – www.satisfice.com
  • Jon Bach – http://jonbox.wordpress.com/
  • Scott Barber – www.perftestplus.com
  • Lisa Crispin – http://lisacrispin.com/
  • Esther Derby – www.estherderby.com
  • Bob Galen – www.rgalen.com
  • Elisabeth Hendrickson – http://testobsessed.com/
  • Matt Heusser – http://blogs.stpcollaborative.com/matt/
  • Karen N. Johnson – www.karennjohnson.com
  • Cem Kaner – www.kaner.com
  • Naomi Karten – www.nkarten.com
  • Michael Larsen – http://mkl-testhead.blogspot.com/
  • Alan Page – http://angryweasel.com/blog/
  • Bret Pettichord – www.pettichord.com/
  • Johanna Rothman – www.jrothman.com
  • Ben Simo – http://bensimo.qualityfrog.com/
  • Jerry Weinberg – www.geraldmweinberg.com

 

International

  • Henrik Andersson – www.houseoftest.se/
  • Ajay Balamurugadas – www.enjoytesting.blogspot.com
  • Anne-Marie Charrett – http://mavericktester.com/
  • Marlena Compton – http://marlenacompton.com/
  • Rikard Edgren – http://thetesteye.com/blog/
  • Henrik Emilsson – http://thetesteye.com/blog/
  • Carsten Fielberg – http://carstenfeilberg.blogspot.com/
  • Markus Gärtner – http://blog.shino.de/
  • Andy Glover – http://cartoontester.blogspot.com/
  • Shmuel Gershon – http://testing.gershon.info/
  • Dorothy Graham – www.dorothygraham.co.uk/
  • Martin Jansson – http://thetesteye.com/blog/
  • Johan Jonasson – www.houseoftest.se/
  • Rob Lambert – http://thesocialtester.posterous.com/
  • James Lyndsay – www.workroom-productions.com
  • Joris Meerts – www.testingreferences.com
  • Parimala Shankaraiah – http://curioustester.blogspot.com
  • Rosie Sherry – http://rosiesherry.com/
  • Pradeep Soundararajan – http://testertested.blogspot.com/
  • Zeger Van Hese – http://testsidestory.wordpress.com/

Mnemonics

“A mnemonic device is a mind memory and/or learning aid. Mnemonics rely on associations between easy-to-remember constructs which can be related back to the data that is to be remembered.”, Wikipedia.

The following is a listing of software testing related mnemonics. If you know of a mnemonic I do not have listed, please contact me.

SFDIPOT (San Francisco Depot)

Test Strategy Heuristic by James Bach
Structure, Function, Data, Integrations, Platform, Operations, Time

CRUSSPIC STMPL

Quality Characteristics Heuristics by James Bach

Operational Criteria – CRUSSPIC
Capability, Reliability, Usability, Security, Scalability, Performance, Installability, Compatibility
Development Criteria – STMPL
Supportability, Testability, Maintainability, Portability, Localizability

CIDTESTD (Kid Tested)

Project Environment Heuristics by James Bach
Customers, Information, Developer Relations, Team, Equipment & Tools, Schedule, Test Items, Deliverables

DUFFSSCRA (FDSFSCURA)

Test Techniques Heuristics by James Bach
Domain, User, Function, Flow, Stress, Scenario, Claims, Risk, Automatic

HICCUPPSF

Test Oracles by James Bach
History, Image, Comparable Product, Claims, User Expectations, Product, Purpose, Standards and Statutes, Familiar Problems

Read more on the HICCUPSF mnemonic.

SACKED SCOWS

Learning Heuristics by James Bach
Scouting Obsessively, Authentic Problems, Cognitive Savvy, Knowledge Attracts Knowledge, Experimentation, Disposable Time, Stories(Contrasting Ideas, Skepticism, Critical thinking, Lateral thinking), Other Minds, Words and Pictures, Systems Thinking

PROOFLA

Session Based Test Reporting Mnemonic by Jon Bach and revised by Henrik Andersson
Past, Results, OObstacles, Outlook, Feelings

MR.Q COMP GRABC R&R

Exploration Skills and Tactics Mnemonic by Jon Bach
Modeling, Resourcing, Questioning, Chartering, Observing, Manipulating, Pairing, Generating/Elaborating, Refocusing, Alternating, Branching/Backtracking, Conjecturing, Recording, Reporting

RIMGEA

Bug Advocacy Mnemonic by Cem Kaner
Replicate it, Isolate it, Maximize it, Generalize it, Externalize it, And Say it Clearly and Dispassionately

