Book excerpt: A Practical Guide to Software Testing Much has been written about the difficulty of software testing. Often these laments are accompanied by cautionary words about how careful one has to be to ensure testing is done properly. However, there is a dearth of resources that give practical guidance on the nuts and bolts of testing. Essential Software Testing: A Use-Case Approach describes testing methods and techniques in a common sense manner that is easy to understand, helping readers to quickly and effectively implement project-specific testing solutions. Divided into three parts, the book first discusses ways to make testing agile, providing insight into how testing can be done efficiently in different process environments. Next, the book supplies an overview of testing concepts. Lastly, it demonstrates how to perform the actual test, detailing specific testing activities that can be used on almost any project, with specific attention given to use-case driven testing. It describes how to test using Use Cases regardless of the specific requirements of the project. The author weaves helpful war stories throughout the text, placing the concepts in a concrete framework. This guide gives software testers a firm grasp of all testing fundamentals: how to determine what to test and how to test it, how to select proper tests to match the plan, techniques to build and trace tests, and finally, how to conduct and record tests.