I purchased this book to use as a guide for developing a strategy to validate directory-enabled security infrastructures. It met my requirements and more. I discovered that this is also a great introduction to object-orientation for test professionals new to the paradigm. Also, because this book covers every facet of O-O testing it is also useful to testers who have worked in the O-O environment.
It starts out with a good description of the differences and unique challenges of testing O-O software. It then covers the basics. Starting with test planning it provides a clear approach to performing this important task in the O-O environment. This material can also be used as best practices for testing in any environment. I especially liked the chapter on testing analysis and design models. In particular, this chapter validated my personal theories on the way to approach design validation of directory services, such as LDAP, that are becoming a prevalent component of enterprise security infrastructures. The next three chapters address testing classes, interactions and class hierarchies. These chapters cover the foundation of O-O testing and provide those who are new to O-O testing with a clear view of what's important and how to approach developing a test strategy and cases, and performing the actual testing.
The book moves into advanced topics in the chapter on testing distributed objects. This is a complex subject and developing a test strategy in this area is a daunting task. The authors cover this material in depth, and provide a clear and complete description of all issues and factors. I was impressed with thoroughness and attention paid to the most minute detail. The authors include life cycle testing, which makes this book also important to software quality assurance (SQA) professionals. Note, SQA and testers are two different groups with two different sets of objectives. Where the tester is concerned with trying to break software, SQA collects metrics and devises process improvement with respect to defect prevention. The authors' approach contains something for each of these groups. The next level of testing granularity that is addressed is testing whole systems. This chapter covers the entire range, including stress testing, the wider considerations of system life cycle testing, embedded software, multi-tiered systems and more. Because my interest was testing security infrastructures I was pleased to see that the authors included security testing in this chapter. This is an added bonus, and shows the thoroughness with which the book approaches testing in the whole.
Other topics that make this a valuable book for test professionals are included in the chapter on components, frameworks and product lines. The authors show the differences between testing objects and components, and cover topics such as enterprise java beans, inspecting and testing frameworks, and interface testing.
Overall this is a comprehensive book that covers every conceivable task and topic related to O-O testing. It is well written and contains many pleasant surprises, such as security testing, and well developed test strategies for any environment with which an O-O tester will be confronted. It provided me with the exact answers to some thorny questions about validating and testing directory-enabled security, and taught me a lot more about O-O testing along the way.
