Book review
Testing Applications on the Web - Test Planning for Internet-Based Systems
Author: Hung Q. Nguyen
Review by Ewen Rubython, Testing Project Manager, EpiCentre Ltd
Hung Q. Nguyen founded a testing company in 1994, and over
the years has developed test tools, training materials and
testing products for a large number of well-known international
software companies. He now specialises in Web application
testing and, as e-learning has increasingly migrated to web
delivery, this makes 'Testing Applications on the Web', the
fruits of his knowledge and experience, a must-have book for
both web and e-learning testing professionals everywhere.
'Testing Applications on the Web' is designed to smooth the
path from traditional, stand-alone application testing (or
'black-box' testing) to web testing (or 'grey box' testing).
The book accomplishes this by giving the reader information
on the interplay of web applications, component architectural
designs and their network systems.
Nguyen manages to provoke the reader into asking pertinent
questions regarding the testing of any technologies or applications
that they may come across. In using a myriad of visual and
written examples (all taken from projects he worked on) Nguyen
ensures that the reader is kept interested in what is fairly
technical subject matter, whilst at the same time identifying
the more complex particulars of web testing in one of the
many diagrams.
The book is invaluable in decoding much of the jargon which
surrounds testing. It gives a useful guide to the technologies
behind hardware, software and networks; and points out compatibility
problems that will always arise through using a variety of
hardware and software technologies together.
Nguyen emphasises the need for testing at all levels of the
development process, the importance of test planning and test
documentation and the increasing need for the use of test-tools,
predominantly load-testing tools, in the practice of testing
web-based applications.
The reader is taken through all the considerations of testing
web applications from user interface tests to browser security
tests, all the time outlining new and old approaches to common
problems and suggesting further information and useful tools.
Although perhaps not a book for the first-time tester, 'Testing
Applications on the Web' is a readable and highly informative volume
that anyone about to embark on a Web-testing experience should have
at their side at the very least as a point of reference.
|
