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56 of 58 found the following review helpful:
Solid, informative, and well targeted for the audienceFeb 21, 2001
By Scott Stirling
"s.stirling"
Ouch -- I see the previous review was pretty harsh and terse. Having written a book myself (also for SAMS, coincidentally), I know that doesn't feel good or help much.Anyway, I came to amazon today specifically to order this book after I perused it at the bookstore for a while this weekend. I wasn't going to buy it, but then it sank in and I decided I should. My QA bible is Robert V. Binder's massive tome "Testing Object-Oriented Systems: Models, Patterns, and Tools." That book is the best book out there for hard core software QA engineers. But it's not for everyone. It's huge, it's somewhat inaccessible (even though Bob Binder might not want it to be), and it's more than many people need. The reason I am buying Ron Patton's book today is that it's relatively short, it covers all the basics in good, solid detail, and it nicely summarizes some of the same stuff you find in Binder. No, Ron Patton's book doesn't include a UML reference or a full blow out of state machines and combinatorial models, but should every QA book do that? I don't think so. This book has some good stuff and I will use it and recommend it to try to make some things more accessible to new people joining my team and to managers and QA engineers in other departments who aren't ready or willing to digest something like Binder.
34 of 35 found the following review helpful:
 A Great Book for People Entering the Testing FieldJun 09, 2001
By Randy Rice
"Software Testing Consultant & Trainer"
Software Testing is a book oriented toward people just entering or considering the testing field, although there are nuggets of information that even seasoned professionals will find helpful. Perhaps the greatest value of this book would be a resource for test team leaders to give to their new testers or test interns. To date, I haven?t seen a book that gives a better introduction to software testing with this amount of coverage. Ron Patton has written this book at a very understandable level and gives practical examples of every test type he discusses in the book. Plus, Patton uses examples that are accessible to most people, such as basic Windows utilities. I like the simplicity and practicality of this book. There are no complex formulas or processes to confuse the reader that may be getting into testing for the first time. However, the important of process is discussed. I also have to say a big THANK YOU to Ron Patton for drawing the distinction between QA and testing! Finally, the breadth of coverage in Software Testing is super. Patton covers not only the most important topics, such as basic functional testing, but also attribute testing, such as usability and compatibility. He also covers web-based testing and test automation ? and as in all topics covered in the book, Patton knew when to stop. If you want to drill deeper on any of the topics in this book, there are other fine books that can take you there! I love this book because it is practical, gives a good introduction to software testing, and has some things that even experienced testers will find of interest. This book is also a tool to communicate what testing and QA are all about. This is something that test organizations need as they make the message to management, developers and users. No test library should be without a copy of Software Testing by Ron Patton!
28 of 28 found the following review helpful:
Book ContentsMay 13, 2006
By MAURICIO AGUIAR
The "Search inside this book" feature was not available for this book when this review was posted. Hope it helps.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
01 Software testing background
02 The software development process
03 The realities of software testing
04 Examining the specification
05 Testing the software with blinders on
06 Examining the code
07 Testing the software with X-ray glasses
08 Configuration testing
09 Compatibility testing
10 Foreign-language testing
11 Usability testing
12 Testing the documentation
13 Testing for software security
14 Website testing
15 Automated testing and test tools
16 Bug bashes and beta testing
17 Planning your test effort
18 Writing and tracking test cases
19 Reporting what you find
20 Measuring your success
21 Software quality assurance
22 Your career as a software tester
14 of 14 found the following review helpful:
Excellent introduction to software testingJan 25, 2005
By S. Crawford
"toolmom"
Although I have no experience in software development or testing, my boss tasked me with writing software test plans for several applications that our company maintains and updates. Needless to say, I had no idea of where to begin. Web searches led me to several test plan templates, but no coherent body of information on processes, procedures, and documentation needed for software testing. Then, based on other reviews on this site, I bought a copy of Ron Patton's book. I found this book to be well organized and easy to understand. It contains a wealth of information on the entire software development process and puts the software test plan in the proper context. Using the knowledge I gained from this book, I was able to start the process of organizing our somewhat chaotic methods of software development and testing. I very highly recommend this book to anyone who needs to learn about software testing at the beginning level!
11 of 11 found the following review helpful:
Great on the BasicsJul 29, 2004
By Bret Pettichord
The most approachable book covering the array of traditional testing
techniques is also a good introduction for the junior tester. The book
is based on the internal training program at Microsoft, which trains
more testers than any other company and employs many of the leading
testing experts in the field.
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