Test Process Improvement: A Step-by-step Guide to Structured Testing Book

Written for the reader with a little background in software engineering and test management, Test Process Improvement is an innovative guide to improving how your organization tests software. It's got plenty to offer any test engineer or manager.

This short yet densely packed text outlines the Test Process Improvement (TPI) model for software testing. While there are other testing models available today (like the Testing Maturity Model, or TMM), the authors suggest that TPI offers more detail than its rivals. TPI measures testing effectiveness in 20 "key areas," in such categories as test strategy, metrics, tools, and communication, plus defect and test process management.

After a short overview of the kinds of testing in use today, the book delves into each of these 20 areas in considerable detail with criteria for up to four levels of effectiveness (labeled "A" through "D"). By working through these categories, an organization can both gauge its current testing process and make it better with the book's "improvement suggestions." You'll appreciate this text most if you have some interest in software engineering. (The authors, who are Dutch, write clearly, but this is by no means light reading.) There are plenty of easy-to-digest tables and lists, which will be most practical for the busy testing professional. Other useful sections include a concise tour of testing tools and the Test Management Approach (TMap), which shows how to integrate test management into the larger process of software design.

In all, Test Process Improvement can give any testing engineer or manager some practical ways to work more effectively. This is a groundbreaking blueprint for improving software testing. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Overview and guide to Test Process Improvement (TPI), types of testing, pitfalls for successful testing, measuring your organization's test maturity, 20 key areas, levels, checkpoints, suggestions for improvement, implementing TPI within your organization, TPI and the project life cycle, test planning and project estimation, metrics, advantages and limits of testing tools, test and office environments for improved testing, communication, reporting, defect management, managing the test process, evaluation, low-level testing, and Test Management Approach (TMap)--a proprietary strategy for structured testing.