Welcome to my bookshelf! Here I present my favorite books that helped me grow as a professional and as a person. I earn a small commission per sale so if you want to support me further, please check out these awesome titles. Otherwise feel free to get to know me better and have some inspiration here. 🙂
I missed a great addition? Feel free to drop me a line. I’m always keen on new books for my shelf.
The Cucumber Book
This one was my little pal during my first position as a QA engineer. It does not only do a great job explaining the Cucumber-framework, but it manages to teach you basic principles of test automation and Behavior Driven Development, too, making this book a great guide to test automation for all professional levels.
The first release is based on Ruby, but a Java-version is available, too. (Of course I have both. 😉)
Available 🇺🇸 here and 🇪🇺 here.
Cucumber Recipes
Here you get many advanced real world ideas to extend your Cucumber-fu. Want to set up a CI or get your hands dirty with mobile test automation? Or do you want to see how to test the serial interface of an Arduino device? Here you go!
Available 🇺🇸 here and 🇪🇺 here.
Clean Code
The handbook of agile software craftsmanship by Robert C. Martin was a recommendation during my earlier days of software development, but it contains great advice for test automation engineers, too. With wits and humour, it guides you through your journey of writing readable and easily maintainable code.
Available 🇺🇸 here and 🇪🇺 here.
Books to learn the basics
During my early months of test automation, I successfully took the ISTQB Foundation Level – Challenge. Training was hard, but thankfully I had 🇩🇪 this one by my side.
For my fellow English-speaking readers, 🇺🇸 here’s the English version by the same authors.
Audio books on my phone (WIP)
Paperbacks and hardcovers are great, but sometimes you want to learn something new while you close your eyes and relax. This is where audio books come in handy. For me personally these often revolve around soft skills and insights on a higher level rather than detailed tech topics, because it’s rather difficult to recap on details in an audio book. But for higher level contexts they are just perfect.
So let’s get started with my top recommendations.
The Art of War
On my journey to leadership land one of the first things I had to learn was how to become convincing. Sun Tzu’s The Art of War helped me to understand that arguments and conflicts are rational rather than emotional. This change of perspective helped me to grow into a more convincing and proactive person.
Here’s the German version I use, and here’s the English version presented by Aidan „Petyr Littlefinger Baelish“ Gillen.
Confucius – The Analects
The legendary philosopher and teacher Confucius lived in China during politically challenging times. That caused him to build up a wide knowledge base about what makes a great leader and what’s important in a leadership position. Despite its old age, many of his lectures still apply in modern management.
Here it is:
German version English version
