ISTQB Online Training Session-1

ISTQB Foundation Level Training
Session 1
By
Manish Verma
B.E., CSQA, ISTQB-CTFL, ISTQB-CTAL
www.softwaretestingmentor.com

What is ISTQB
ISTQB® (International Software Testing Qualifications Board) was
founded in November 2002 and is a not-for-profit association legally
registered in Belgium.
ISTQB® (International Software Testing Qualifications Board) has
defined the "ISTQB® Certified Tester" scheme that has become the
world-wide leader in the certification of competences in software
testing.
ISTQB® is an organization based on volunteer work by hundreds of
international testing experts.
For more details visit:
http://www.istqb.org/about-istqb.html

ISTQB Certification Levels
Foundation Level (CTFL)
• Foundation Level qualification is aimed at professionals
who need to demonstrate practical knowledge of the
fundamental concepts of software testing. Includes
people in roles like test designers, test analysts, test
engineers, test consultants, test managers, user
acceptance testers and IT Professionals.
• The Foundation Level qualification is also appropriate
for anyone who needs a basic understanding of
software testing such as project managers, quality
managers, software development managers, business
analysts, IT directors and management consultants.

ISTQB Certification Levels cont.
Advanced Level (CTAL)
o Test Manager
o Test Analyst
o Technical Test Analyst
• The Advanced Level qualification is aimed at people who have achieved an
advanced point in their careers in software testing. This includes people in
roles such as testers, test analysts, test engineers, test consultants, test
managers, etc.
• Advanced Level qualification is also appropriate for anyone who wants a
deeper understanding of software testing, such as project managers,
quality managers, software development managers, business analysts, IT
directors and management consultants.
• To receive Advanced Level certification, candidates must hold the
Foundation Certificate and satisfy the Exam Board which examines them
that they have sufficient practical experience to be considered Advanced
Level qualified.

ISTQB Certification Levels cont.
Expert Level (CTEL)
Improving the Test Process
Test Management
Test Automation (in progress)
Security Testing (in progress)
Each Expert Level module has clear business outcomes. These
provide information to businesses concerning the expectations
of an expert in a particular subject. The business outcomes map
to the individual Learning Objectives in a particular module.

Foundation level exam pattern
The Foundation Level exam is characterized by:
• 40 multiple-choice questions
• a scoring of 1 point for each correct answer
• a pass mark of 65% (26 or more points)
• a duration of 60 minutes (or 75 minutes for
candidates taking exams that are not in their
native or local language).

What are K-levels?
The Foundation and Advanced exams cover four different K-
levels (K1 to K4):
• K1 (Remember) = The candidate should remember or
recognize a term or a concept.
• K2 (Understand) = The candidate should select an
explanation for a statement related to the question topic.
• K3 (Apply) = The candidate should select the correct
application of a concept or technique and apply it to a
given context.
• K4 (Analyze) = The candidate can separate information
related to a procedure or technique into its constituent
parts for better understanding and can distinguish between
facts and inferences.

Why is testing necessary(k2)
• As we all are human beings and human beings make mistakes
during development.
• Some of the errors do not impact much on our day to day life and
can be ignored, however some errors are so severe that they can
break the whole system or software. In such kind of situations you
need to take care that such errors are caught well in advance before
deploying the system/software in production environment.
Examples:
• Net banking websites or ATMs should be thoroughly tested to
maintain bank credibility.
• Air traffic control system is very critical system which needs to be
thoroughly tested before live deployment as human lives are
dependent on it.

Causes of software defects(k2)
• If someone makes an error or mistake in using
the software, this may lead directly to a
problem - the software is used incorrectly and
so does not behave as we expected.
• People design and build the software and they
can make mistakes during the design and
build.
• These mistakes mean that there are flaws in
the software itself. These are called defects or
sometimes bugs or faults.

Role of testing in software development,
maintenance and operation (k2)
• Human errors can cause a defect or fault to be introduced at any
stage within the SDLC and, depending upon the consequences of
the mistake, the results can be trivial or catastrophic.
• Rigorous testing is necessary during development and maintenance
to identify defects, in order to reduce failures in the operational
environment and increase the quality of the operational system.
• Executing tests helps us move towards improved quality of product
and service
• Processes are also checked, for example by audit. A variety of
methods may be used to check work, some of which are done by
the author of the work and some by others to get an independent
view.

Testing and quality (k2)
• Testing helps us to measure the quality of
software in terms of the number of defects
found, the tests run, and the system covered
by the tests.
• We can do this for both the functional
attributes of the software (for example,
printing a report correctly) and for the non-
functional software requirements and
characteristics (for example, printing a report
quickly enough).

