The Ultimate Desktop Reference

I have a library of books and white papers on software testing, engineering processes and management, and software development that I have read and reference quite often. For new testers I generally recommend A Practitioner's Guide to Software Test Design by Lee Copeland, and How to Break Software: A Practical Guide to Testing by James Whittaker. There are 5 books I highly recommend (not including How We Test Software at Microsoft which I co-authored and also highly recommend).

In my current role as a teacher, trainer, and mentor of new testers the 2 books that are constantly on my desktop are Testing Object-Oriented Systems: Models, Patterns, and Tools , by Robert V. Binder, and Software Testing Techniques , 2nd edition by Boris Beizer. Not that I don't frequently reference other books, but to me these are the quintessential books on the foundational knowledge of software testing techniques and methodologies for intermediate to advanced testers with a strong technical background.

But, the booklet that I would keep in my shirt pocket if I tested products on a day-to-day basis would be Josh Poley's Black Book. Josh's Black Book is the ultimate desktop reference for software testers (and developers). While this book is primarily intended to aid those who work on projects developed in C/C++, it has loads of information that is valuable to any tester working on just about any technology. From decimal and named entities of ISO characters to error codes for DOS, VB, JScript, HTTP, and of course Windows Errors this book is jammed packed with great information and quick reminders for both developers and testers.

Comments

• Anonymous
  December 23, 2008
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• Anonymous
  December 24, 2008
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• Anonymous
  December 24, 2008
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• Anonymous
  December 24, 2008
  Shrini, Weinberg's books are good books. So are books by Maguire, Minsky, and a host of others who discuss various theories and ideas of software engineering. And, I agree that learning theory is important in any field because it helps one think abstractly and approach a problem from pluralistic perspectives. Strategic thinking and understanding are important. But, you have again taken this post completely out of context and went off on a tangent. The purpose of this post was not to promote books on strategic thinking such as team dynamics, psychology of software, etc. The purpose of this post was on providing people with a very useful tactical reference. Unfortunately I cannot attest to your abilities to approach software testing other than from an end user's perspective. But, if you have anything meaningful about the value of, or logical critique of Josh Poley's Black Book I am sure you input would be appreciated.