Review By: Vivek Vaishampayan
12/27/2011Jeff Levinson has written an excellent book for testers. It is especially useful to the community involved in testing software applications based on Microsoft Foundation Classes, .NET framework, applications using C# language, and any Windows-based development.

A lot of information is covered in a clear, yet compact and readable format. This book is a must have for Microsoft developers, testers, analysts, and .NET architects. I strongly recommend that all software testers and QA analysts involved in Windows-based application testing and validation keep this book handy.

The best part of this book is the value it brings to testers in their daily professional life. The step-by-step instructions and exercises are excellent. The workflows, automation, regression testing, data-driven testing, verification points, and similar testing concepts are all well covered. The author has provided great insight into many advanced agile-testing topics such as feature-driven-development testing and exploratory testing. The test metrics and test reporting coverage is extremely good.

The book starts with a discussion of problems faced by the industry and then moves to development methodologies and the role of testers. The reader quickly learns how to plan the testing process using Microsoft Test Manager (MTM) to write well-documented test cases and how to execute those test cases, both manually and using automation. The author explains the life of a bug and how to resolve defects. Under MTM, the test lab can be set in a physical or virtual environment, the test cases can be automated by a tester or developer, and the testing can be used for traditional or agile methods. The book ends with a discussion of reporting and metrics and offers excellent ideas to improve quality in whatever process you are following.

Jeff has done an extraordinary job in writing this marvelous book, and I will strongly recommend it to all software testers and people involved in software test management.