Review By: Jennifer Cannon
11/19/2007

Happy About Global Software Test Automation is described as "a discussion of software testing for executives. Now, I'm not an executive, but I still found this book to be informative and practical. It is small and easy to digest, yet filled with straight-to-the-point information that every software executive should read. This book presents some best practices to meet your company's quality goals; explains how software testing benefits the bottom line; and what test strategy can help you as executive make better management decisions, lower testing costs, and accelerate your time to market. .

Chapter 1 is "The Business Side of Software Testing." Admittedly, as a tester, I don't always think of the "business side" as in dollars, cents, and the "bottom line" as it relates to software testing. Yet for an executive, this chapter is a must-read. It's definitely written in terms that a CEO, COO, CFO, or anyone else on an executive team can relate to and understand. Emphasis is placed on the fact that the bottom line of all business is money. So, if the customers are not satisfied and too much money is spent trying to prevent future losses, the bottom line is adversely affected. Software testing plays an integral part in this equation and directly affects the bottom line. Five core questions are laid out in the first chapter that the entire book will address:

        1. Why should you care about and spend money on testing?

        2. Why must you treat testing as a strategic effort?

        3. Why should testing have its own properly funded budget, separate from development?

        4. Why must you have better visibility into quality and testing effectiveness?

        5. Why is Global Test Automation your best-practice solution?

Chapters 2 through 5 give the reader information on testing issues. The reader is given an overview of software testing, as well as the pitfalls of manual software testing, test automation, and outsourcing/off shoring software testing, with suggestions to mitigate those pitfalls. The discussions of these topics are high level, but I believe the authors do an excellent job in giving you enough information to understand what software testing is, the possible problems in software testing, and some best practices that can be discussed within the framework of the company's environment. If the reader is a novice to test automation and outsourcing, then these chapters are a must read; otherwise, a browsing of these chapters would suffice.

Chapter 6 discusses the strategies and tactics for Global Test Automation. The benefit of this approach is described as well as a seven-step process of developing this strategy as well as a roadmap to get there. Global Test Automation combines manual software testing, test automation, and outsourcing/offshoring to address the pitfalls discussed in previous chapters and to create a successful test effort that saves time and money.

One thing about the book that I really found helpful was the case studies at the end of most of the chapters. Top level executives and senior managers were interviewed at different software companies and they were asked about their views and "war stories" related to software testing, test automation, and outsourcing. It's helpful to see how other companies handled their challenges and that we are not alone!

Overall, this is an excellent read that I would recommend to any software executive.