Dragons Out

I have made arrangements that I can take preorders for both the English and Finnish versions of the Dragons Out book. By preordering at this time you will help with the production costs of the book. So if you are anyway thinking of ordering the book (one or many copies) why not preorder?

I use the same price for the book as during the crowdfunding campaign in autumn 2019. So, the price for 1 copy of the book including taxes and shipping to anywhere in the world is 40€.

If you want to preorder, contact me via the Contact Form on the www.dragonsout.com web page (on the left). We will agree on the details and I will send you an invoice.

The situation with publishers is promising. I have several good offers and expect to able to sign contracts very soon. The publishing date will depend on further discussions with the publishers.

This pondering about the importance of testing was on my Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign page. Here it is for all of you to read!

The world is full of software. It is hard to live a day without using software in some form or another. Some software works on its own (like games), some enable services (like online banks) and some are a crucial part of physical products (like cars or planes). The more critical or complex the software is the better quality it has to be. Companies need great software to differentiate from the competition. Software testing is the key approach to creating this great quality.
The lack of software developers, or coders, is in the news all the time. You have your coding schools, and other such initiatives to get children into coding at a young age. Which is very good, of course, also from the testing point of view. All coding includes some testing. What software testing professionals always notice, however, is that software testing is more than the testing done…

The first chapter of the Dragons Out book can be read as a very nice EuroSTAR Huddle ebook https://huddle.eurostarsoftwaretesting.com/resources/other/dragons-out/

I'm happy about the cooperation with EuroSTAR software testing conferences organization about this ebook. Readers at the Huddle have access to all sorts of interesting software testing related content, and now my Dragons Out book is featured there, too!

Of course, the full book (ebook or printed version) will only be available through the publishing of the whole book. Speaking of which, I have a very interesting discussion going on with several English publishers and expect to have a publishing agreement in a few weeks.

This is a slightly edited republish of the Dragons Out team introduction from the Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign page. The team is, of course, me as the author and Adri as the illustrator. Read on to learn more about our background.
I am well versed in writing in both English and Finnish. I am a co-author of the Agile Testing Foundations bookhttps://amazon.com/author/karikakkonen responsible for 1/7 of the book content. I am a fluent blog writer in Finnish and English, which you can see from the links at my home page https://www.iki.fi/kari2. Professionally, as a consultant, I also get to write very often some extremely comprehensive reports in Finnish and English.
I have dedicated my professional life to bringing better testing into the world. Most of all this is visible via my volunteer activity as the elected Secretary of ISTQB, the largest software testing association in the world, based in Brussels, Belgium. Previously I acted as the Treasurer of ISTQB. I am also a founding member…

This blog post is a republish of how I described the book last autumn in the Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign. It gives some depth to the book.

The book tells a growth story of two 10-year old children, Laura and Tom, from kids into knight apprentices.They learn about dragons and knights fighting those dragons, and get into real action themselves, too. They get help from male and female knights and a wise old sage. The stories take place in a setting resembling medieval Europe. As these fantasy stories unfold,I explain to the readers the software development and testing world in analogies or parallels. Each chapter introduces another type of dragon, which represents a software defect/bug in the real world. Knights represent software testers and developers. Villagers and the two children represent software users. And so on. Everything is an analogy. Obviously, the knights and villagers want the dragons out of their towns and villages, hence also the name of the book “Dragons Out!”.
Here is…

Today, I'd like to share a bit of Chapter 2 with all of you.

Before that some news. I have interesting discussions going on with both English and Finnish publishers. Let's see which publishers I end up with. As for the pictures in the book, priority 3 illustration is almost done. Here is one.


And now, to the sample text from Chapter 2. Enjoy!


There was also a little boy, Tom. He had come to Forest Castle to spend the summer with his Aunt Rachel. His parents were busy this summer, so Tom’s mother had persuaded her sister to take care of Tom in the summer months. Tom spent his time playing with other children at the palisade. The logs formed a fine maze to play tag or hide and seek. There were holes here and there through which a small child could squeeze. Awesome secret doors in the maze! However, when Tom saw the knights arrive, he found a new interest. The knights' shiny armor and sharp weapons were nice to admire. Tom began to spend his days near the knights.
Yellowbeard a…