Books on Exploratory Testing

This last week I attended the first Exploratory Testing Research Summit held in Melbourne Florida. The summit was attended by:

• James Bach


• Jonathan Bach


• Scott Barber


• Michael Bolton


• Elisabeth Hendrickson


• Cem Kaner


• Michael Kelly


• Jonathan Kohl


• James Lyndsay


• Robert Sabourin

Early on in the summit, we were asked to list the books that had influenced how we do our exploratory testing. The following is that list of books (translated from a huge stack of post-it notes -- so forgive any mistakes).

• A Kick in the Seat of the Pants by Roger Von Oech


• A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle


• A System of Logic: Ratiocinative and Inductive by John Stuart Mill


• A WHACK ON THE SIDE OF THE HEAD: How You Can Be More Creative by Roger Von Oech


• Abductive Inference: Computation, Philosophy, Technology by John R. Josephson (Editor), Susan G. Josephson (Editor)


• An Introduction to General Systems Thinking by Gerald M. Weinberg


• An Introduction to Probability Theory and Its Applications by William Feller


• Applications of Case Study Research by Robert K. Yin


• Artifact in behavioral research by Robert Rosenthal


• Attack and Defense by Mark Dvoretsky, Artur Yusupa, Artur Yusupov


• Becoming a Technical Leader: An Organic Problem-Solving Approach by Gerald M. Weinberg


• Beyond Constructivism: Models and Modeling Perspectives on Mathematics Problem Solving, Learning, and Teaching by Richard A. Lesh (Editor), Helen M. Doerr (Editor)


• Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell


• Cognition, Information Processing, and Psychophysics: Basic Issues by Stephen W. Link, Hans-Georg Geissler, James T. Townsend


• College Reading and Study Strategies by Dianna L. Van Blerkom, Patricia I. Mulcahy-Ernt


• Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge by Karl R. Popper


• Conned Again, Watson! Cautionary Tales of Logic, Math, and Probability by Colin Bruce


• Creative Whack Pack by Roger Von Oech


• Debugging: The Nine Indispensable Rules for Finding Even the Most Elusive Software and Hardware Problems by David J. Agans


• Expect the Unexpected (Or You Won't Find It): A Creativity Tool Based on the Ancient Wisdom of Heraclitus by Roger Von Oech


• Experimenter effects in behavioral research (expanded paperback, 1982) by Robert Rosenthal


• Exploratory data analysis by John Wilder Tukey


• Exploratory Research in the Social Sciences by Robert A. Stebbins


• Exploring Requirements: Quality Before Design by Donald C. Gause, Gerald M. Weinberg


• Feynman Lectures On Physics by Richard Phillips Feynman


• How to Mind Map by Tony Buzan


• Human Inference: Strategies and Shortcomings of Social Judgement by Richard Nisbett, Lee Ross


• I Read It, but I Don't Get It: Comprehension Strategies for Adolescent Readers by Cris Tovani


• Indexing Books by Nancy C. Mulvany


• Inference to the Best Explanation by PETER LIPTON


• Inside Outside Upside Down by Stan Berenstain, Jan Berenstain


• Introducing Semiotics by Paul Cobley


• Introduction to Measurement Theory by Mary J. Allen, Wendy M. Yen


• JUnit Recipes: Practical Methods for Programmer Testing by J. B. Rainsberger


• Juran on Quality by Design: The New Steps for Planning Quality into Goods and Services by J. M. Juran


• Kendall's Advanced Theory of Statistics by Maurice Kendall, Alan Stuart, J. Keith Ord


• Making Use: Scenario-Based Design of Human-Computer Interactions by John M. Carroll


• Managing Your Documentation Projects by JoAnn T. Hackos


• Nonparametrics: Statistical Methods Based on Ranks by E.L. Lehmann, H.J.M. D'Abrera


• On a Roll : Or How a Kid from the Bronx Started with Hot Dogs and Wound Up Making a Fortune by Howard Jonas


• Out of the Crisis by W. Edwards Deming


• Outlines of Scepticism by Sextus Empiricus


• Play as exploratory learning by Mary Reilly


• Pour Your Heart into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time by Howard Schultz


• Proofs and Refutations: The Logic of Mathematical Discovery by Imre Lakatos (Editor), John Worrall (Editor), Elie Zahar (Editor)


• Psychophysics: The Fundamentals by George A. Gescheider


• Quality Software Management: Systems Thinking by Gerald M. Weinberg


• Radical Constructivism: A Way of Learning by E. GLASERSFELD


• Schaum's Outlines


• Science as a Questioning Process by N Sanitt


• Secrets of Consulting: A Guide to Giving and Getting Advice Successfully by Gerald M. Weinberg


• Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono


• Softwar: An Intimate Portrait of Larry Ellison and Oracle by Matthew Symonds, Larry Ellison


• Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life by Terry Brooks


• Statistical Principles In Experimental Design by Benjamin J Winer, Donald R Brown, Kenneth M Michels


• Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman by Richard P. Feynman


• Teaching With the Brain in Mind by Eric Jensen


• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey


• The Cancer Code: How a Journey through Leukemia Led to Software that Changed the Way People Work by Mike Jetter, Bettina Jetter, Hobart Swan


• The Macintosh Way by Guy Kawasaki


• The New Brain: How the Modern Age Is Rewiring Your Mind by Richard Restak


• The PayPal Wars: Battles with eBay, the Media, the Mafia, and the Rest of Planet Earth by Eric M. Jackson


• The Physics of Vibrations and Waves by H. J. Pain


• The Pleasure of Finding Things Out and the Meaning of It All by Richard Phillips Feynman


• The Sciences of the Artificial by Herbert A. Simon


• The Soul Of A New Machine by Tracy Kidder


• The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas S. Kuhn


• The Talmud


• The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements by Eric Hoffer


• The Writings of Charles S. Peirce


• Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative Thinking Techniques by Michael Michalko


• Thinking Styles by Robert J. Sternberg


• Time Pressure and Stress in Human Judgment and Decision Making by A.J. Maule (Editor), O. Svenson (Editor)


• To Engineer Is Human: The Role of Failure in Successful Design by Henry Petroski


• Total Quality Control by Armand V. Feigenbaum


• UML


• What Does It All Mean?: A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy by Thomas Nagel


• What If....Collected Thought Experiments in Philosophy by Peg Tittle


• Why Art Cannot Be Taught: A Handbook for Art Students by James Elkins


• Working Effectively with Legacy Code by Michael Feathers


• Writing Effective Use Cases by Alistair Cockburn

Know of another good book on Exploratory Testing? Add a comment below...