FCC CUTS VIDS

Touring Heuristics by Michael D Kelly
Feature Tour, Complexity Tour, Claims Tour, Configuration Tour, User Tour, Testability Tour, Scenario Tour, Variability Tour, Interoperability Tour, Data Tour, Structure Tour

MCOASTER

Test Reporting Heuristics by Michael D Kelly
Mission, Coverage, Obstacles, Audience, Status, Techniques, Environment, Risk

FAILURE

Error Handling Heuristics by Ben Simo
Functional, Appropriate, Impact, Log, UI, Recovery, Emotions

SLIME

Ordering of Testing Tasks Heuristics by Adam Goucher
Security, Languages, RequIrements, Measurement, Existing

FIBLOTS

Model Workloads for Performance Testing by Scott Barber
Frequent, Intensive, Business Critical, Legal, Obvious, Technically Risky, Stakeholder Mandated

CCD IS EARI

Performance Testing Core Principles by Scott Barber
Context, Criteria, Design, Install, Script, Execute, Analyze, Report, Iterate

IVECTRAS

Performance Test Classification Mnemonic by Scott Barber
Investigation or Validation of End-to-End or Component Response Times and/or Resource Consumption under Anticipated or Stressful Conditions

RCRCRC

Regression Testing Heuristics by Karen N. Johnson
Recent, Core, Risk, Configuration, Repaired, Chronic

RSTLLL

SMS Texting Applications Testing Heuristics by Karen N. Johnson
Reply, Sender, Timestamp, List, Links, Language, Length

MUTII

Testing Heuristics by Jonathon Kohl
Market, Users, Tasks, Information, Implementation

I SLICED UP FUN

Mobile Application Testing Mnemonic by Jonathon Kohl
Inputs, Store, Location, Interactions/Interruptions, Communications, Ergonomics, Data, Usability, Platform, Function, User Scenarioes, Network

SPIES

Internationalization Testing Mnemonic by Nancy Kelln
Special Characters, Pages & Content, Integrations, Error Messages, Special Formats

PAOLO

Device Orientation Testing Mnemonic by Maik Nogens
Portrait, Audio, Objects, Landscape, Overlay

WWWWWH/KE

Requirements Analysis and Feedback Mnemonic by Darren McMillan
Who, What, When, Where, Why, How, Knowledge, Experience

SEED NATALI

GUI Step Automation Mnemonic by Albert Gareev
Synchronize, Exists, Enabled, Displayed, Number of Arguments, Type of Arguments, Log, Investigate

B GRADED SCRIPTTS

Test Strategy Mnemonic by Jared Quinert
Budget, Goals, Risks, Approach, Dependencies, Environments, Data, Stakeholders, Coverage Models, Resources, Information, Prioritization, Tradeoffs, Tooling, Schedule

SPIFFy

Microtest Mnemonic by Industrial Logic
Small, Precise, Isolated, Fast, Frequently Run

TERMS

Test Automation Mnemonic by Albert Gareev
Tools & Technology, Execution, Requirements & Risks, Maintenance, Security

CRUMBS

Test Automation Mnemonic by Albert Gareev
Confirmation, Coverage Criteria & Complexity, Risk, Robustness, & Reliability, Usefulness & Usability, Maintainability & Manual Effort, Basis & Bias, Span, Separation, & Security

GO DaRE=M

Mnemonic for testing plans by Carsten Fielberg
Go as in “Go for Goal”, Deliverables, activities, Resources, Estimates, = Represents Balance, Milestones

PAPAS BE @ SFO

API Testing for Functionality Mnemonic by Anand Ramdeo
Paging, Authentication, Parameters / Query Strings, Authorisations, Security, Behave, Error Handling, State, Filter, Order

DEED HELP GC

API Testing for Consumability Mnemonic by Anand Ramdeo
Domain Specific Names, Examples, Easy to Learn, Documentation, Hard to Misuse, Easy to Use, Lead to Readable Code, Principle of Least Astonishment / Surprise, Guessability, Consistency

DVLA PC

API Testing for Maintainability Mnemonic by Anand Ramdeo
Diagnostic, Versioning, Logging, Accessibility, Purpose, Consumer

ICEOVERMAD

API Testing Mnemonic by Ash Winter
Integration, Consumers, Endpoints, Operations, Volume, Error Handling, RESTful, Modularity, Authentication, Definitions

CAN I USE THIS

Usability Testing Mnemonic by David Greenless
Comparable Products, Accessibility, Navigation, Intuitive, Users, Standards, Emotional Response, Trunk Test, Heuristic Evaluation, Instructions & Help Text, Satisfaction

HEEENA

Testing Mnemonic by Lalitkumar Bhamare
History, Explore, Experiment, Experience, Note Taking, Analyze

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