INTRODUCTION

The Foundation Certificate in Software Testing was introduced as part of the BCS Professional Certification portfolio (formerly ISEB) in 1998; since then, over 550,000 Foundation Certificates have been awarded. An Intermediate Level Certificate was introduced in 2007 as a step towards the more advanced Practitioner Certificates. (Visit www.bcs.org/certifications for more information.)

The International Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB) (www.istqb.org) was set up in 2001 to offer a similar certification scheme to as many countries as wished to join this international testing community. The UK was a founding member of ISTQB and, in 2005, adopted the ISTQB Foundation Certificate syllabus as the basis of examinations for the Foundation Certificate in the UK. The Foundation Certificate is now an entry qualification for the ISTQB Advanced Certificate. The Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL) syllabus has been updated and released in a 2018 version, and this book relates to the 2018 version of the syllabus.

This book has been written specifically to help potential candidates for the ISTQB–BCS CTFL examination. The book is therefore structured to support learning of the key ideas in the syllabus quickly and efficiently for those who do not plan to attend a course, and to support structured revision for anyone preparing for the exam.

In this introductory chapter, we will explain the nature and purpose of the Foundation Level and provide an insight into the way the syllabus is structured and the way the book is structured to support learning in the various syllabus areas. Finally, we offer guidance on the best way to use this book, either as a learning resource or as a revision resource.

PURPOSE OF FOUNDATION

The CTFL Certificate is the first level of a hierarchy of ISTQB–BCS certificates in software testing, and leads naturally into the next level, known as the BCS Intermediate Certificate in Software Testing, which in turn leads on to the ISTQB Advanced Level, followed by the various ISTQB Expert Level examinations.

The Foundation Level provides a very broad introduction to the whole discipline of software testing. As a result, coverage of topics is variable, with some only briefly mentioned and others studied in some detail. The arrangement of the syllabus and the required levels of understanding are explained in the next section.

The authors of the syllabus have aimed it at people with various levels of experience in testing, including those with no experience at all. This makes the certificate accessible to those who are or who aim to be specialist testers, but also to those who require a more general understanding of testing, such as project managers and software development managers. One specific aim of this qualification is to prepare certificate holders for the next level of certification, but the Foundation Level has sufficient breadth and depth of coverage to stand alone.

THE CERTIFIED TESTER FOUNDATION LEVEL SYLLABUS

Syllabus content and structure

The syllabus is broken down into six main sections, each of which has associated with it a minimum contact time that must be included within any accredited training course:

The relative timings are a reliable guide to the amount of time that should be spent studying each section of the syllabus.

Each section of the syllabus also includes a list of learning objectives that provides candidates with a guide to what they should know when they have completed their study of a section and a guide to what can be expected to be asked in an examination. The learning objectives can be used to check that learning or revision is adequate for each topic. In the book, which is structured around the syllabus sections, we have presented the learning objectives for each section at the beginning of the relevant chapter, and the summary at the end of each chapter confirms how those learning objectives have been addressed.

Finally, each topic in the syllabus has associated with it a level of understanding, represented by the legend K1, K2 or K3:

The level of understanding influences the level and type of questions that can be expected to be asked about that topic in the examination. More detail about the question style and about the examination is given in Chapter 7. Example questions, written to the level and in the formats used in the examination, are included within each chapter to provide generous examination practice, and there is a complete practice examination paper in Appendix A, with answers and an explanation of the correct response to each question.

Syllabus updates and changes

The syllabus was last updated in 2018 and the book is in line with the changes and additions introduced in that version of the syllabus. An extension to the Foundation syllabus has also been introduced to cover a significant aspect of software testing that has grown in prominence in recent years. The Foundation Level Extension – Agile Tester is a complete new syllabus with its own separate examination and that syllabus is not addressed in this book.

Throughout this book you will find references to different testing standards that form reference points for parts of the ISTQB Software Testing Foundation syllabus.