What is testing(k2)
• Software Testing is a process that consists of
all test life cycle activities like static and
dynamic testing, planning, preparation and
evaluation of software products to determine
that the software products satisfy customers
requirements and are fit for customers use.
• Software Testing is done to find software
defects or failures in advance.

Seven testing principles(k2)
• Principle 1: Testing shows presence of defects
Testing can show that defects are present, but cannot prove that there are
no defects. Testing reduces the probability of undiscovered defects
remaining in the software but, even if no defects are found, it is not a
proof of correctness.
• Principle 2: Exhaustive testing is impossible
Testing everything (all combinations of inputs and preconditions) is not
feasible except for trivial cases. Instead of exhaustive testing, we use risks
and priorities to focus testing efforts.
• Principle 3: Early testing
Testing activities should start as early as possible in the software or system
development life cycle and should be focused on defined objectives.

Seven testing principles cont.
• Principle 4: Defect clustering
A small number of modules contain most of the defects
discovered during pre- release testing or show the most
operational failures.
• Principle 5: Pesticide paradox
If the same tests are repeated over and over again,
eventually the same set of test cases will no longer find any
new bugs. To overcome this 'pesticide paradox', the test
cases need to be regularly reviewed and revised, and new
and different tests need to be written to exercise different
parts of the software or system to potentially find more
defects.

Seven testing principles cont.
• Principle 6: Testing is context dependent
Testing is done differently in different contexts.
For example, safety-critical software is tested
differently from an e-commerce site.
• Principle 7: Absence-of-errors fallacy
Finding and fixing defects does not help if the
system built is unusable and does not fulfill the
users' needs and expectations.

Fundamental test process (k1)
• Planning and control
• Analysis and design
• Implementation and execution
• Evaluating exit criteria and reporting
• Test closure activities

Planning and control
During test planning, we make sure we understand the goals and objectives of the
customers, stakeholders, and the project, and the risks which testing is intended to
address.
Test planning has the following major tasks
• Determine the scope and risks and identify the objectives of testing
• Determine the test approach
• Determine the required test resources
• Schedule test analysis and design tasks, test implementation, execution and
evaluation
• Determine the exit criteria
Test control has the following major tasks:
• Measure and analyze the results of reviews and testing
• Monitor and document progress, test coverage and exit criteria

Test analysis and design
Test analysis and design has the following major tasks
• Review the test basis (such as the product risk analysis,
requirements, architecture, design specifications, and interfaces),
examining the specifications for the software we are testing.
• Identify test conditions based on analysis of test items, their
specifications, and what we know about their behavior and
structure.
• Design the tests
• Evaluate testability of the requirements and system.
If the requirements just say 'the software needs to respond quickly
enough' that is not testable, because 'quick enough' may mean
different things to different people. A more testable requirement
would be 'the soft ware needs to respond in 5 seconds with 20
people logged on'.
• Design the test environment set-up and identify any required
infrastructure and tools.

Test implementation and execution
During test implementation and execution, we take the test conditions and make
them into test cases and set up the test environment.
Test implementation and execution have the following major tasks
Implementation:
• Develop and prioritize our test cases, using test design techniques like BVA,EP
• Create test suites from the test cases for efficient test execution.
• Implement and verify the environment.
Execution:
• Execute the test suites and individual test cases
• Log the outcome of test execution
• Compare actual results
• Where there are differences between actual and expected results, report
discrepancies as incidents.

Evaluating exit criteria and reporting
Evaluating exit criteria is the activity where test execution
is assessed against the defined objectives. This should be
done for each test level, as for each we need to know
whether we have done enough testing.
Evaluating exit criteria has the following major tasks
• Check test logs against the exit criteria specified in test
planning
• Assess if more tests are needed or if the exit criteria
specified should be changed
• Write a test summary report for stakeholders

Test closure activities
During test closure activities, we collect data from completed test
activities to consolidate experience, including checking and filing
testware, and analyzing facts and numbers.
Test closure activities include the following major tasks:
• Check which planned deliverables we actually delivered and ensure
all incident reports have been resolved through defect repair or
deferral.
• Finalize and archive testware, such as scripts, the test environment,
and any other test infrastructure, for later reuse.
• Hand over testware to the maintenance organization who will
support the software and make any bug fixes or maintenance
changes, for use in con firmation testing and regression testing.
• Evaluate how the testing went and analyze lessons learned for
future releases and projects.

Thank you!!!

ISTQB Online Training Session-1

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ISTQB Online Training Session-1