[Note: This article originally appeared in Software Test and Performance magazine and Testing Experience magazine.  In honor of the groundbreaking release of the RBCS Advanced Test Analyst course, Rex Black has updated the figures and facts in this article as of March 2008.]

If you're a professional tester, test manager, quality assurance staff member, or programmer responsible for testing your own code, you have already discovered that, far from being trivial and straightforward, testing is hard.  There's a lot to know.  Unfortunately, most practitioners tend to carry out testing as if it were 1978, not 2008.  Common practices lag best practices by around 30 years.  ISTQB certification is about raising common practices to the level of best practices.

Suppose you are a tester on a project to develop a new system at your company.  Somebody e-mails you some screen prototypes with notes that describe the input and output ranges for each field, the actions taken based on particular inputs, and the possible states associated with key objects managed by the system.  Would you know how to start designing tests for such a system? ISTQB certified testers do.

Suppose you are a programmer on the same project.  You are using a newly purchased tool to help generate and execute unit tests on your code.  It reports the statement, branch, condition, and multicondition decision coverage achieved by the tests, and flags constructs that were not tested.  Would you know how to create additional tests for the uncovered constructs?  ISTQB certified testers do.

Suppose you are a test manager on this project.  After four weeks of testing, the project manager asks you, "Based on testing so far, what are the remaining risks to the quality of the system?"  Would you know how to do risk-based test status reporting?  ISTQB certified testers do.

ISTQB certified testers know how to do these things and more because they have mastered the topics laid out in one or more of the ISTQB syllabi.  They feel confident that they have mastered these topics, and can prove to others that they have, because they have passed one or more of the ISTQB recognized examinations, rigorously developed to check each examinee's abilities to recall, understand, and apply key testing concepts.

In this article, I will explain how the ISTQB certification program works.  You'll become familiar with the Foundation and Advanced syllabi, and you'll know where to find online copies of each so you can learn more.  I'll tell you how you can prepare for the exam, laying out options from self-guided self-study to attending courses.  I'll discuss the exams and what to expect when taking them.