The Certified Software Quality Engineer Handbook, Second Edition

by Linda Westfall

This handbook contains information and guidance that supports all of the topics of the 2016 version of the CSQE Body of Knowledge (BoK) upon which ASQ's Certified Software Quality Engineer (CSQE) exam is based. Armed with the knowledge presented in this handbook to complement the required years of actual work experience, qualified software quality practitioners may feel confident they have taken appropriate steps in preparation for the ASQ CSQE exam. However, the goals for this handbook go well beyond it being a CSQE exam preparation guide. Its author designed this handbook not only to help the software quality engineers, but as a resource for software development practitioners, project managers, organizational managers, other quality practitioners, and other professionals who need to understand the aspects of software quality that impact their work. It can also be used to benchmark their (or their organization s) understanding and application of software quality principles and practices against what is considered a cross-industry good practice baseline. After all, taking stock of strengths and weaknesses, software engineers can develop proactive strategies to leverage software quality as a competitive advantage. New software quality engineers can use this handbook to gain an understanding of their chosen profession. Experienced software quality engineers can use this handbook as a reference source when performing their daily work. It is also hoped that trainers and educators will use this handbook to help propagate software quality engineering knowledge to future software practitioners and managers. Finally, this handbook strives to establish a common vocabulary that software quality engineers, and others in their organizations can use to communicate about software and quality. Thus increasing the professionalism of the industry and eliminating the wastes that can result from ambiguity and misunderstandings.

Genres: Nonfiction

788 pages, Hardcover

First published September 28, 2009

Reviews

[Darshan Shetty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I used this book as my only study material to pass ASQ's Certified Software Quality Engineer last week.

The book is divided in 7 Parts - General Knowledge, Software Quality Management, Systems and Software Engineering Processes, Project Management, Software Metrics and Analysis, Software Verification and Validation and Software Configuration Management.

In all, the book has 28 Chapters and 758 pages.

As someone who comes from Hardware background and does not have a whole lot of end to end process exposure in how mature Software companies handle Software development, all the way from eliciting requirements to software maintenance along with organizational level processes such as CMMI, audits, situational leadership, QMS and Ethical/Legal Compliance etc - this book did a great job of introducing them all to me holistically and tying them all together.

I do have some gibes with this book though

I really thought with such diverse topics covered in the book, the table of content was not deep enough to serve its purpose.
The book could be more coherent. At several spots, I saw the same topics repeated in different chapters for eg - V&V Plan, Reliability, etc
The book provides a lot of diagrams to explain the texts which is appreciated but more details can be added to the diagram as an improvement - eg. Branching and Merging.
It also came with a CD containing 3 Test question sets with solutions. I thought the test questions were quite different from the ones asked in the real exam. I only completed 1 of the question sets, as I didn't have much time to prep.

All and All, the book served the objective I had in mind when I picked it up ie - Introduce me holistically to the Software Development Process and help me pass the exam - so I can't say the book is ineffective.

Recommended if you are taking the CSQE exam.

[nae · Rating 3 out of 5]

i’ve had nightmares over this

[Warren Alford · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author does a great job of covering the ASQ SQE BOK. I also like her "step-by-step" process breakdown in her examples. These expanded tutorials can easily be plugged into any organization with minimal changes.

I recommend this book to anyone preparing for the ASQ exam or just curious about software development. A very good book.

[Sandeep · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good Handbook for those who are preparing for CSQE!