Surviving the Top Ten Challenges of Software Testing: A People-Oriented Approach

Software testers require people-oriented skills to survive what can often be a lose-lose relationship with developers and managers. Surviving the Top Ten Challenges of Software Testing goes beyond the technical skillsets required for effective testing to address the political realities that can't be solved by technical knowledge alone.

Authors Perry and Rice compile a "top ten" list of the challenges faced by testers and offer tactics for success. The challenges illustrate the way testing fits into the context of software development and how testers can manage expectations and improve communication with managers, developers, and customers. The text features a self-assessment for testing skills and an action plan for improving the testing process.

Topics include training, acquiring management support, obtaining tools, communicating with customers, managing changing requirements, marketing the importance of testing, testing what's thrown over the wall, controlling the scope of testing, teaching developers to test, and handling the delicate situation of reporting defects.

The Top Ten People Challenges Facing Testers

Challenge #10: Getting Trained in Testing
Challenge #9: Building Relationships with Developers
Challenge #8: Testing Without Tools
Challenge #7: Explaining Testing to Managers
Challenge #6: Communicating with Customers -- And Users
Challenge #5: Making Time for Testing
Challenge #4: Testing What's Thrown Over the Wall
Challenge #3: Hitting a Moving Target
Challenge #2: Fighting a Lose-Lose Situation
Challenge #1: Having to Say No

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The software field has more than its fair share of survival titles. Survival books help us survive harsh deadlines, endure unsupportive bosses, improve poor software processes, suffer inadequate specifications, and stay in line during death marches. The software field is bleak indeed. --Doug Nickerson, Dr. Dobb's Electronic Review of Computer Books -- Dr. Dobb's Electronic Review of Computer Books