Book Review Testing Object-Oriented Systems : Models, patterns and tools

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Book Review

	Testing Object-Oriented Systems : Models, patterns and tools
	Author:	Robert V. Binder
	Publisher	Addison-Wesley
	Published	2000
	Edition	1
	Pages	1191
	Target Audience	Everybody who tests
	Contents	Part 1 - Preliminaries Part 2 - Models Part 3 - Patterns Part 4 - Tools
Review Date: 06/02/2000 13:06:19 Short Summary: Rating: 5 Short Description: Excellent Review: This "is a large book about how testing, viewed as software engineering, should be applied to object-oriented systems development." And it is that. Well-written prose flows and at no point did I feel the somnambulistic effects of traditional turgid technical text. Part 1 sets the scene and outlines the fault models specifically associated with object-oriented developments. Part 2 looks at models in general and describes the common situation of cartoon models being presented for testing. There are useful criteria provided for evaluating the testability of a model. Specific models: Combinatorial and State. The book then provides a useful summary of UML from a tester's perspective complete with the test strategies applicable to each model type. Part 3 is the further study section and I can honestly say that I will refer to this again and again as I have only begun to assimilate the contents. 30+ patterns are presented in detail over 480 pages. The patterns are split across 7 chapters: Results oriented test strategy, classes, reusable components, subsystems, integration, application systems, regression testing. Part 4 looks at automation, assertions, oracles and test harnesses. Examples are presented in C++, Eiffel, Java, Objective-C and Smalltalk. This is an excellent testing book, but it is also an excellent object-oriented book and any tester without much OO design/coding/testing experience can learn a lot. There are plenty of pointers for further study (as if there wasn't enough to study in the text). Hopefully this book will have a wider audience than just testers as many of the automation and derivation techniques are best employed by the development teams themselves.