In the 2018 syllabus and in this book:

ISO/IEC/IEEE 29119 Software testing is an internationally agreed set of standards for software testing that can be used within any Software Development Life Cycle or organisation. There are currently five standards within ISO/IEC/IEEE 29119:

RELATIONSHIP OF THE BOOK TO THE SYLLABUS

The book is structured into chapters that mirror the sections of the syllabus so that you can work your way through the whole syllabus or select topics that are of particular interest or concern. The structure enables you to go straight to the place you need, with confidence either that what you need to know will be covered there and nowhere else, or that relevant cross references will be provided.

Each chapter of the book incorporates the learning objectives from the syllabus and identifies the required level of understanding for each topic. Each chapter also includes examples of typical examination questions to enable you to assess your current knowledge of a topic before you read the chapter, and further questions at the end of each chapter to provide practice in answering typical examination questions. Topics requiring a K3 level of understanding are presented with worked examples as a model for the level of application expected from real examination questions. Answers are provided for all questions, and the rationale for the correct answer is discussed for all practice questions.

A final chapter explains the Foundation Level examination strategy and provides guidance on how to prepare for the examination and how to manage the examination experience to maximise your own performance.

HOW TO GET THE BEST OUT OF THIS BOOK

This book is designed for use by different groups of people. If you are using the book as an alternative to attending an accredited course, you will probably find the first method of using the book described below to be of greatest value. If you are using the book as a revision aid, you may find the second approach more appropriate. In either case, you would be well advised to acquire a copy of the syllabus and a copy of the sample examination paper (both available free from www.istqb.org) as reference documents, though neither is essential and the book stands alone as a learning and revision aid.

Using the book as a learning aid

For those of you using the book as an alternative to attending an accredited course the first step is to familiarise yourself with the syllabus structure and content by skim reading the opening sections of each chapter, where the learning objectives are identified for each topic. You may then find it helpful to turn to Chapter 7 and become familiar with the structure of the examination and the types and levels of questions that you can expect in the examination. From here you can then work through each of the six main chapters in any sequence before returning to Chapter 7 to remind yourself of the main elements of the examination.

For each chapter begin by attempting the self-assessment questions at the beginning to get initial confirmation of your level of confidence in the topics covered by that chapter. This may help you to prioritise how you spend your time. Work first through the chapters where your knowledge is weakest, attempting all the exercises and following through all the worked examples. Read carefully through the chapters where your knowledge is less weak, but still not good enough to pass the exam. You can be more selective with exercises and examples here, but make sure you attempt the practice questions at the ends of the chapters. For the areas where you feel strong you can use the chapter for revision but remember to attempt the practice questions to confirm positively your initial assessment of your level of knowledge. Each chapter contains ‘checks of understanding’ between sections so that you can determine whether you have picked up the key points from that section. These are important; if you find you cannot answer them, you would be wise to go back over the material to revise anything that you did not really absorb at the first read. There is also a summary section at the end of each chapter that reiterates the learning objectives, so reading the first and last sections of a chapter will help you to understand how your current level of knowledge relates to the level required to pass the examination. The best confirmation of this is to attempt questions at the appropriate K level for each topic; these are provided throughout the book and there is a complete mock examination at the end so that you can really test whether you are ready for the exam.

Using the book as a revision aid

If you are using this book for final revision, perhaps after completing an accredited course, you might like to begin by using a selection of the example questions at the end of each chapter as a ‘revision mock examination’. Appendix A1 contains a complete mock exam, with all the answers in Appendix A2, which will provide some experience of answering typical questions under the same time pressures that you will experience in the real examination, and this will provide you with a fairly reliable guide to your current state of readiness to take the real examination. You can also discover which areas most need revision from your performance in the mock exam, and this will guide you as you plan your revision. There is a complete question-by-question commentary on the mock exam in Appendix A3 so that you can identify why you got any questions wrong.

Revise first where you feel weakest. You can use the opening sections of each chapter, containing the learning objectives and the self-assessment questions, together with the ‘Check of understanding’ provided at the end of each section, and the chapter summary at the end of each chapter, to refine further your awareness of your own weaknesses. From here you can target your studies very accurately. Remember that every K3 topic will have at least one worked example and some exercises to help you build your confidence before tackling questions at the level set in the real examination.

You can get final confirmation of your readiness to sit the real examination by taking the sample examination paper available from BCS.