Software Testing

Software Testing, Second Edition provides practical insight into the world of software testing and quality assurance. Learn how to find problems in any computer program, how to plan an effective test approach and how to tell when software is ready for release. Updated from the previous edition in 2000 to include a chapter that specifically deals with testing software for security bugs, the processes and techniques used throughout the book are timeless. This book is an excellent investment if you want to better understand what your Software Test team does or you want to write better software.

Software testing is one of the invisible jobs in the software industry. Everyone has heard of computer programmers but few people realize there are nearly as many people behind the scenes with job titles such as Software Tester, Software Quality Assurance Engineer, Software Test Engineer, and Software Test Technician. Microsoft alone hires hundreds of people for these positions each year. There are also many companies whose sole purpose is providing software test consulting and software testing services. The first edition of Software Testing was published in November 2000. Although the processes and techniques used in testing computer software are timeless, this title will be brought up-to-date by adding a chapter that specifically deals with testing software for security bugs and revisiting the rest of the book to update examples and references.

Ron Patton is a software consultant living in Washington State. His software test experience is wide and varied from mission critical systems to painting programs for kids. In 1992 he joined Microsoft as a Software Test Lead in the Systems Group for Multimedia Viewer, the authoring tool and multimedia display engine used by Encarta, Cinemania, and Bookshelf. He moved on to become the Software Test Manager of the Kids Product Unit. Most recently, he was the Software Test Manager of the Microsoft Hardware Group responsible for the software shipped with the mouse, keyboard, gaming, telephony, and ActiMates product lines.