10 Alternative Books In Software Testing

It is the time of the year when I like to plan my reading, and I normally go around searching for ideas of what to read within my subject (Work + Life + Relationship + Self-Improvement). I found this list interesting and worth sharing for your new year resolution reading.

1. Thinking: Fast and Slow (Daniel Kahneman)

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I have to confess; I didn’t actually read this one. I listened to the audiobook while travelling to and from various gigs. Irrespective, though, it profoundly affected how I approached my software testing work as Kahneman popularised the concept of having two modes of thinking: fast and slow. Specific takeaways are an understanding of how flawed my brain actually is when it comes to framing risks, understanding statistics and having a multitude of biases in more or less every situation I find myself in.

Since listening to the book, I’ve built upon my understanding of these biases by reading and listening to David McRaney’s You Are Not So Smartbook and podcast, covering much the same ground but focusing on specific cognitive biases more easily digestible format.

2. Tacit and Explicit Knowledge (Harry Collins)

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Championed by Michael Bolton and other testing community members, Harry Collins is all about the intersection of technology and sociology. In Tacit and Explicit Knowledge, he takes a deep dive into the mechanisms that underpin knowledge transfer, helping to bridge the gap into how communications take place and how information can be more effectively transferred between disciplines – testing and development, for example.

Complement this book with The Golem, also by Harry Collins, to better understand how scientists think, behave, socialise and conduct their experiments. You’ll never look at your test environment the same way again!

3. Secrets of a Buccaneer Scholar (James Bach)

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I read this book at a point in my career when I had already decided it was time to take charge of my own learning. I had become pretty good at “learning on purpose while also creating opportunities to learn by accident”. James’s writing helped me better frame my efforts and, to some extent, further radicalise my thoughts about and approach to learning.

Once again, if the topic inspires you, you can follow this book up with Andy Hunt’s Pragmatic Thinking and Learning: Refactor Your Wetware for further thoughts on managing your career by hacking your approach to self-development.

4. Secrets of Consulting (Gerald Weinberg)

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Although I have several of Weinberg’s books on my shelf at home, this is one I return to time, and again since, for me, it seems to encapsulate his philosophy and approach to working with clients and teams in a way that I’ve found particularly helpful over time. Neatly and humorously summarising important lessons like “it’s always a people problem” and “the trick of earning trust is to avoid all tricks”, it’s crammed with insights and an absolute must-read in my opinion for knowledge workers and engineers everywhere.

It’s also a great introduction to Jerry’s work. Follow it up with Becoming a Technical Leader, Exploring Requirements or the aforementioned Perfect Software–And Other Illusions about Testing for further illuminations.

5. Lateral Thinking: Creativity Step by Step (Edward De Bono)

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Software testing is all about thinking. The ability not only to focus hard and drill down into a problem but also to defocus and switch to thinking of all of the different ways the problem could be framed instead are core activities for most testers – whether they realise it or not.

De Bono’s work teaches us that you can use logic to dig deep, but you have to think laterally to decide where to put the hole. Lateral Thinking is arguably De Bono’s most famous work, along with Six Thinking Hats, but he’s written plenty of other books too. Over 60, in fact!

If you don’t like his style, though, why not try Michael Michalko’s Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques instead?

6. Humble Inquiry: The Gentle Art of Asking (Edgar H Schein)

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I discovered this book when Dorothy Graham cited it during her peer conference talk: Criticism and Communication.

Referred to by some as the Columbo approach to problem-solving, the book’s basic premise is that you can achieve great things by learning to be a bit more vulnerable about the areas in which perhaps you don’t know so much.

Being able to discuss sensitive problems with team members effectively is such a critical part of being an effective software tester. Read Humble Enquiry alongside number 7 below for maximum benefit.

7. Giving and Receiving Feedback (Patti Hathaway)

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During the course of your testing, if you don’t have to provide the occasional piece of bad news or unpleasant information, you’re not doing it right! Learning how to feedback problems and issues effectively is absolutely crucial.

Though it’s a rare book, you’ll find it very easy to read if you do manage to get hold of a copy. You can probably finish it in less than an hour!

If you can’t find a copy of this specific book, consider replacing it with the Gerald M. Weinberg equivalent – What Did You Say? The Art of Giving and Receiving Feedback, and learn how to process other people’s feedback more effectively at the same time.

8. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (Robert Cialdini)

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Sticking with the communication theme for a while. Probably if you’ve been in the testing game for any length of time, you’ve found yourself in the position of needing to sell either yourself or your testing efforts to the business so that you can be sure of getting the necessary support and resources you need to do your work.

In my opinion, the ability to persuade people of the benefits of testing is an underrated skill and one that every tester should pay some attention to.

If you want to learn about persuasion tactics, there’s no better book than this one. Follow it up with some NeuroLinguistic Programming (NLP) reading for more advanced conversational Jiu-Jitsu – there are plenty of great examples out there.

9. The Design of Everyday Things (Donald Norman)

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More than any other, Norman’s book can probably be credited with starting the User Experience (UX) movement. As testers, we often find ourselves in the position of customer advocate, arguing for changes to processes and functions to help optimise the end-user experience of our systems under test.

Reading this book can help you deepen your understanding of the factors that influence whether a human-computer interaction is a pleasurable one and what you can do to change things if not.

If your work mostly revolves around web development, Steve Krug’s book Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability might be more up your street, particularly since he released a revised edition only last year.

10. Steal like an artist (Austin Kleon)

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Like many other misunderstood professions, testing is many things to many people. To some (e.g. Myers, Sandler, Badgett). To others, it’s a craft (Marick). To still others (Bach, Hodder), it’s a performance. What’s the commonality across all of these concepts? Creativity. The ability to think creatively and manifest creativity in your testing is probably one of the greatest keys to a lengthy and successful software testing career. In his book, Kleon will teach you that all “art is theft” (Pablo Picasso) and where to look for the best ideas. Steal Like an Artist is a great place to start your hunt.

Let me know what you think about those books. Have you read it? Want to discuss? Is there any other book(s) you think is worth being on this list?