Preface

In 1979, Glenford Myers published a book that turned out to be a classic. The Art of Software Testing has stood the test of time—25 years on the publisher's list of available books. This fact alone is a testament to the solid, essential, and valuable nature of his work.

During that same time, the authors of this edition (the third) of The Art of Software Testing published, collectively, more than 200 books, most of them on computer software topics. Some of these titles sold very well and, like this one, have gone through multiple versions. Corey Sandler's Fix Your Own PC, for example, is in its eighth edition as this book goes to press; and Tom Badgett's books on Microsoft PowerPoint and other Office titles have gone through four or more editions. However, unlike Myers's book, none of these remained current for more than a few years.

What is the difference? The newer books covered more transient topics—operating systems, applications software, security, communications technology, and hardware configurations. Rapid changes in computer hardware and software technology during the 1980s and 1990s necessitated frequent changes and updates to these topics.

Also during that period hundreds of books about software testing were published. They, too, took a more transient approach to the topic. The Art of Software Testing alone gave the industry a long-lasting, foundational guide to one of the most important computer topics: How do you ensure that all of the software you produce does what it was designed to do, and—just as important—doesn't do what it isn't supposed to do?

The edition you are reading today retains the foundational philosophy laid by Myers more than three decades ago. But we have updated the examples to include more current programming languages, and we have addressed topics that were not yet topics when Myers wrote the first edition: Web programming, e-commerce, Extreme (Agile) programming and testing, and testing applications for mobile devices.

Along the way, we never lost sight of the fact that a new classic must stay true to its roots, so our version also offers you a software testing philosophy, and a process that works across current and unforeseeable future hardware and software platforms. We hope that the third edition of The Art of Software Testing, too, will span a generation of software designers and developers.