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Software Testing Books

You Must Read

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Introduction

It is often hard for me to say exactly which books to recommend for

Software Testing, because different people respond to different styles
of writing.
But, having read an enormous amount of books on Software Testing
over the years, I find that I haven't kept many on my shelf.

The books I describe in here are those that I have never thrown away. And
which I have re-bought after lending to others and then never receiving them
back. In fact one of the books listed here I own four copies of because... you
never know.
Books can seem expensive, but reading is an investment which repays itself
many times over. If you don't take responsibility for your own learning and
educaton, don't expect anyone else to.
And that's why I've put this little guide together. These are books which
have stood the test of time and provided me with value. Hopefully some of
these books are as useful to you as they have been for me.
Study Strategy
As a study strategy, I never read a book just once:
Read
Re-read and make notes
Re-read your notes
Skim the books periodically to refresh your memory
And I've tried to add useful links and online references for each book, so do
follow those.

Alan Richardson
Alan Richardson - EvilTester.com
PS: if the book photos seem a little battered or well used, then that's because
they are all photos of the actual books in my collection.
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 Table of Contents

“It is a great thing to start life with a "If you can't test it, don't build
small number of really good books it. If you don't test it, rip it out. "
which are your very own.”
- Boris Beizer,
Software Testing Techniques
― Arthur Conan Doyle

1. Introduction

2. Testing Computer Software

3. Software Testing Techniques

4. Lessons Learned in Software Testing

5. The Web Application Hacker's

Handbook

6. Agile Testing

7. How to Break Software

8. Dear Evil Tester & Testing REST APIs

9. Java For Testers, and more

10. Extra Resources

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Testing Computer Software

by Cem Kaner, Jack Falk and Hung Quoc Nguyen
This is a bumper book of Software Testing
information which spans hands on testing through to
testing management.
If you only bought one book on Software Testing, it
would probably be this one. And this is the book
that I tend to lend to non-testers or very new testers.
It approaches testing from a very pragmatic point of
view. Some people might be concerned that it isn't
'formal' enough but it is rich in practical experience.
And as you revisit it over time you will re-interpret
the guidance for your own situation.
Appendix A is a large section of potential sources of
problems that can help trigger you into thinking
about what to test next.

Find this book on Amazon

Useful Related Links:

- Cem Kaner - http://kaner.com
- Cem Kaner's publication page has a lot of useful
slide decks and videos
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Software Testing Techniques

by Boris Beizer
This is my all time favourite Software Testing Book.
Although it seems to be out of print, there are
usually cheap copies to be found on Amazon and
eBay.
I spent a year, working through this book, doing
every exercise and making copious notes.
This is the book I recommend to people who want to
take their testing seriously. You will learn flow based
testing of various graph formats, state transition
diagrams and code. Also data and domain analysis.
I found it very useful for learning to model
applications and create concise representations of
flows through applications to guide my testing.

Find this book on Amazon

Boris Beizer also wrote System Testing and

Quality Assurance, out of print, but can be found
on Amazon. This covers more of the management
and process side of Software Testing. Kaner's
"Testing Computer Software" covers much of the
same ground. /
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Lessons Learned In Software Testing

by Cem Kaner, James Bach and Bret Pettichord
This book is organised into 11 sections covering the
role of a tester, thinking like a tester, management,
team interaction, planning, careers, and more.
Each section containing mini essays of a 'lesson'
related to the topic.
This is a useful book for someone with some
experience under their belt. You'll be able to treat
each lesson as a set of experience reports, rather
than mandates. Because it is important to use this
book as a way to learn from someone else's
experience, rather than use it to tell you what to do.
I recommend this to someone who has learned the
basics, started working as a tester or test manager,
and is looking around to find out "is this normal?"

