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A few recent discussions with software testers on this Forum and at EuroSTAR got me thinking about how much influence many software testers take from outside software testing.
I though about compiling list of recommend books. They might not be strictly software testing related but may have become very useful for you in your career and elsewhere.
For myself I have read a few books that I return to every now and again and have influenced how I do things. They are:
The Checklist Manifesto: How To Get Things Right by Atul Gawande
– Basically a book on how the best way to complete most tasks is through checklists using surgeons, pilots and engineers as examples. A great read.The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli
– The book is a collection of biases that we humans are susceptible too like the fact that most people think 98% fat-free sounds better than 1% fat. It gets you thinking differently about things.Thinking, Fast and Slow Paperback by Daniel Kahneman
– One of the best books I have read about how and why we make decisions. It’s from a behavioural economist perspective but don’t let that put you off!So what books would you recommend that have changed the way of how you do things?
The art of war – Sun Tzu. Very popular among Hackers. Although about war you can use the described methods for attacking software.
Any book on programming. I always recommend starting with Python so Dive into Python is a good choice. It helps you to understand programmers and make your own scripts and automated tests.
Everyday Scripting with Ruby: For Teams, Testers, and You – The title says it all: everyday scripts you can use in testing.
Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution – A book about hacker culture.
@Kasper I have read The Art of War. It can be useful but it’s hard to remember all those sayings sometimes! Speaking of books on war that influence everyday life , The 33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene is a good read.
You both have made great recommendations, so here go my two cents in the matter and hope they serve the community, from whom I’d like their opinion on the matter 🙂
- Databases Demystified – Hard stuff made easy. It’s a very interesting book, not only will it teach you about writing some basic sql queries, but also and most importantly, it will drive you through the basics of database design, which in my own opinion is essential to understand how it works, how it operates and thus, gain a better understanding as well as knowledge, which ultimately will help you build a better skill set.
Creativity Workout – Exercises to unlock your most creative ideas. The book is written by Edward de Bono, and either you consider yourself to already be creative enough, or you ever pondered about how you could be creative, this book sure is helpful.
Six Thinking Hats. A book also written by Edward de Bono. In this one though, he walks us through another technique for thinking which he developed, and it’s named after “Parallel Thinking”, in case you haven’t heard about it yet, my piece of advice is give it a try. In my experience, it has helped me improve the time spent in meetings with the teams and jobs I’ve employed the technique, and the people has mentioned to have had fun whilst doing so. It’s worth a try.
Out of our minds – Learning to be Creative. By Ken Robinson, it is another piece of art, highly recommended for anyone who may -for whatever reason- believe they cannot be creative (which, is not true).
Thinkertoys – A handbook of creative-thinking techniques. Written by Michael Michalko, the book is full of techniques which you can learn at your own pace, practice them at your leisure, and thereafter, master them and passed them on 🙂
Has anyone read any of those books? Either the ones recommended by @Ronan, @Kasper and myself, if so, what was your experience with them? Share your thoughts, it sure will help us all to keep on growing in our craft 🙂
¡Have a great weekend!
From outside the IT-industry my selection of books are “anything which makes you think.” But here’s few where I return every now and then:
* Illuminatus! trilogy. It has crazy world, when you can’t trust to anything you read. Each time I read it, I get surprised.
* Almost any Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. The books has always some kind of real world connection, but you have to find it. E.g. is dragon the king Clinton? Bush jr? Someone else?Then the topics which I like to read: History, communication theory, business and economics, different kind of science articles etc. When I took couple classes about communication and its theory, it had major impact to my thinking. After that I started to understand how differently different people can see the World. And as the tester, I should try to find all those views. Or at least more than one.
We recently discussed this in my household, how testers tend to take inspiration from many areas, like I myself would be interested in exploring linguistics and language more and then apply what I learn to communicating better with a varied audience!
I feel like we take thinking seriously and easily can apply other methodologies to challenge our thinking.
I also have:
The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli
Thinking, Fast and Slow Paperback by Daniel KahnemanBut I love generally reading about psychology and how our brains develop.
Other recommendations are:
Zen and the art of motorcycle MaintenanceAnd I got this free and liked:
Trickster Makes This World
– Authoritative in its scholarship, supple and dynamic in its style, Trickster Makes This World encourages you to think and see afresh.Apart from the books which have already been advised, I’d like adding a new one:
- Perfect Software and other illusions about software testing
which was written by Gerald “Jerry” Weinberg.
In my opinion, he is one of the smartest testers I’ve read and learnt from, not only has he contributed to the community, but also, he continues to do so with new books as well as publications in testing magazines, and it sure is my wish his work helps you grow as well 🙂
Cheers,
-Andrés
I am reading this book at the moment: The Upside of Stress. You wouldn’t think that there could be too many positive arguments for enduring stress but the author Kelly McGonigal argues that stress can be beneficial if managed and used in the right way.
