ISTQB Certified Tester Advanced Level (CTAL) Test Management

Advanced level courses are suitable for anyone who is interested in progressing an established career in software testing. This includes people in roles such as testers, test analysts, test engineers, test consultants, test team leads, test managers, user acceptance testers and software developers. They may also be of interest to anyone who wants a deeper than Foundation level understanding of software testing, such as project managers, quality managers, software development managers, business analysts, IT directors and management consultants.

The Advanced Test Manager course is particularly aimed at testers who will soon or have already started to take responsibility for the delivery of testing.

This 4-day course focuses on the skills required to manage the testing of software in a variety of lifecycle and project contexts. The course is accredited by the ISTQB® and leads to the ISTQB Advanced Test Manager Certificate. Our training includes exercises and practice exam questions to highlight key aspects of the syllabus, to help participants understand and practice the concepts and methods presented and to prepare them for the certification exam.

Course Objectives

To provide an understanding of test management issues beyond the ISTQB Foundation level, giving participants the knowledge and skills required to become an Advanced Test Manager.

Skills to be Gained

A candidate who achieves ISTQB Advanced Test Manager certification can be expected to:

• Implement the mission, goals and processes established for the testing organization.
• Organize and lead risk management activities and use risks to drive test planning and reporting.
• Create and implement test plans consistent with organizational policies and test strategies.
• Continuously monitor and control test activities to achieve project objectives.
• Assess and report relevant and timely test status.
• Identify skills and resource gaps in their test team and participate in sourcing adequate resources.
• Identify and plan test team skills development.
• Propose a business case for test activities that outlines the costs and benefits expected.
• Ensure proper communication within the test team and with other project stakeholders.
• Actively lead test process improvement initiatives.
• Design & implement a defect classification scheme.
• Select and apply tools to support testing.

In order to take an ISTQB Advanced level certification exam, it is necessary to already have the CTFL certificate and to “satisfy the Exam Board which examines them that they have sufficient practical experience to be considered Advanced Level qualified“. The CTFL certificate is not a pre-requisite for attending this training course. It is, however, essential that attendees have either obtained it or, at least, have undergone an ISTQB-accredited Foundation level training course. It is further recommended that delegates also have at least two years‘ practical experience of software testing.

Chapter 1: Testing Process

• The Test Manager’s activities within the test process are covered with emphasis on the tasks of test planning, monitoring and control. Describes how to implement a project retrospective in order to validate processes and discover areas to improve.

Chapter 2: Test Management

• Covers those areas of the topic that are not dealt with in later chapters.
• Explains how to define test management tasks according to the context of a project and how to adjust test activities to the software lifecycle in use. Risk-based testing for test prioritization and effort allocation is discussed with emphasis on product and project risk management. Participants learn how to take stakeholder views into account when assessing risk levels and defining risk mitigation activities. Risk control activities and risk reporting are also covered.
• Evaluates different types of test document and discusses how to tailor them to meet project and organization needs. Relevant standards are also considered.
• Metric- and experienced-based methods for estimating testing effort are covered and participants learn how to communicate the value of testing.
• Distributed, outsourced and insourced forms of test organization are described.

Chapter 3: Reviews

• The focus here is on defining an appropriate review plan and setting up the review to achieve the best results. Participants learn how to use metrics to optimize the review results and to show return on investment. This session also explains how to lead a review team through a formal review.

Chapter 4: Defect Management

• Describes how to set up a defect lifecycle tailored for the software lifecycle in use and explains how to analyse defect reports to evaluate the capability of the testing and software development processes.

Chapter 5: Improving the Test Process

• Explains the generic steps for conducting a standard test process improvement initiative and how to create a test improvement plan. Compares the characteristics of four popular test process improvement models.

Chapter 6: Test Tools and Automation

• How to plan and implement different types of tool (including open-source and custom-built tools) considering risks, costs, benefits and opportunities.
• Tool use for metric collection and evaluation is described.

Chapter 7: People Skills – Team Composition

• Discusses how to assess the range of skills required for a testing team, and define a growth plan for skill development.
• Includes team motivation and communication skills.

A more detailed list of this course’s content can be found in the official ISTQB syllabus which can be viewed on, and downloaded from, www.istqb.org

Previous courses

ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL) Exam [ISTQBCTFL]

ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL) Agile Tester [ISTQBFLA]

ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL) [ISTQBFL]

Next courses

ISTQB Certified Tester Advanced Level (CTAL) Exam [ISTQBCTAL]