ISTQB® CTAL (Certified Tester Advanced Level) Technical Test Analyst v2019

This 3-day course will suit software testing professionals who wish to build on the techniques taught at Foundation Level in order to become highly-skilled technical testers. It includes a number of practical exercises to reinforce the extra techniques taught. The course explores ways to plan, prepare and test using technical test techniques across the Software Development Lifecycle. It deals extensively with component testing, white box testing, static analysis, non functional testing and test automation.

Obsah školení

Business Outcomes

An Advanced Level Technical Test Analyst can:

• recognize and classify the typical risks associated with the performance, security, reliability, portability and maintainability of software systems;
• provide technical elements to the planning, design and execution of tests for mitigating performance, security, reliability, portability and maintainability risks;
• select and apply appropriate white-box test techniques to ensure that tests provide an adequate level of confidence, based on design coverage;
• effectively participate in reviews with developers and software architects applying knowledge of typical defects in the code and architecture;
• improve the quality characteristics of code and architecture by making use of different analysis techniques;
• outline the costs and benefits to be expected from introducing particular types of test automation.
• select appropriate tools to automate technical testing tasks;
• understand the technical issues and concepts in applying test automation.

Learning Objectives

• Summarize the generic risk factors that the Technical Test Analyst typically needs to consider.
• Summarize the activities of the Technical Test Analyst within a risk-based approach for testing activities.
• Write test cases from a given specification item by applying the Statement testing test technique to achieve a defined level of coverage.
• Write test cases from a given specification item by applying the Modified Condition/Decision Coverage (MC/DC) test technique to achieve coverage.
• Write test cases from a given specification item by applying the Multiple Condition testing test technique to achieve a defined level of coverage.
• Write test cases from a given specification item by applying McCabe's Simplified Baseline Method.
• Understand the applicability of API testing and the kinds of defects it finds.
• Select an appropriate white-box test technique according to a given project situation.
• Use control flow analysis to detect if code has any control flow anomalies.
• Explain how data flow analysis is used to detect if code has any data flow anomalies.
• Propose ways to improve the maintainability of code by applying static analysis.
• Explain the use of call graphs for establishing integration testing strategies.
• Apply dynamic analysis to achieve a specified goal.
• For a particular project and system under test, analyze the non-functional requirements and write the respective sections of the test plan.
• Given a particular product risk, define the particular non-functional test type(s) which are most appropriate.
• Understand and explain the stages in an application’s lifecycle where non-functional tests should be applied.
• For a given scenario, define the types of defects you would expect to find by using non-functional testing types.
• Explain the reasons for including security testing in a test strategy and/or test approach.
• Explain the principal aspects to be considered in planning and specifying security tests.
• Explain the reasons for including reliability testing in a test strategy and/or test approach.
• Explain the principal aspects to be considered in planning and specifying reliability tests.
• Explain the reasons for including performance testing in a test strategy and/or test approach.
• Explain the principal aspects to be considered in planning and specifying performance efficiency tests.
• Explain the reasons for including maintainability testing in a testing strategy and/or test approach.
• Explain the reasons for including portability tests in a testing strategy and/or test approach.
• Explain the reasons for compatibility testing in a testing strategy and/or test approach.
• Explain why review preparation is important for the Technical Test Analyst.
• Analyze an architectural design and identify problems according to a checklist provided in the syllabus.
• Analyze a section of code or pseudo-code and identify problems according to a checklist provided in the syllabus.
• Summarize the activities that the Technical Test Analyst performs when setting up a test automation project.
• Summarize the differences between data-driven and keyword-driven automation.
• Summarize common technical issues that cause automation projects to fail to achieve the planned return on investment.
• Construct keywords based on a given business process.
• Summarize the purpose of tools for fault seeding and fault injection.
• Summarize the main characteristics and implementation issues for performance testing tools.
• Explain the general purpose of tools used for web-based testing.
• Explain how tools support the practice of model-based testing.
• Outline the purpose of tools used to support component testing and the build process.
• Outline the purpose of tools used to support mobile application testing.

Exam Structure

The CTAL (Certified Tester Advanced Level) Technical Test Analystt exam is comprised of 45 multiple-choice questions, with a pass mark grade of 65% to be completed within 120 minutes. Participants that take the exam not in their spoken language, will receive additional 25% time, for a total of 150 minutes.

Module	Number of questions	Exam length (minutes)	Exam length +25% (minutes)
CTAL (Certified Tester Advanced Level) Technical Test Analyst	45	120	150