It’s an interesting read so far and her arguements are solid enough. She did a TED talk on the subject if you need to be convinced before reading the book like I had to be.
Might come in very handy on Release days!!
I’m not a huge fan of ‘top 10 Books’ or other lists of favourite tools, websites, blogs and so on… But here’s my list, such as it is…
Apart from many good ones already listed, I would add (from the top of my head):
– How to lie with statistics (Darrell Huff)
– Lessons learned in software testing (Kaner, Bach, Pettichord)
– A number of Jerry Weinberg gems:
*) Are your lights on?
*) Becoming a technical leader
*) Secrets of consulting
*) Exploring requirements – quality before design
– Explore It (Elisabeth Hendrickson)
– A practitioner’s guide to software test design (Lee Copeland)
– How doctors think (Jerome Groopman)
– The intelligent eye (David Perkins)
– The pleasure of finding things out (Richard Feynman)
– Demon haunted world (Carl Sagan)
– The leprechauns of software engineering (Laurent Bossavit)
– The now habit (Neil Fiore)Many of these are not related to testing but I found them useful nonetheless
An interesting read for all testers. The new 2015 State of Testing Report.
State of Testing 2015Below is a list of books that I like.
Understanding and Managing Risk Attitude
by David Hillson, Ruth Murray-Webster
On Looking
by Alexandra Horowitz
The Genesis of a Painting: Picasso’s Guernica
by Rudolf Arnheim
The Art of Scientific Investigation
by William Ian Beardmore Beveridge
Thinking Things Through: Problem Solving in Mathematics
by Leone Burton
Sensation and Perception, Media Edition
by E. Bruce Goldstein
Perfect Software: And Other Illusions about Testing. by Gerald Weinberg.
The only SW testing book I read twice…I like the Goal (http://www.amazon.com/The-Goal-Process-Ongoing-Improvement/dp/0884270610)…I can’t remember how I ended up reading this interesting book as a tester…Anyway, it’s a good read I think
This is turning into quite a list. I might do a blog post out of all these suggestions. It would make a good resource.
@Barrys I read the report recently. I think it might deserve a thread of its own.I am reading this book at the moment: The Upside of Stress. You wouldn’t think that there could be too many positive arguments for enduring stress but the author Kelly McGonigal argues that stress can be beneficial if managed and used in the right way.
It’s an interesting read so far and her arguements are solid enough. She did a TED talk on the subject if you need to be convinced before reading the book like I had to be.
Might come in very handy on Release days!!
Cheers Ronan, I’ll have to check it out, her book the Willpower Instinct is very good as well. Probably doesn’t contain too much information you don’t already know but an engaging read and it seemed to use different supporting evidence when compared to similar books
A few recent discussions with software testers on this Forum and at EuroSTAR got me thinking about how much influence many software testers take from outside software testing.
I though about compiling list of recommend books. They might not be strictly software testing related but may have become very useful for you in your career and elsewhere.
For myself I have read a few books that I return to every now and again and have influenced how I do things. They are:
The Checklist Manifesto: How To Get Things Right by Atul Gawande
– Basically a book on how the best way to complete most tasks is through checklists using surgeons, pilots and engineers as examples. A great read.The Art of Thinking Clearly by Rolf Dobelli
– The book is a collection of biases that we humans are susceptible too like the fact that most people think 98% fat-free sounds better than 1% fat. It gets you thinking differently about things.Thinking, Fast and Slow Paperback by Daniel Kahneman
– One of the best books I have read about how and why we make decisions. It’s from a behavioural economist perspective but don’t let that put you off!So what books would you recommend that have changed the way of how you do things?
I have found good collection of books here:
https://strongqa.com/qa-portal/booksI have recently read this book: Smarter, Faster, Better by Charles Duhigg. It is a great read on being more productive and what things can help and it has some good takeaway lessons as well.
The book I can do it by Louise Hay and the Audio that goes with is about “How to Use Affirmations to Change Your Life”. It is a very good book and listening to the Audio regularly helps you not just in your career but also in your personal life.
I would really recommend Bodil Jönsson’s books about time and our relationship with it.
Tio Tankar om Tid [Translation titled: “Unwinding the Clock: Ten Thoughts on Our Relationship to Time”]
I Tid och Otid: hemma och på jobbet [Don’t think this one’s translated unfortunately]in all testing book i read the different kind information from the book.reading is a good habit for our life.It was very helpful for our work .reading and writing is depend to each other.some article and best essay writing service are reading very interesting for me
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