Training: ISTQB Courses

This 2-day course is aimed at anyone wishing to attain the ISTQB Agile Tester qualification. This qualification builds upon the Foundation syllabus and provides essential skills for all agile testers.

Agile testing is a relatively new approach to software testing that follows the principles of agile software development as outlined in the Agile Manifesto. A tester on an Agile project will work differently than one working on a traditional project. Testers must understand the values and principles that underpin Agile projects, and how they are an integral part of the whole-team approach together with developers and business representatives.

This course will give the Agile tester the knowledge they need to be an active member of an Agile team and how to achieve high performance within the team.

The course is highly practical addressing the following areas:

• The fundamentals of Agile Software Development and the various Agile approaches that are recognised and how these embrace the 4 values and 12 principles of the Agile Manifesto.
• How Agile projects differ from traditional projects and what methods are implemented to demonstrate the status of testing throughout the project.
• Practicing the role of the tester on an Agile project within a Scrum team and how to contribute to; estimating user stories, assessing quality risks, generating testable acceptance criteria and interpreting relevant information to support testing activities.
• How to use the various Black-Box techniques and apply the Exploratory Testing approach within an Agile project.
• Understand the various tools that support testing in an Agile project and how these differ from a traditional project.

The ISTQB Agile Tester - Foundation Level exam is a 1-hour, 40 question multiple choice exam. The pass mark is 65% (26/40). You must hold the ISTQB Foundation certificate in software testing in order to sit this exam.

This 2-day course is aimed at anyone wishing to attain the ASTQB* Mobile Tester qualification. This qualification builds upon the Foundation syllabus and provides essential skills for all mobile testers.

A mobile app is a software application designed to run on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. Most such devices are sold with several apps bundled as pre-installed software, such as a web browser, email client, calendar, and an app for buying music or other media. Mobile applications are becoming part of our every day lives and many organisations are developing applications to run on mobile devices to complement their desktop applications.

This course will give the Mobile Tester the knowledge skills needed to test mobile applications and to understand the differences and similarities in testing mobile applications to conventional applications. Also explained are the differences between native, web and hybrid applications.

The course is highly practical addressing the following areas:

• Introduction to Mobile Testing
  This section looks what mobile apps are and the challenges that face the tester when testing native, web and hybrid apps. It also explains the necessary skills and equipment that are required to adequately test mobile applications.

• Test Planning and Design for Mobile Apps
  This section focuses on how we should plan and design tests for mobile applications, assessing coverage goals and determining the test approach for each mobile project. The section also looks at how quality risks differ in mobile projects and the type of risks to identify early in the lifecycle.

• Quality Characteristics for Mobile Testing
  Functional testing is important in all applications including mobile apps. Specific tests to consider include testing for correctness, accuracy, security and interoperability. Non-functional testing for mobile applications becomes even more important. Testing characteristics such as performance, usability, portability and reliability will be discussed.

• Environments and Tools for Mobile Testing
  There are many tools available to specifically assist with the testing of mobile apps/ devices and these will be applied. Generic tools might also be applicable depending on the type of environment being used; real devices, simulators, emulators and the cloud.

• Future Proofing
  Mobile devices have become part of everyday life whether it be a smartphone, tablet or wearable device. The future for mobile applications is only going to grow and expectations from customers are becoming higher. Testing needs to consider the future, having a good testing architecture, which allows future growth and efficient maintenance.

The ASTQB Mobile Tester - Foundation Level exam is a 1-hour, 40 question multiple-choice exam. The pass mark is 65% (26/40). It is recommended that attendees hold the ISTQB Foundation Level certificate, especially if they intend to take the ASTQB Mobile Tester exam, but non-certificate holders can benefit from the course and take the exam.

* Note: ASTQB is the American Software Testing Qualification Board. This is a member board of ISTQB. Currently ISTQB are looking at creating a Mobile Tester Qualification but this will be some time in the future. Since the ASTQB Mobile Tester resembles the ISTQB syllabus format, it is anticipated that ISTQB might adopt the ASTQB syllabus as its own or base the ISTQB syllabus on the ASTQB syllabus. With this in mind and because of the demand for this qualification, Lloyd Roden Consultancy Ltd has decided to offer the ASTQB Mobile Tester qualification. This course was accredited by the ASTQB in March 2017. The course follows ASTQB Mobile Tester Syllabus 2015.

This 4-day course is aimed at Test Analysts wishing to attain a higher qualification in software testing leading on from the ISTQB Foundation Certificate. The TA course builds upon the Foundation syllabus and provides essential skills for every Test Analyst.

The course is highly practical and laptops are recommended. On completion the Test analyst will be able to…

1. Perform the appropriate testing activities based upon the software development lifecycle being used.
2. Determine the proper prioritization of the testing activities based on the information provided by the risk analysis.
3. Select and apply appropriate testing techniques to ensure that tests provide an adequate level of confidence, based upon defined coverage criteria.
        Techniques covered include:
        a. Equivalence partitioning
        b. Boundary value analysis
        c. Decision tables
        d. State transition testing
        e. Use case testing
        f. Classification trees
        g. Pairwise testing
        h. Domain analysis
        i. User stories
        j. Exploratory testing and
        k. Defect based techniques

        Characteristic test techniques include:
        a. Accuracy
        b. Suitability
        c. Interoperability
        d. Usability and
        e. Accessibility

4. Provide the appropriate level of documentation relevant to the testing activities.
5. Determine the appropriate types of functional testing to be performed.
6. Assume responsibility for the usability testing for a given project.
7. Effectively participate in formal and informal reviews with stakeholders, applying knowledge of typical mistakes made in work products.
8. Design and implement a defect classification scheme.
9. Apply tools to support an efficient testing process.

