I give many talks on Testing (more specifically, TDD, BDD, unit testing, etc.) and often get asked for recommended reading on the topic.
I’ll list here some of the resources I remember I’ve read. Beware that some of them I’ve read a long time ago and do not know how well they’ve aged.
I’ll focus solely on books. I know I’ve read useful blog posts in the past, but I haven’t kept track of the most relevant for me, unfortunately.
Working Effectively with Legacy Code, by Michael Feathers
I’ve read this book twice. The first time was shortly after it came out in 2004. It had been only a couple of years since I learned about unit tests and had already felt the pain of writing tests for legacy code. I remember the book helped me a lot through period, and many of its lessons stuck with me.
I’ve read it a 2nd time earlier this year (2022) and believe the book has aged well, and think every developer should read it at some point in their career.
“oh, but I don’t work with legacy code”. If that’s you, just know that the code you wrote this morning may already be considered “legacy”.
Agile Principles Patterns and Practices in C, by Robert C. Martin
This book came out in 2006, and that’s when I think I’ve read it. I remember recommending it to many developers for several years afterward.
I loved the book because it covered OOP, Design Patterns, SOLID principles, and TDD, often writing tests before refactoring code that would eventually surface as a pattern or principle.
I have not revisited this book in many years, but I know that a lot of the things I’ve learned from it have stuck with me.
The Art of Unit Testing, by Roy Osherove
I’ve read this book around the same time as the other two mentioned above. The Amazon link is for the 2nd edition, published in 2013, which I haven’t read (I see there’s also a 3rd edition, with samples in JavaScript).
I recall learning things about fake objects (mocks, stubs, spies), and I remember recommending this book to other developers back then. If memory serves me right, it’s a short book to read and it provides good information for those getting started into the practice.
Fifty Quick Ideas to Improve Your Tests, by Gojko Adzic and David Evans
This one I’ve read earlier this year and enjoyed it very much, as it validated many of the lessons I’ve learned and applied over the years, and it also gave me some new ideas to try out.
The RSpec Book: Behaviour Drien Development with RSpec, Cucumber, and Friends, by David Chelimsky, Dan North, and others
I’ve read this book when I moved from .NET to Ruby on Rails in 2011. I found this book as I was digging more into Rails, Cucumber, RSpec, Testing, BDD, and all that stuff, and it helped me at the time.
I am positive that things I’ve learned there were brought over when I came back to .NET years later, and I also apply it to JavaScript, TypeScript, Cypress.io, Jest, etc.
Is that all?
Those are books that first come to mind when people ask. I’m sure I’ve read others in the last 20 years, but I didn’t use to keep track of it they way I have been in the last few years, and whichever other books I’ve read didn’t stick with me.
I’ve put out several blog posts on the topic of testing, documenting my questions, confusions, learnings, etc., and will continue to do so.
I also have a list of books on the topic on my “to read” list, and I’ll write up posts in case the books deserve it. 🙂
While the books mentioned here have helped me along the way, the single most important that shaped my practice has been actually doing it!
Claudio Lassala's Blog 