15 Best Software Testing Books in 2023 – Software Testing Material

Here I am going to list some Best Software Testing Books for testers (no matter whether you are a Manual Tester, Automation Tester or Game Tester).

These books allow you to learn software testing whatever your level is, since they are aimed at both beginners and experienced.

There are a lot of online tutorials that you can follow, but nothing can replace a good book.

Manual And Automation Testing Books Recommendation

Book NameAuthorLatest EditionRatingsLinkBuddha in Testing: Finding Peace in ChaosPradeep Soundarajan1st editionLearn moreThe Art of Software TestingGlenford J. Myers3rd editionLearn moreSoftware TestingRon Patton2nd editionLearn morePenetration Testing – A Hands-On Introduction to HackingGeorgia Weidman1st editionLearn moreSoftware Testing: A Craftsman’s ApproachPaul C. Jorgensen4th editionLearn more

Best Software Testing Books for Beginners and Experienced Testers.

Here I am sharing a list of top-ranked books in Software Testing field to improve your knowledge in Software Testing. You can find these books in Amazon as a paperback book or kindle ebook.

#1. The Art of Software Testing, 3rd Paperback

With time the hardware and software of computing have changed remarkably. We now see the changes documented in the above book after the three decades times since the first edition was out. The Art of Software Testing as a powerful, classic book has addressed the underlying analysis thoroughly and certainly has stood the test of time.

We many a time find that most of the books on software testing particularly targets either the development techniques, languages or testing methods or tools. However, the book named “The Art of Software Testing, Third Edition” provides an unmatchable brief. If you are curious to know more about this powerful yet comprehensive display of time-proven software testing methods then you would not want to miss reading this book.

#2. Fifty Quick Ideas to Improve Your User Stories

What a book is to a child, a user story is to a tester. It is imperative to have a well explained, accurately articulated user story in order to start with the test case writing and the following steps. Hence, Fifty Quick Ideas to Improve Your User Stories, is more than a perfect book to read when you want to make the user stories better in every term.

The book offers several ideas for agile and iterative software delivery. Discussions between the delivery team and business stakeholders, Staring from creating a user story map, measuring alignment using feedback exercises, to checking outcomes with real users; everything that comes up on the table is elaborated in this book.

#3. Fifty Quick Ideas To Improve Your Tests

Very similar to the last piece, this book comes up with 50 quick ideas to improve your tests. This book helps in a great way when you start considering the practical use in the software industry.

When in cross-functional teams, the teams are working in an iterative delivery environment, planning with user stories and testing frequently changing software under tough time pressure. Under such circumstances, you need to test your software better, easier, and faster. And in order to do so, we lack new ideas not only to commence the tasks but also to help teams engage their business stakeholders better in defining key expectations. All of this is provided in the book and not to miss it also indicates some techniques to improve the quality of their software products.

#4. Buddha in Testing: Finding Peace in Chaos

Published in Jan 2020, Buddha in Testing: Finding Peace in Chaos, is found to be extolled by the readers in many leading e-commerce websites. The writer, Mr Pradeep Soundararajan, who has extensive work experience in the same field, has uniquely explained the ways to handle everyday scenarios that any tester in the world might face.

This book comes to great help to the software testers in the industry who are especially having a hard time to strive for a balance between mental chaos and high-quality work.

One can make full use of the book by understanding the concepts like testing as a feedback loop and its equations and other important parameters in the testing world quoted by the author.

#5. Software Testing Paperback

Being a software tester, it does hurt when some say, software testing is an invisible task in the industry and that, it can be done by anyone and everyone.
On the contrary, there are numerous companies whose sole purpose is to provide software test consulting and software testing services. Coming to Software Testing Paperback, debunking the above notion is very much the intention of the book.

Well crafted and lucidly written, this book provides a pragmatic insight into the area of software testing and quality assurance by explaining the reader about the essential processes and techniques to commence successful and effective software testing execution.

#6. Penetration Testing – A Hands-On Introduction to Hacking

#6

Penetration Testing

4.5

Author: Georgia Weidman

Publisher: No Starch Press

Latest Edition: 1st edition

No. of Pages: 528

Published Date: 14 Jun’14

Buy on Amazon

The book serves as a helping hand for all the fellow testers who want to dig deeper into ethical hacking and penetration testing. To be a penetration tester and to simulate cyber attacks to find security weaknesses in networks, operating systems, and applications is not a cakewalk. This book comes with loads of informative content and penetration techniques to evaluate enterprise defenses, which the information security experts worldwide can use.

