Software Testing for Managers: An Introduction to Strategies, Technologies, and Best Practices

Software leaders, directors, and managers of all types need to know about software testing. It can be a tough climb up the mountain of technical jargon. Engineers seem to be speaking a language all their own sometimes. Most books on testing are deep in the weeds with technical terms and techniques that simply aren’t applicable even to technical managers. This book provides a high-level perspective on broad topics in a friendly, easy-to-absorb style. Get started and up to speed quickly with immediately useful, actionable guidance. Guidance on team structure, best practices and even common pitfalls will save you time and money, while automation and code reuse will provide exponential value. There’s a gap of knowledge between engineers and their managers; they are almost speaking different languages and the jargon can be confusing. There’s a lot to know about the world of testing. Test from the Top delivers quick, concise guidance to bridge the gap! It offers clear, actionable steps and is a must have for busy leaders who need quick answers. What You Will Learn: How and where to integrate testing in the software development lifecycle Testing terminology and concepts from a management perspective Common pitfalls of testing, how to avoid wasted time How to hire test-aware teams The value in reusing test code for more generalized automation Who This Book is for: Software managers, Lead Software Engineers, Tech Directors, CTOs, Project Managers, software leaders of all kinds. These leaders understand the value of testing, but have not yet built out extensive automation or team structure. Either new to testing concepts or modernizing systems or looking to improve software quality. Assumed to have a working knowledge of the Software Development Lifecycle and basic project management (no specific methodology required). Table of Contents About the Author About the Technical Reviewer Introduction Chapter 1: Test Awareness 1.1 The Software Engineer 1.2 Summary Chapter 2: Test-Driven Development vs. Test During Development 2.1 Testing Dogma vs. Practicality 2.2 Specification 2.3 Planning 2.4 Development 2.5 Staging: Internal 2.6 Staging: External 2.7 Production 2.8 Retrospective 2.9 Summary Chapter 3: Quality and Assurance 3.1 What Does Quality Mean to You? 3.2 Standards: You Should Have Some 3.3 Standards: Your Users 3.4 Standards: The Government 3.4.1 HIPAA 3.4.2 GDPR/CCPA 3.4.3 PCI DSS 3.4.4 Fair Credit Reporting Act 3.4.5 Accessibility 3.5 Assuring Yourself 3.6 Business Domain Experts 3.7 New Bugs and Regressions 3.8 Location, Location, Location 3.9 User Acceptance Testing 3.10 Dashboards and Reports 3.11 Summary Chapter 4: Specification 4.1 Roadmaps, Stories, and Behavior 4.2 Specification by Example: Book Reference and Summary 4.3 Unknown Unknowns: Unspecified System Behaviors Are Not Testable 4.4 Refactoring 4.5 Upgrades 4.6 Given, When, Then 4.7 Summary Chapter 5: Automation Reuse 5.1 Be Less Assertive 5.1.1 Hard vs. Soft Assertions 5.1.2 Unit Tests 5.2 Shift Left: Reuse Tests Every Step of the Lifecycle 5.3 Reuse Tests Everywhere 5.4 Fixtures, Personas, and Test Data 5.4.1 Personas 5.4.2 Fixtures 5.4.3 Test Data as a Service 5.5 End-to-End Testing and Workflows 5.6 Specification Reuse 5.7 Image Comparison Testing 5.8 Summary Chapter 6: Coverage 6.1 The Myth of Code Coverage 6.2 Test Coverage 6.3 Only Broken Tests Find Bugs 6.4 Tests That Never Break 6.5 Skip, Ignore, and Pay Attention 6.6 A Better Metric: ERA Model 6.6.1 Score 6.6.2 Nodes vs. Versions 6.6.3 Risk 6.6.4 Risk Factors 6.6.5 How To 6.6.6 Don’t Forget 6.7 Summary Chapter 7: Security 7.1 Low Hanging Fruit: Static Code Analysis 7.2 Check the Manifest: Software Composition Analysis 7.3 You Need Help: Auditing Services 7.4 Once Again, the Government: Compliance and Data Breach 7.5 Data Storage 7.6 Data Transport 7.7 Access: Principle of Least Privilege 7.8 Secure Coding Practices 7.9 Security Is Social: Team Education 7.9.1 Make a Plan 7.10 Summary Chapter 8: Conclusion Chapter 9: Pitfalls 9.1 Coverage* 9.2 100% Code Coverage* 9.3 Tests That Never Fail 9.4 Automation Only* 9.5 100% Automation 9.6 Screenshots 9.7 Xpath vs. CSS Selectors 9.8 Fuzzing* 9.9 Dashboards and Report Data Views* 9.10 Testing Without Specification