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How to Break Software: A Practical Guide to Testing W/CD | 
| Author: James A. Whittaker
Publisher: Addison Wesley
Category: Book
List Price: $44.60
Buy Used: $15.92
You Save: $28.68 (64%)
New (35) Used (18) from $15.92
Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 49685
Media: Paperback
Pages: 208
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 7 x 0.5
ISBN: 0201796198
Dewey Decimal Number: 005.14
EAN: 9780201796193
ASIN: 0201796198
Publication Date: May 19, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Practical tutorial on how to actually do testing by presenting numerous "attacks" you can perform to test your software for bugs. - Practical approach has little or no theory, but shows real ways effectively test software—accessible to beginners and seasoned testers.
- The author is well known and respected as an industry consultant and speaker.
- Uses market leading, and immediately identifiable, software applications as examples to show bugs and techniques.
How to Break Software is a departure from conventional testing in which testers prepare a written test plan and then use it as a script when testing the software. The testing techniques in this book are as flexible as conventional testing is rigid. And flexibility is needed in software projects in which requirements can change, bugs can become features and schedule pressures often force plans to be reassessed. Software testing is not such an exact science that one can determine what to test in advance and then execute the plan and be done with it. Instead of a plan, intelligence, insight, experience and a "nose for where the bugs are hiding" should guide testers. This book helps testers develop this insight. The techniques presented in this book not only allow testers to go off-script, they encourage them to do so. Don't blindly follow a document that may be out of date and that was written before the product was even testable. Instead, use your head! Open your eyes! Think a little, test a little and then think a little more. This book does teach planning, but in an "on- the-fly while you are testing" way. It also encourages automation with many repetitive and complex tasks that require good tools (one such tool is shipped with this book on the companion CD). However, tools are never used as a replacement for intelligence. Testers do the thinking and use tools to collect data and help them explore applications more efficiently and effectively. James A. Whittaker is a well-known speaker and consultant, as well as seasoned professor.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 most thorough and organized book for beginners September 23, 2008
Fauzia Lala
Thsi book was recommended by two people working at Microsoft. One was a Test Lead in IIS team and another a Test Manager with the Games for Windows team. I thought that being the case it would be worth giving it a shot. Here are some of my observations:
1) This book is fast paced.
2) Every point is made succinctly and not blabbered on, so it keeps your interest througout.
3) Provides lots of examples to help relate. Many are errors in MS Word 2000, which also makes it interesting to read.
4) Covered many distinct types of approaches, so is very thorough and organized. Different types of testing, types of attack within each type of testing, how/what/when details of the attack is all listed. Nothing left out.
5) Aimed towards newbies to testing, but is a good quick refresher resource for those who have been into testing for a little bit.
Useful, practical examples! November 30, 2007
Matthew D Edwards (Midwest USA)
This book, niche or specific in approach, is a nice add-on to Cem Kaner's foundation materials. The book is what is says .. a text discussing how to break software. Clearly, given its size, it discusses concepts and examples, but cannot be held accountable for all software types, applications, etc. given that being a ridiculous pursuit. Rather, this book focuses on particulars leading us to methods of thought. If you needed a leap of logic from this book to another .. this sets the stage nicely to interact with, learn from, or otherwise simply look at the recommended book lists of James Bach who seems to show a tendency towards understanding behavior driven development > which of course has immense weight and value in determining 'what' to test and 'when'.
 amazon is not able to ship items anymore September 30, 2007
Mehmet G. Ozer (los angeles)
1 out of 10 found this review helpful
amazon is not able to ship items anymore, I ordered this 2 weeks ago and they are not shipped. I decided to cancel the order and buy it from a decent seller
Great for beginner or intermediate April 23, 2007
Caterina Pryde (Chicago, IL United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Great book covering orthodox and some unorthodox thoughts on testing methods and some specific guides. While the college trained tester or the person with many years of experience will probably find this too basic, it's still worth thumbing through for a new idea or two. The most common testing faults are missing common issues, such as testing for bad or negative input.
Great for Beginners April 16, 2005
Einzige (Phoenix Arizona)
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
This is an awesome book for software testers with less than two years of experience. If that's you, then you'll definitely get a lot of value out of it. You should buy it without hesitation.
What it does well is provide a clear understanding of what it means to "think like a tester." I recommend also that QA managers give it to their greenest team members. They will undoubtedly become better testers as a result.
However, if you're someone who has been in QA for several years, all of these attacks are going to be obvious--and ones that you almost certainly will already consider a part of your regular testing repertoire.
Even still, it's fun reading about some of the extant bugs in shipping Microsoft products, with step-by-step instructions on how to make them happen. I also like the freeware that comes with it--it's limited in scope, but still quite useful for certain testing situations.
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