#7. Software Testing: A Craftsman’s Approach, Fourth Edition

Paul C. Jorgensen, the author of Software Testing: A Craftsman’s Approach, Fourth Edition, left no stone unturned to update and reorganize the fourth edition of this book. The authors have also applied a strong mathematics content, derived from the previous editions and drafted a fresh book out of the same into a coherent treatment of Model-Based Testing.

This is achieved for both code-based (structural) and specification-based (functional) testing. The book very well explains techniques that are not only restricted to the usual unit testing discussions but also till the full coverage of less understood levels integration and system testing.

#8. Foundations of Software Testing ISTQB Certification Paperback

As we all know that for a software tester, ISTQB, an Edinburg based organization awards certifications to professionals. The certifications have four levels, which describes the test software engineer’s level of expertise. Now in order to pass these exams and achieve the certifications, anyone would want a book to refer to. Here comes the book for rescue.

Foundations of Software Testing ISTQB Certification Paperback is a perfect handbook for anyone who is aiming the examinations as along with detailed explanation, it also comes with previous ISTQB Foundations Level Papers with solutions, mock tests, and a broad glossary.

#9. Lessons Learned in Software Testing: A Context-Driven Approach

The most unique and intriguing factor about this book is that it stores decades of combined software testing experience condensed and composed into some most important lessons that any software test individual would like to learn.

How better can it be if you could learn from other people’s mistakes or experiences? The book is written by a few of the world’s leading software testing experts who impressively lend you their wisdom, years of experience so that you don’t repeat their mistakes. Reading the lessons, you will know that it is an assertion related to software testing which is later followed by an explanation or example that shows you the how, when, and why of the testing lesson.

#10. The Way of the Web Tester: A Beginner’s Guide to Automating Tests

Basically, this books helps the reader understand three main points:

• To write good automated tests for the web/UI.
• To pick and choose the right tests.
• To explain, coordinate, and share your efforts with fellow teammates.

Jonathan Rasmusson, the author of the book, The Way of the Web Tester: A Beginner’s Guide to Automating Tests, has indeed worked hard to make the book much more than the mundane serious technical stuff. The book is stuffed with cartoons, graphics, best practices, war stories, and humor at galore. A person who is aiming to delve into UI automation might find this book very helpful with hands-on tutorial exercises.

#11. Dear Evil Tester: Provocative Advice That Could Change Your Approach To Testing Forever

Here comes another book that is quite different from the other conventional ones and is a revolutionary testing guidance book. Dear Evil Tester and its writer helps you to comprehend an alternative approach to testing. It emphasizes that the approach is built on responsibility, control, and laughter.

While some say that this book contains advice about testing that you won’t hear anywhere else, it also gives insights on automating, communication, talking at conferences, psychotherapy for testers, exploratory testing, tools, technical testing, and much more.

#12. Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams

To understand Agile completely is not within everyone’s ken. The book, Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams, is a must for agile testers, agile teams, their managers, and their customers. The authors have excellently explained the agile testing quadrants.

Any reader, when reading the book can identify the type of testing that is needed, the person doing it, and tools that should be decided upon to execute the tests.
In addition to “everything about agile”, this book shows an agile software development iteration. This is done from the viewpoint of a tester and also explains the seven key success factors of agile testing.

#13. A Practitioner’s Guide to Software Test Design (Artech House Computing Library)

The above-mentioned book is a comprehensive, up-to-date, and practical introduction for anyone who wants to know everything about software test design. Presenting the reader with all the important test design techniques in a consistent and easy-to-digest format, it serves as an immediately useful handbook. Everyone who is a test engineer, developer, quality assurance professionals, or even a requirements and systems analyst, it enables them with the following pointers:

• To choose the best test case design;
• To find software defects in a lesser amount of time
• To find software defects with fewer resources
• To develop optimal strategies
• To help reduce the probability of costly mistakes.

The book comes in every use, from assisting you in estimating the effort to judging the time and cost of good testing.