Find this book on Amazon

James Bach - https://www.satisfice.com

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The Web Application Hacker's Handbook

by Dafydd Stuttard, Marcus Pinto
Why would we want to learn Security Testing? Well
that's only part of what this book covers.
I found this very useful to learn the technology of the
Web i.e. HTTP, and how browser work. In the context
of security testing.
As testers, if we want to Observe, Interrogate and
Manipulate our applications at a technology level
we have to learn the technology of the Web (skills I
teach in Technical Web Testing 101).
As a bonus, you'll learn some of the basics of
Security Testing so that you never take the security
of your application for granted and you have a
response to "but a User would never do that"

Find this book on Amazon

On Twitter: @dafyddstuttard, @MDSecLabs

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Agile Testing
by Lisa Crispin and Janet Gregory
Most Testing books cover techniques and processes
. They don't often cover the project context within
which Software Testing has to operate.
Concentrating on the Agile processes, rituals and
communication approaches you learn how to fit your
testing skills and techniques into an Agile process.
The book also covers what are often described as
phases e.g. Usability Testing, Performance Testing.
And how to fit these into an Agile Framework.
Reading this should prepare you for all the theory
and buzzwords surrounding an Agile projects, and
knowing that Software Testing is still required, and
can fit, in an Agile Process.

Find this book on Amazon

Lisa Crispin - https://lisacrispin.com

Janet Gregory - https://janetgregory.ca

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How to Break Software

How to Break Software, by James Whittaker 

How to Break Web Software, by James Whittaker
and Mike Andrews
Both these books are slightly out of date. If you try to
apply the technical approaches or use the tools
listed then you won't make much progress.
Fortunately I cover a lot of the tooling and technical
skills in my "Technical Web Testing 101" course.
But what I found them very useful for, was
deconstructing all of the approaches to generalise
them to help me identify first principles to help me
model my testing.
I consider these books more suited for advanced
and experienced testers, because you'll have to do
a bit more work to pull the value out of these books.

Find this book on Amazon

James Whittaker - http://www.docjamesw.com

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Books By Alan Richardson

I have to include my books. Each of them I wrote
because I saw a gap in the market, for information
that I had either learned the hard way, or I saw
people were struggling to find good sources of
information on.
Dear Evil Tester
I've never thought my books were very long, but
people told me they were, and that they wanted to
read shorter books. So I obliged by creating a book
about the Attitude of a Tester. When I started out as
a tester I didn't have the confidence to take control
of my process or my testing, to stand up for my
rights to test the software as I saw fit, and to push
the software to its limit. That's why I wrote this book.
To help other people develop that attitude.
Automating and Testing a REST API
I wanted to explore testing as a combination of
technology knowledge for HTTP, tooling to support
interactive exploratory testing, and building that up
to demonstrate automated execution which stands
alone, and supports exploratory testing. This book is
a case study building from zero knowledge to Java
code.
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Java For Testers, and more

Java For Testers
When I wrote my first book, Selenium Simplified, I
taught Java and Selenium at the same time. This
meant it was a little slow for people who knew how
to code. I decided to split out and expand all the
Java information into Java For Testers. And
approach the teaching of Java coding in the way
that I think best matches the needs of people who
are learning to automate. So we write everything as
Unit tests, and gradually build up to understand the
basics. Ready to then bring in an automation library.
Other Books
I list all my books on my web site. Selenium
Simplified is now free because it is a little out of
date, but might be worth looking at, and I have a
migration guide, and... I'm sure I'll be adding more
there soon.
All my books have a free preview and a support
page with extra resources.

visit EvilTester.com/books

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Learn even more...

I couldn't cram in all the links and resources under each book,
so I have listed the extras here as a bonus.

For more Lessons Learned

Michael Bolton and James Bach train together, so both James
site (satisfice.com) and Michael's have useful lessons learned
blog posts and resources. Check out both sites.
Michael Bolton - https://developsense.com

The Web Application Hacker's Handbook

The authors of this book create the HTTP proxy tool BurpSuite.
The free community edition is very useful for working with HTTP
traffic. And there is a free set of online security labs and training.
BurpSuite https://portswigger.net/burp
Web Security Academy https://portswigger.net/web-security

More Recommended Reading?

I maintain a recommended reading list at:
https://eviltester.com/reading
And I have an archive of old book reviews on my blog:
https://www.eviltester.com/categories/book-reviews

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their skills and harness their own unique
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