Top 10 Books for Getting Started with Automation Testing

"There is no friend as loyal as a book." — Ernest Hemingway

Books have always been a friend to mankind for a long time. Digitalization has changed our way of reading, however, the pleasure and knowledge gained from hardcover books is incomparable. But when it comes to finding out the top books, it may require a lot of research. Everyone is very much inclined towards the digital world, always engrossed in computer screens doing their work, and when they get stuck they have to again withstand the screen to find out the solution.

Reading hardcover books gives relief. So, here we have compiled a list of the best books for automation testers. Click on each image to learn more.

1. Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship by Robert C. Martin

The first step you take towards becoming an automation test engineer is learning to code. Coding is not the challenge for most developers; developing a clean and readable code is. This book is the first book for every automation tester and a beginner in development. In this book, you’ll get to know about meaningful names, comments, formatting, error structures, classes, systems, concurrency, emergence, and a lot more.

2. Just Enough Software Test Automation by Daniel J. Mosley and Bruce A. Posey

This book is just enough for every test automation engineer. Loved by every developer, from beginners to advanced-level automation test engineers, in this book you’ll learn what and when to automate, test requirements, creating a test case, automating unit testing, development of automation test script, automated integration testing, automated regression testing, and a huge mountain of automation-related topics.

3. Implementing Automated Software Testing: How to Save Time and Lower Costs While Raising Quality by Elfriede Dustin, Thom Garrett, and Bernie Gauf

As the name suggests, this book will help you implement automated software testing (AST) while maintaining quality and lowering cost and reducing time. My famous chapter in the book is, "Why Software Testing Fails and Pitfalls to Avoid." Along with this, you’ll also learn some lessons with this book, like how to automate, the testing of AST framework, and developing a test automation strategy.

4. Software Test Automation: Effective Use of Test Execution Tools by Mark Fewster and Dorothy Graham

In this book, you’ll learn various techniques for automating test execution, scripting techniques, architecture, metrics, and the implementation of various tools. On top of it, you’ll also get to learn various key points from the valuable case studies. This book is pure gold for all the test automation engineers out there!

5. The Agile Samurai by Jonathan Rasmusson

If you’re working as an automation test engineer or planning to be one, then there is no need to introduce Agile as automation testing is the first love of Agile developers. This book will help you to understand Agile in detail. It will make you familiar with continuous integration, test-driven development, unit testing, the Agile Manifesto, Agile planning, and a lot more.

6. Experiences of Test Automation: Case Studies of Software Test Automation by Dorothy Graham and Mark Fewster

In this collection of various automation implementation stories, you’ll learn from others’ experiences. Different people have solved different automation problems in different manners; learn from this book how they implemented it, challenges they faced, solutions, and much more.

7. Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams by Lisa Crispin and Janet Gregory

You’ll learn about various organizational challenges, Agile testing quadrants, why we need to automate our tests, what holds us back from automating tests, an Agile approach to test automation, what can we automate, as well as what shouldn’t be automated. 

8. Refactoring: Improving the Design of Existing Code by Martin Fowler and Kent Beck

Learn more about refactoring, figure out what bad code "smells" like, build tests, learn about the JUnit framework, making methods call simpler, simplifying conditional expressions and more in this essential addition to the list. You’ll also get to learn about all the ways by which you can improve your existing code to make it more readable and avoid bugs.

9. The Selenium Guidebook by Dave Haeffner

No one can deny the fact that Selenium is the true love of automation testers. But nothing comes without a cost: Selenium also poses a lot of challenges for automation testers. In The Selenium Guidebook, you’ll learn how to use Selenium step-by-step.

10. Beautiful Testing: Leading Professionals Reveal How They Improve Software edited by Time Riley and Adam Gouchel

The three parts of the book, "Beautiful Testers," "Beautiful Process," and "Beautiful Tools," sum up what this book is all about. Learn all about testing and quality assurance in a beautiful yet detailed manner with this amazing book.

If you haven’t read some of these or all of these books, it’s time to read them. If you’re looking for more books to read on software testing, find the top 10 books for software testers in our blog.

Let us know what you are reading.

Happy reading and happy testing!