Email the Author
You can use this page to email Gerald M. Weinberg about Perfect Software.
About the Book
A sampling of some of the five-star reviews of Perfect Software:
I loved this book. It is a must read for anyone who is managing or working in software testing.It explains the true issues with software testers, developers and managers, all who have their own perspective on software and deadlines. It also helps accentuate the need for intelligent testing and human decision making.I will recommend it to my fellow testers!! - Dawn Wielgus
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When I read this book, I had more than 10 years of experience in software development and testing, and I immensely benefited from studying this book. I highly recommend it to anyone, who is testing, or programming, or simply deals with software products (who doesn’t these days?) - and regardless from how long you’ve been in the industry. Among many insights, Gerald Weinberg very intelligibly exposes thinking and responsibilities of people in different positions - programmer, tester, test manager, product owner, business manager. That gives a unique perspective outside of one’s own job experiences.Yes, this awesome book is not quite about testing techniques and methodologies. And yet, if I had to recommend only one book for reading on software testing, I’d suggest this one: because it makes you understand the purposes, the roles, and the context. Many seasoned QA folks claim that they knew all of this already - and I'd reply: yes, intuitively. The book helps to get conscious about your knowledge.
For each aspect in testing, the author describes a lot of patterns how it might go wrong. As in the proverb: a smart person learns from their mistakes; a wise person learns from smart one's mistakes. The book grants this wisdom. - Albert Gareev
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This is a great book in many aspects. It allows to tie together many different aspects of testing. Reading the book gives an integrated picture of testing from many different viewpoints.The core take-aways for me were:- testing is first of all using a brain- testing is needed because people are human- testing is process of digging for information while having a limited time- quite a large amount of information about a product and development process could be gathered really quickly- process of testing is best driven by information obtained in the process of testing- significance of bugs is context dependentand many, many othersThe real gems for me were chapters 15 and 16: “Preventing testing from growing more difficult”, and “Testing without machinery”. Just these two chapters are well worth the book.So, I highly recommend the book. This is one of the best books of Jerry Weinberg - Serhiy Yevtushenko
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Really interesting read and I loved every minute of reading it. Not the typical testing book but something every tester should have read. It might jig you back to the fact why we're testing and that we're not just going through the motions. - Oliver Erlewein
About the Author
I've always been interested in helping smart people be happy and productive. To that end, I've published books on human behavior, including Weinberg on Writing: The Fieldstone Method, The Psychology of Computer Programming, Perfect Software and Other Fallacies, and an Introduction to General Systems Thinking. I've also written books on leadership including Becoming a Technical Leader, The Secrets of Consulting (Foreword by Virginia Satir), More Secrets of Consulting, and the nine-volume Quality Software series.
I try to incorporate my knowledge of science, engineering, and human behavior into all of my writing and consulting work (with writers, hi-tech researchers, software engineers, and people whose life-situation could require the use of a service dog). I write novels about such people, including The Aremac Project, Aremac Power, Jigglers, First Stringers, Second Stringers, The Hands of God, Freshman Murders, Where There's a Will There's a Murder, Earth's Endless Effort, and Mistress of Molecules—all about how my brilliant protagonists produce quality work and learn to be happy. My books that are not yet on Leanpub may be found as eBooks at <http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/JerryWeinberg>; on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B000AP8TZ8; and at Barnes and Noble bookstore: http://tinyurl.com/4eudqk5.
Early in my career, I was the architect for the Project Mercury's space tracking network and designer of the world's first multiprogrammed operating system. I won the Warnier Prize, the Stevens Award, and the first Software Testing Professionals' Luminary Award, all for my writing on software quality. I was also elected a charter member of the Computing Hall of Fame in San Diego and chosen for the University of Nebraska Hall of Fame.
But the "award" I'm most proud of is the book, The Gift of Time (Fiona Charles, ed.) written by my student and readers for my 75th birthday. Their stories make me feel that I've been at least partially successful at helping smart people be happy.