Review By: Shelley L. Rueger
10/05/2008Software Testing Practice: Test Management by Spillner, Rossner, Winter, and Linz is a study guide for the Certified Tester Exam ISTQB Advanced Level. Short descriptive phrases in the margins identify topics addressed in each section. The style is straightforward and easy to understand. The authors have also provided short descriptions of each chapter and summaries in a "bullet point" format so that the reader can quickly go back to these afterwards for review.

My criticism of the volume is that it is not a complete work in and of itself. There are many references to other foundational books by Spillner. Perhaps this is acceptable given that this is a study guide and not a comprehensive study of test management. In addition, the authors have addressed most topics at a high level. If the reader wanted to understand a particular topic thoroughly, he would probably need to find additional material. For example, if the reader wanted to implement a new test tool, he could read the short chapter on test tools and would get a good understanding of a process for selecting test tools. The reader would certainly need to go elsewhere to find information about specific tools.

Having read many other testing books, I did not find anything new in this one, but a reader who is new to testing or test management would likely find this a thorough introduction to the covered topics. In that line, the books seems to be up-to-date with topics such as agile methodologies like Extreme Programming which are covered on par with more traditional methods like the waterfall model.

I would recommend this book only to readers who are new to testing or test management or to those looking for a review prior to taking the ISTQB exam.