2007-07-26 Like sitting down and chatting with the authors

When I first skimmed through the book I thought, oh great a whole bunch of incomplete views that they couldn't make a book out of, then realising they'd made a book out of it, sneaky.

As I read through some of the individual lessons, made easy as all 293 are listed out under handy topic headings in the table of contents, I realised that what this book actually provides. It gives you 293 across the desk brief mentoring sessions that you wish you could with some guru like character. This book is like having Kaner, Bach or Pettichord sat there working with you, answering your questions in a thought provoking and considered way. You may not agree completely with the authors views and that's a good thing, lesson 294.

Typical lessons are ones such as number 32, "You discover requirements by conference, inference and reference", provide useful insight over a few paragraphs that will help you approach this area with more options for getting requirements in hand. However, the whole book isn't like this and in fact the end of chapter three's Addendum to Techniques is 19 pages of step by step examples, usable lists and definitions that reminded me of content in Kaner et al Testing Computer Software.

This book isn't a comprehensive guide to software testing. If you're totally green some of the content might appear to lack a cohesive structure, you may not find links you expect. If however you've got some background in this domain it'll serve to compliment and possibly challenge your views. Sometimes this book serves to tell you that in fact you're approach is right in your testing context, make that lesson 295.

If you're in need of guidance and looking for a lightweight collection of ideas around a particular topic such as test techniques, automation or test documents then this is a great book to get a useful idea of the topic. If you want to get some thoughts clear in your mind or get extra vocabulary for discussing topics you already know, then again this book will provide that and some new perspectives to boot.

An enjoyable, readable and useful book that wont disappoint.