April 2014

Welcome to RBCS, Inc.

Dear Reader,

Welcome to our Spring 2014 newsletter.  We've got a good collection of stuff for you below, which I'll briefly introduce here.   

As you might know, I've spent the last year leading an ISTQB working group to develop an Agile Tester Foundation Extension syllabus.  The syllabus is in final edits now, with the beta version having been distributed to accredited training providers.  Our course is ready to be submitted to the ASTQB for accreditation upon formal release of the 2014 ISTQB Foundation Level Extension Agile Tester Syllabus.  The first presentation comes next month.

We celebrate the fifth anniversary of our free monthly webinar sessions.  There have been over 30,000 registrations to these webinars, and the reason is clear: unlike many free webinars, which are infomercials for some product or service, RBCS webinars are practical, fact-based presentations, drawn from my work as a consultant, author, and trainer.  In the coming three months, you can learn new tips for interviewing testers, as well as enjoying a two-session series on testing best--and worst--practices.      

Do you use risk-based testing as part of your overall test strategy?  If so, you'll want to read my article below.  It'll give you some heuristics for selecting appropriate test techniques to cover a quality risk, based on the level of risk associated with it.   

Finally, I want to mention our segment that celebrates a personal achievement for a talented woman from Serbia, the first ISTQB Certified Advanced Level Test Manager in that country. Congratulations, Ivana, on your hard work and excellent achievement.  We're proud to serve the Southeast European region through our partner Masterfield Training.  I hope to meet a number of our stakeholders there when I give my keynote at the upcoming SEETEST conference in Bucharest, Romania, in September 2014. 

Regards,

Rex Black, President

ISTQB Virtual Foundation Level Extension Agile Tester course, created by Rex Black, past President of the International Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB), past President of the American Software Testing Qualifications Board (ASTQB), Chair of the ISTQB Agile Tester Working Group, and co-author of the ISTQB Foundation Level Extension Agile Tester Syllabus, is ideal for testers and test teams preparing for certification.

This hands-on course provides testers and test managers with an understanding of the fundamentals of testing on agile projects. Rex Black addresses how agile software development projects are organized, and the various types of agile development practices in common use. He covers how agile development differs from traditional approaches, how to position testers in an agile organization, fundamental agile testing principles, practices, and processes, and the skills you'll need to excel in an agile environment. You'll learn ways to estimate and organize testing within agile projects, and the application of black-box test techniques, exploratory testing, and risk-based testing on agile projects. You'll also gain a basic understanding of the important testing and test-related tools commonly used on agile projects. This course is designed to be useful, informative, and fun.
 
The objectives of the course are as follows: 

There are no pre-qualifications to attend this course. However, current ISTQB rules read that ISTQB Foundation Extension Agile Tester Certification candidates must hold the ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level Certification.  

written by Rex Black  

In the Pragmatic Risk Analysis and Management process described in books such as Managing the Testing Process, Pragmatic Software Testing, and Advanced Software Testing: Volume 2, I define the following extents of testing, in decreasing order of thoroughness:

• Extensive
• Broad
• Cursory
• Opportunity
• Report bugs only
• None

Risk based testing does not prescribe specific test design techniques to mitigate quality risks based on the level of risk, as the selection of test design technique for a given risk item is subject to many factors. These factors include the suspected defects (what Boris Beizer called the "bug hypothesis"), the technology of the system under test, and so forth. However, risk based testing does give guidance in terms of the level of test design, implementation, and execution effort to expend, and that does influence the selection of test design techniques. This sidebar provides heuristic guides to help test managers and engineers select appropriate test techniques based on the extent of testing indicated for a risk item by the quality risk analysis process. These guides apply to testing during system and system integration testing by independent test teams.

Extensive
According to the quality risk analysis process template, for risks rated to receive this extent of testing, the tester should "run a large number of tests that are both broad and deep, exercising combinations and variations of interesting conditions." Because combinational testing is specified, testers should select test design techniques that generate test values to cover combinations. These techniques are either: (a) domain analysis or decision tables; or, b) classification trees, pairwise testing, or orthogonal arrays. The techniques in option (a) are appropriate where the mode of interaction between factors is understood (e.g., rules determining output values). The techniques in option (b) are appropriate where the mode of interaction between factors is not understood or indeed interaction should not occur (e.g., configuration compatibility). For each technique selected, the strongest coverage criteria should be applied; e.g., all columns in a decision table, including the application of boundary value analysis and equivalence partitioning on the conditions in the decision table. The use of these combinational techniques guarantees deep coverage.

In addition, testers should ensure that, for all relevant inputs or factors, tests cover all equivalence partitions and, if applicable, boundary values. This contributes to broad coverage.

Testers should plan to augment the test values with values selected using experience-based and defect-based techniques. This augmentation can occur during the design and implementation of tests or alternatively during test execution. This augmentation can be used to broaden test coverage, to deepen test coverage, or both.

If available, use cases should be tested, and the tester should cover all normal and exception paths.

If available, the tester should use state transition diagrams. Complete state/transition coverage is required, 1-switch (or higher) coverage is recommended, and, in the case of safety-related risk items, state transition table coverage is also recommended.

In some cases-e.g., safety critical risks, risks related to key features, etc.-the tester may elect to use code coverage measurements for risks assigned this extent of coverage, and to apply white box test design techniques to fill any code coverage gaps detected by such measures.

As a general rule of thumb, around 50% of the total test design, implementation, and execution effort should be spent addressing the risk items assigned this extent of testing. 

Visit our articles page to read this article in its entirety.

Congratulations to Ivana Jovanovic-Radojicic! Upon receiving her certification from the South East Europe Testing Board (SEETB), Jovanovic-Radojicic was informed that she is the first Certified Tester Advanced Level Test Manager in Serbia.  As a study resource, Jovanovic-Radojicic exclusively relied on the RBCS ISTQB Certified Tester Advanced Level Test Manager e-learning course which she purchased from our valued licensee, Masterfield Training.

Regarding using the e-learning as her only study resource, Jovanovic-Radojicic says, "Exam is passed from the first, only materials for preparation were from this training. From this, you can count on its quality and sufficiency. Tests that are provided after each topic with results checked can prove level of understanding or suggest which parts are needed to repeat or improve. Separate module is provided with final Mock exam in same way as real one, objectively measuring possibility of exam success. If one follows suggestions, success chances are very high."

For questions regarding our worldwide licensee program or any of our products, contact us!

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