Book Image

Software Testing Strategies

By : Matthew Heusser, Michael Larsen
Book Image

Software Testing Strategies

By: Matthew Heusser, Michael Larsen

Overview of this book

Software Testing Strategies covers a wide range of topics in the field of software testing, providing practical insights and strategies for professionals at every level. With equal emphasis on theoretical knowledge and practical application, this book is a valuable resource for programmers, testers, and anyone involved in software development. The first part delves into the fundamentals of software testing, teaching you about test design, tooling, and automation. The chapters help you get to grips with specialized testing areas, including security, internationalization, accessibility, and performance. The second part focuses on the integration of testing into the broader software delivery process, exploring different delivery models and puzzle pieces contributing to effective testing. You’ll discover how to craft your own test strategies and learn about lean approaches to software testing for optimizing processes. The final part goes beyond technicalities, addressing the broader context of testing. The chapters cover case studies, experience reports, and testing responsibilities, and discuss the philosophy and ethics of software testing. By the end of this book, you’ll be equipped to elevate your testing game and ensure software quality, and have an indispensable guide to the ever-evolving landscape of software quality assurance.

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Table of Contents (22 chapters)
Preface
Preface
Our scope - beyond button-pushing
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Download the example code files
Download the color images
Conventions used
Get in touch
Share your thoughts
Download a free PDF copy of this book
1
Part 1:The Practice of Software Testing
Part 1:The Practice of Software Testing
Free Chapter
2
Chapter 1: Testing and Designing Tests
Chapter 1: Testing and Designing Tests
Jumping into testing
The impossibility of complete testing
Testing software – an analysis
Data and predictability – the oracle problem
Summary
Further reading
3
Chapter 2: Fundamental Issues in Tooling and Automation
Chapter 2: Fundamental Issues in Tooling and Automation
Technical requirements
No silver bullets – you can’t radically fix the test cycle
The minefield regression problem
The Battleships problem – testing versus checking
The maintenance problem
The money problem
Lessons from the fundamental issues
Summary
4
Chapter 3: Programmer-Facing Testing
Chapter 3: Programmer-Facing Testing
Technical requirements
The programmer’s view
Introducing FizzBuzz
Unit tests
TDD
Unit test and unit code design
Mutation testing
Web APIs from a test perspective
Testing functional and legacy code
A Roman Numerals Kata
Summary
5
Chapter 4: Customer-Facing Tests
Chapter 4: Customer-Facing Tests
Technical requirements
A word of warning
Human Or Tooling—is it either/or?
GUI test automation patterns
Designing your own system
Low-code and no-code test automation
Batch- and model-driven test automation
This chapter is completely wrong
Summary
6
Chapter 5: Specialized Testing
Chapter 5: Specialized Testing
Technical requirements
Understanding load and performance testing
Exploring security testing
Delving into accessibility testing
Internationalization and localization
CI
Regulated testing
Summary
7
Chapter 6: Testing Related Skills
Chapter 6: Testing Related Skills
Technical requirements
Finding bugs
Writing bug reports
Planning testing – cases and plans
Metrics and measurement
Project projections
Influencing change
Summary
8
Chapter 7: Test Data Management
Chapter 7: Test Data Management
Technical requirements
The test data problem
The standard data seed
Scriptable users and structure
Exploring synthetic users
Leveraging production refreshes
Exploring development, test, and production environments
Understanding the regulatory issues in test data management
Summary
9
Part 2:Testing and Software Delivery
Part 2:Testing and Software Delivery
10
Chapter 8: Delivery Models and Testing
Chapter 8: Delivery Models and Testing
Technical requirements
Waterfall
Extreme Programming (XP)
Scrum and SAFe
House-rules software development
Continuous delivery and deployment
DevOps, Platform Engineering, SRE
Summary
Further reading
11
Chapter 9: The Puzzle Pieces of Good Testing
Chapter 9: The Puzzle Pieces of Good Testing
Technical requirements
Recipes – how to do hard things
Coverage – did we test the right things well enough?
Defects – what is the status of the software?
Schedule and risk – too many test ideas, not enough time
Strategy – what are our risks and priorities?
Dashboard – how do we communicate what we know?
Summary
12
Chapter 10: Putting Your Test Strategy Together
Chapter 10: Putting Your Test Strategy Together
What are we doing now?
A census of risk
Setting priorities, time management, and scope
Today’s strategy versus tomorrow’s goals
Summary
13
Chapter 11: Lean Software Testing
Chapter 11: Lean Software Testing
Lean software testing defined
The seven wastes
Flow
One-piece flow and CD
Summary
14
Part 3:Practicing Politics
Part 3:Practicing Politics
15
Chapter 12: Case Studies and Experience Reports
Chapter 12: Case Studies and Experience Reports
RCRCRC at scale
A coverage dashboard
Pair and tri-programming
The evolution of the test strategy
Professional pushback – dealing with bullies
Summary
16
Chapter 13: Testing Activities or a Testing Role?
Chapter 13: Testing Activities or a Testing Role?
Technical requirements
The cultural conflict with a testing role
Building a risk mitigation team
Faith-based versus empirical test automation
Shift left and shift right
(Actually) continuous testing
Summary
17
Chapter 14: Philosophy and Ethics in Software Testing
Chapter 14: Philosophy and Ethics in Software Testing
Philosophy and why it matters in testing
Ethics and ethical reasoning in testing
Practical ethical issues in testing
Scientific thinking and logical fallacies
How we wind up in hell and how to escape
Summary
Additional readings for the serious philosopher
18
Chapter 15: Words and Language About Work
Chapter 15: Words and Language About Work
Context-driven testing and the other schools
Precise language
Wordsmatter
Process versus skill
Summary
Further reading
19
Chapter 16: Testing Strategy Applied
Chapter 16: Testing Strategy Applied
A mobile test strategy example
AI in software testing
A few thoughts to leave with
Summary
20
Index
Index
Why subscribe?
21
Other Books You May Enjoy
Other Books You May Enjoy
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Strategy – what are our risks and priorities?

If you have gotten this far, then you recognize that there is an essentially infinite number of possible tests to run. Breaking the software into features, assigning a minimal test-effort value for the feature, making a list of the full end-to-end customer journeys… all of these things make the effort manageable. The 5-minute test plan and iterating around the product seem easy, but what do we do when there is just too much to test and some very limited time? One technique we’d like to mention here is RCRCRC.

Karen N. Johnson, a friend of ours who we have worked with, proposed a mnemonic – a memory device – for regression testing. She called it RCRCRC (http://karennicolejohnson.com/2009/11/a-heuristic-for-regression-testing/). This involves coming up with test ideas with short notice. Here are the letters defined, in her words:

  • Recent: New features and new areas of code are more vulnerable
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