The ISTQB Advanced TA exam is a 3-hour multiple choice exam with the pass mark being 65%. You must hold the ISTQB Foundation certificate in software testing in order to sit this exam.

This 5-day course is aimed at Test Managers wishing to attain a higher qualification in software testing leading on from the ISTQB Foundation Certificate. The TM course builds upon the Foundation syllabus and provides essential skills for every Test Manager.

The course is highly practical and laptops are recommended. On completion the Test manager will be able to…

1. Manage a testing project by implementing the mission, goals and testing processes established for the testing organisation.
2. Organise and lead risk identification and risk analysis sessions and use the results of such sessions for test estimation, planning, monitoring and control. They will learn specific risk mitigation activities to determine residual risk and can report them to project stakeholders so that informed decisions can be made.
3. Create and implement test plans consistent with the organisational policies and test strategies.
4. Estimate test effort and resource usage for projects using a variety of estimation techniques.
5. Continuously monitor and control the test activities to achieve project objectives.
6. Assess and report relevant and timely test status to project stakeholders.
7. Identify skills and resource gaps in their test team and participate in sourcing adequate resources.
8. Identify and plan necessary skills development within their test team.
9. Process a business case for test activities, which outlines the cost and benefits expected.
10. Ensure proper communication within the test team and with other project stakeholders.
11. Participate in and lead test process improvement initiatives.
12. Plan and implement the selection of different types of tools, including open-source and custom-built tools, such that risks, costs, benefits and opportunities are adequately considered.

Utilities, tools and templates will be provided during the course to help the Test Manager in their daily tasks.

The ISTQB Advanced TM exam is a 3-hour multiple choice exam with the pass mark being 65%. You must hold the ISTQB Foundation certificate in software testing in order to sit this exam.

This 3-day course is aimed at Technical Test Analysts wishing to attain a higher qualification in software testing leading on from the ISTQB Foundation Certificate. The TTA course builds upon the Foundation syllabus and provides essential skills for every Technical Test Analyst.

The course is highly practical and on completion the Technical Test Analyst will be able to…

1. Recognise and classify the typical risks associated with the performance, security, reliability, portability and maintainability of software systems.
2. Create test plans which detail the planning, design and execution of tests for mitigating performance, security, reliability, portability and maintainability risks.
3. Select and apply appropriate structural design techniques to ensure that tests provide adequate level of confidence, based upon code coverage and design coverage.
Techniques include:
a. Statement coverage
b. Decision coverage
c. Condition coverage
d. Modified condition coverage
e. Multiple condition coverage
f.  Basis path coverage and
g. API coverage

4. Effectively participate in technical reviews with developers and software architects applying knowledge of typical mistakes made in code and architecture.
5. Recognise risks in code and software architecture and create test plan elements to mitigate those risks through dynamic analysis.
6. Propose improvements to the security, maintainability and testability of code by applying static analysis.
7. Outline the costs and benefits to be expected from introducing particular types of test automation.
8. Select appropriate tools to automate technical testing tasks.
9. Understand the technical issues and concepts in applying test automation, this includes specific issues relating to the use of open-source and custom-built tools as well as issues surrounding the different automation techniques.

The ISTQB Advanced TTA exam is a 2-hour multiple choice exam with the pass mark being 65%. You must hold the ISTQB Foundation certificate in software testing in order to sit this exam.

This 1-day course is aimed at anyone who wants to attain the ISTQB Foundation qualification and wants extra help in preparing for the exam. This includes those who have unfortunately failed the exam previously but do not want to attend another 3-day course, those who have self-studied for the exam and those who would like extra preparation in order to gain more confidence in passing the exam.

• The course provides an overview of the ISTQB Foundation Course, exam techniques, mindmaps to help with revision and a full mock-paper which will highlight areas of potential weakness surrounding your knowledge of the syllabus.

This 1-day course is aimed at anyone who wants to attain the ISTQB Advanced qualifications and would like additional help in preparing for the exam. This includes those who have unfortunately failed the exam previously but do not want to attend another course, those who have self-studied for the exam and those who would like extra preparation in order to gain more confidence in passing the exam.

• The course provides an overview of the ISTQB Advanced Courses, exam techniques and mindmaps to help with revision.
• A full mock-paper which will be marked and individual feedback given. This will highlight areas of potential weakness surrounding your knowledge of the syllabus and will ultimately help focus on key areas for revision.
• Questions are dissected to reveal insight into how the question was constructed, the relation of the question to the scenario, how distracter answers work and the reason for the right answer.
• All ISTQB Advanced Qualification Exam preparation courses are available:
       •  Test Analyst Exam Preparation
       •  Test Manager Exam Preparation
       •  Technical Test Analyst Exam Preparation