HACKER Q&A
📣 me_smith

Any good software testing resources?


Hello HN!

Are there any great software testing resource (blogs, books, etc.) recommendations?

I know software testing is a broad subject and can sometimes be opinionated (TDD, unit vs. integration vs. end to end, etc.). But, I’m hoping to sharpen and broaden my software testing skills (automated and manual) so would love to get any recommendations (opinionated or not).

Ideally, I would like to start out with language/framework agnostic material. Topics like general methodologies, strategies, best practices.

But, if the resource is well written and well argued, I would love to read it regardless of language/framework.

Thanks!

Edit: maybe asking for agnostic resources wasn’t ideal on my part. Any resources would be welcome. Thank you!


  👤 loevborg Accepted Answer ✓
I put together a reading list of the best writing on automated testing I know. Most of this is agnostic wrt the language you use, though of course examples are written in a language.

## Monographs

Test Driven Development By Example (Kent Beck)

Unit Testing: Principles, Practices, and Patterns (Vladimir Khorikov)

The Art of Unit Testing 2nd ed (Roy Osherove)

Working Effectively with Legacy Code (Michael Feathers)

## Various resources

[Unit Testing Best Pratices](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_ItB5btREU&t=2931s&ab_chann...) (Vladimir Khorikov)

[Testing Without Mocks: A Pattern Language](https://www.jamesshore.com/v2/blog/2018/testing-without-mock...) (James Shore)

[TDD Lunch & Learn](https://www.jamesshore.com/v2/projects/lunch-and-learn) (James Shore)

[Test Driven Development - What? Why? And How?](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llaUBH5oayw&ab_channel=Conti...) (Dave Farley)

[The 3 Types of Unit Test in TDD](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W40mpZP9xQQ&t=22s&ab_channel...) (Dave Farley)

[TDD and the Lump of Coding Fallacy](https://www.geepawhill.org/2018/04/14/tdd-the-lump-of-coding...) (Geepaw Hill)

## Against Unit Tests

[Why Most Unit Testing is Waste](https://rbcs-us.com/documents/Why-Most-Unit-Testing-is-Waste...) (James O Coplien)

[On unit testing and TDD](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21JlBOxgGwY&ab_channel=JeruS...) (Jonathan Blow)


👤 GrumpyYoungMan
Probably my favorite book on software testing would be "Lessons Learned In Software Testing", which is more a discussion about the people and process aspects of software testing instead of specific techniques. If you're interested in testing as a profession rather than merely as a job, it's worth a read.

👤 f1shy
I wanted to recommend google test documentation... which is certainly not agnostic :(