"Dear Evil Tester"
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"Dear Evil Tester"

About the Book

Are you in charge of your own testing? Do you have the advice you need to advance your test approach?

"Dear Evil Tester" contains advice about testing that you won't hear anywhere else.

"Dear Evil Tester" is a three pronged publication designed to: 

  • provoke not placate, 
  • make you react rather than relax,
  • help you laugh not languish.

Starting gently with the laugh out loud Agony Uncle answers originally published in 'The Testing Planet'. "Dear Evil Tester" then provides new answers, to never before published questions, that will hit your beliefs where they change. Before presenting you with essays that will help you unleash your own inner Evil Tester.

With advice on automating, communication, talking at conferences, psychotherapy for testers, exploratory testing, tools, technical testing, and more. Dear Evil Tester randomly samples the Software Testing stomping ground before walking all over it.

"Dear Evil Tester" is a revolutionary testing book for the mind which shows you an alternative approach to testing built on responsibility, control and laughter.

Read what our early reviewers had to say:

"Wonderful stuff there. Real deep."

Rob Sabourin, @RobertASabourinAuthor of "I Am a Bug"

"The more you know about software testing, the more you will find to amuse you."

Dot Graham, @dorothygrahamAuthor of "Experiences of Test Automation"

"laugh-out-loud episodes"

Paul Gerrard, @paul_gerrardAuthor of "The Tester's Pocketbook"

"A great read for every Tester."

Andy Glover, @cartoontesterAuthor of "Cartoon Tester"

But you don't have to take their word for it (the author might have bribed them) - take the sample for a spin and try it for yourself.

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  • Categories

    • Humor and Satire
    • Testing
    • Computers and Programming
    • Agile
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About the Author

Alan Richardson
Alan Richardson

Alan Richardson has worked as a Software professional since 1995 (although it feels longer). Primarily working with Software Testing, although he has written commercial software in C++, and a variety of other languages.

Alan has a variety of on-line training courses, both free and commercial:

  • "Selenium 2 WebDriver With Java"
  • "Start Using Selenium WebDriver"
  • "Technical Web Testing"

You can find details of his other books, training courses, conference papers and slides, and videos, on his main company web site:

Alan maintains a number of web sites:

Alan tweets using the handle @eviltester

Table of Contents

  • Introduction
  • Acknowledgements
  • You can still ask me anything
  • The “Dear Evil Tester” Letters
    • Are you truly evil?
    • When is testing not required?
    • Why are you evil?
    • What is the most evil metric?
    • Any tips for a certification exam?
    • If all testing is exploratory, am I no longer special?
    • How can I get involved at the requirements stage?
    • Can I make a decent living as a tester?
    • How do you deal with a developer with attitude?
    • Pinnocchio’s nose?
    • How do you deal with a tester not pulling their weight?
    • Why is database testing painful?
    • Should I pretend to test?
    • Should developers do eunuch testing?
    • How do you prevent boredom?
    • How do you define concurrent users?
    • How do I gain the respect of developers?
    • My team only cares about defects, what do I do?
  • Unpublished Questions
    • How to track Exploratory Testing?
    • What is Exploratory Testing?
    • Can anyone test?
    • What is Sanity Testing and why should I care?
    • Can I measure programmer quality using bug count?
    • What is a Program Test Manager?
    • Tell me about ad-hoc
    • Who invented Liquid Soap?
    • Why do we have labels?
    • How do you invent?
    • Difference between a guru, mentor and expert?
    • Is ‘Test Automation’ a waste of time?
    • Most common project failings?
    • Is retesting a subset of regression testing?
    • Which is the best test tool?
    • How to interest people in testing?
    • How do you test quality?
    • Oracle database did not respond?
    • What’s in your Test Tool Utility Belt?
    • Why do we test?
    • Why are some testers called QA?
    • What are the new trends in testing?
    • How do you talk at conferences?
    • Can one be technical without knowing how to automate?
  • Essays
    • What is Testing?
    • Unconventional Influences
    • Slogans
  • Seriously, an Afterword
  • Recommended Reading and References
    • Recommended Reading for Software Testing
    • Non-Testing References
    • Pop Culture References
    • Unrelated Reading
  • About The Author

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