Skip to main content

As the title states, what books would you recommend for one to read to improve in the field of testing ? These could be both technical and non-techincal. 

 

I saw in one reply that James Bach recommends looking into: 

  • Epistemology
  • Philosophy/History of Science
  • Sociology/Psychology
  • Cognitive Science
  • Rhetoric/Critical Analysis
  • Certain branches of mathematics: statistics, set theory, discrete mathematics, combinatorics.

Any suggestions regarding any of the above mentioned topics ? 

 

Thanks in advance :) 

Just at the top of my head I would recommend two books

  • Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug -  read it and it really gives a nice and new perspective on how to view software and products
  • Testing Web APIs by Mark Winteringham - almost finished it. Really nice if you want to understand how and what test when dealing with APIs

Here are some practical and engaging books that cover those things. Each one has helped me:

 

Baggini, J. (2003). The philosopher’s toolkit: A compendium of philosophical concepts and methods. Blackwell Publishers.

Collins, H. (2010). Tacit and Explicit Knowledge. University Of Chicago Press.

Collins, H. M. (1992). Changing order: Replication and induction in scientific practice. University of Chicago Press.

Collins, H. M. (1998). The shape of actions: What humans and machines can do. MIT Press.

Gallas, K. (1995). Talking their way into science: Hearing children’s questions and theories, responding with curricula. Teachers College Press.

Gonick, L. (1993). The cartoon guide to statistics (1st HarperPerennial ed). HarperPerennial.

Hutchins, E. (1995). Cognition in the Wild. MIT Press.

Lakatos, I. (1994). Proofs and Refutations: The Logic of Mathematical Discovery. Cambridge University Press.

Popper, K. R. (1989). Conjectures and refutations: The growth of scientific knowledge (5th ed. (rev.)). Routledge.

Sanitt, N. (1996). Science as a questioning process. Institute of Physics Pub.

Stebbins, R. A. (2001). Exploratory research in the social sciences. Sage Publications.

 


One I enjoyed reading was ‘How Google Tests Software’ by James A. Whittaker, Jason Arbon and Jeff Carollo.

Not strictly scientific, but touches on some of your points and worth a read in any case.


Epic ! Thank you all for your suggestions :) This will keep me busy for some time :) 


After you are through with the reading list above, you might want to embark on a learning journey of neuroscience. This book, for example: Neuroscience: Exploring the Brain, Fourth Edition by Mark F. Bear, Barry W. Connors et al.

I’m taking a course on Neuroscience for business at Wharton. Fascinating!


Here are my recommendations for testers: My 10 Fav Books on Software Testing - Rahul's Testing Titbits


Couple weeks ago, I have finished the “Artificial Intelligence and Software Testing” by Rex Black and James Davenport and now I have my eyes set on the “Usability Testing Essentials: Ready, Set ...Test!: Ready, Set...Test!” by Carol M. Barnum. If anyone read this book, please feel free to reach out and share your opinion on that. I would much appreciate it. :)


Reply