#14. Beautiful Testing: Leading Professionals Reveal How They Improve Software (Theory in Practice)

Earlier we read about the leaders explaining their lessons learned, here in this book, we can find different pioneers taking us through their experiences how they improved the software. Twenty -seven renowned leaders across the industry come together to discuss their views.

The same is read in twenty-three essays written in the book that illustrates the qualities and techniques for making testing an art. What’s more interesting in the book is that the reader goes through personal anecdotes, and apply the valuable knowledge to their own projects.

The book, Software Test Automation: Effective Use of Test Execution Tools, tactically describes how to build and implement an automated testing regime for software development. For the budding automation test engineers or someone who has a fair amount of knowledge in the field is presented with a detailed account of the principles of automated testing.

In addition to the same, the reader will also get an idea of impressive techniques for designing a good automated testing framework, advice on choosing plus applying the testing tools to specific requirements. On reading this book, you will learn a clear and rational introduction to automated testing. With the knowledge of two authors well known for their seminars, consultancy, and training in the field, it is a never to miss book.

#16. The Self-Taught Software Tester – A Step By Step Guide to Learn Software Testing Using Real-Life Project

This book is suitable for freshers with no experience in the industry. You’ll get to know about test activities such as planning, execution and monitoring in real projects. This book provides you with an insight into your day-to-day journey as a software tester. This book explains how real software projects are run from start to end and it also gives information on where the testing fits in the big picture of the project lifecycle.

The Self-Taught Software Tester book is written by Chhavi Raj Dosaj, who is a Test Expert with extensive experience of around 20 years in Software. He has worked in American Express, Lehman Brothers, Macquarie Securities, Daiwa Securities, Deutsche Bank, London Clearing House, Westpac, Commonwealth Bank, Reserve Bank of Australia and Adactin Group.

• Testing fundamentals
• Step-by-step process in Real life testing project
• Basic road map

#17. Perfect Software And Other Illusions About Testing

This is a book suitable for software testing professionals who have been in the industry for a few years but still are in the learning phase. The book is under 200 pages, it’s a short read with a lot of insights. The author tries to change the perspective in which you do your daily activities. This book makes you think about the bigger picture- Why do we have to test? Should we have to test everything? What is making testing so hard? Is perfect software even possible? Why can’t we just accept a few bugs in the software?

Gerald M. Weinberg is the author of Perfect Software And Other Illusions About Testing, he long technical career as a software developer and researcher.

• Why Not Just Test Everything?
• Information Immunity
• What Makes a Test Good?
• Major Fallacies About Testing
• Determining Significance
• Testing Without Machinery

#18. How Google Tests Software

This book is for professionals who have been working in the software industry for years. It provides you insights on the testing practice followed by Google. This book gives testing case studies on the Chrome browser, Chrome OS, and Android to show there isn’t one right approach when it comes to quality. It provides you with good advice on how to better engage testers and developers in a whole team approach. This book provides you with a lot of information about the technology and also covers the management perspective. It even provides you with interview tips.

How Google Tests Software is written by James Whittaker who is an engineering director at Google. He has been responsible for testing Chrome, maps, and Google web apps.

• Analyse Risk and planning test.
• How to implement exploratory, black box, white box and acceptance testing.
• Tracking issues.
• Collecting feedback
• And more

#19. Explore It!: Reduce Risk and Increase Confidence with Exploratory Testing

This book is for beginners and mid-level experienced software testing professionals. The book is divided into three parts, the first part explains the basic skills required to become a master explorer, it helps you to identify interesting variations, and determine what is the expected behaviour when testing the software in unexpected ways. The next part explains how to explore varying interactions, sequences, data, timing, and configurations. The final part provides information on how to integrate exploration into the development cycle from the very beginning.

Explore it! is written by Elisabeth Hendrickson who is a tester, developer, and Agile enabler. She teaches, speaks, writes, codes, and works on Agile teams that value her obsession with testing.

