Choice Review

A valuable collection of material brought together from government publications, this volume is divided into six ``Books,'' each from a different source. Books 1 and 2 give an overview of software verification, validation, and testing (V,V&T) at managerial and developer levels. Book 3 presents a graph-theoretic software complexity metric and its use. Book 4 presents an excellent, more-than-100-page survey of 30 V,V&T techniques, with examples in most cases. Reading these is an excellent way to be introduced to these techniques, which include algorithm analysis, assertion processing, cause-effect graphing, and analytic modeling. The book is worth having for this section alone. Books 5 and 6 concern software documentation, present an analysis of problems and methods, and outline standards-these sections are valuable. The book is moderately up to date-most references are from the 1970s, but the material on formal verification seemed most out of date. A useful reference and supplement for software engineering and systems analysis courses, supplementing general texts and monographs on software testing such as Boris Beizer's Software System Testing and Quality Assurance (CH, Nov '84) or his Software Testing Techniques (1982). Upper-division undergraduate and graduate students.-H.D. Warner, Western New England College