• Exploratory testing
• Design techniques
• Basic skills required to become an exploratory tester
• How to check key vulnerable points

#20. Real-World Bug Hunting: A Field Guide to Web Hacking

This book is suitable for beginners for basic penetration testing. It provides information on cross-site scripting, insecure direct object references, and server-side request forgery. It uses real-life case studies of popular vulnerability issues found in applications like Twitter, Facebook, Google, and Uber. You’ll learn how hackers manage to invoke race conditions while transferring money, use URL parameters to cause users to like unintended tweets, and more. In each chapter, the author introduces you to a different vulnerability type along with a series of actually reported bug bounties.

Real-World Bug Hunting is written by Peter Yaworski who is a self-taught developer and ethical hacker. He has produced over100 video tutorials and interviews on YouTube covering ethical hacking, web development, and Android

• Guidelines on bug hunting
• Basic Cyber security
• Web application security
• Ethical hacking
• Basic web hacking concepts 
• How attackers hack websites 
• To identify functionality commonly associated with vulnerabilities 

#21. API Testing and Development with Postman: A practical guide to creating, testing, and managing APIs for automated software testing

This book is for beginners and advanced testers who want to learn API testing. It gives you a hands-on approach to learning the implementation and associated methodologies that will help you run with Postman in no time. It contains step-by-step explanations of essential concepts along with practical examples. It combines theory with real-world examples and this will help you learn how to use Postman to create well-designed, documented, and tested APIs.

API Testing and Development with Postman is written by Dave Westerveld who is a test developer with many years of testing experience. He has worked on several projects ranging from well-established products to help with the early stages of major new initiatives.

• How to perform effective API testing and API design
• In-depth knowledge of various features of Postman
• How to use postman to build  high-quality APIs for software and web apps

#22. One Stop Solution to Test Automation Using Java Selenium

This is a book for testers who want to learn Test Automation using Java and selenium. It covers all Java concepts for Test Automation, it deep dives into the building blocks required for developing robust and reusable test automation frameworks. It covers different test automation frameworks and how to design Page Object Model Framework using Selenium. It also covers integration with Test Management tools and outlines Test Automation success factors. It also mentions some Myths about Test Automation.

This book is an ideal starting point if you are a Manual/Functional tester and you want to switch to Automation roles.

One Stop Solution to Test Automation Using Java Selenium is written by Vikas who has over 14 years of experience in IT working in different multinational organizations.

• Core Java Programming Concepts
• Basic building blocks of test Automation Framework
• Maven and TestNG
• GitHub Repo link for other Test Automation Frameworks
• Integration of Framework with Jenkins CI/CD Pipelines

#23. How to Break Software: A Practical Guide to Testing

This book acts as a practical tutorial on how to do testing by introducing numerous “attacks”  that test your software for identifying bugs. It is written for both beginners and advanced testers. It uses an application that is popular in the market for providing examples. The testing techniques mentioned in this book are flexible, unlike conventional testing which is rigid. Here the author advocates that not blindly following documents but a plan, intelligence, insight, experience and a “nose for where the bugs are hiding” should guide testers.

How to Break Software is written by James Whittaker who is a former Google employee. He is a speaker, author, a futurist and distinguished engineer who specializes in creativity and stagecraft.

• Fundamental concepts
• How to think like a tester
• Practical concepts
• Effective testing technique

#24. Software Testing Techniques

This book is for beginners who want to learn more about software testing, it can be read by testers, developers and managers. Even though the book is written by an industry expert, this book is popular in academics. This book focuses on the idea of designing the software in such a way that it is testable. These concepts help us to create more reliable and maintainable software. Here the application of all techniques to unit, integration, maintenance and system testing are discussed throughout this book.

The book explains a few concepts a bit mathematically, and sort of assumes you know what the process of creating software is about. But the book has a lot more to say about the process than many popular software testing books.

Software Testing Techniques is written by Boris Beizer who is a pioneer in the software testing field. He has worked in the field for 19 years and has written several books on software testing.

• Fundamentals concepts in software testing.
• Basic terminology and definitions.
• Testability guidelines
• Various types of testing

FAQ’s

Conclusion

These are some of the good software testing books in the market to start learning Software Testing.

I hope this post makes you find best books on Software Testing and allows you to enhance your career as a Software Tester.

It’s very important to continually learn and develop your skills in this fast-moving industry. You should have no excuses to start learning Software Testing.

Do you have a favorite Software Testing book that we missed? If so, let us know below in the comments.

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