ISTQB - Chapter 5

Question 1

What are three potential benefits of independent testing?

Answer 1

• Recognizing different kinds of failures compared to developers
• Challenging assumptions made by stakeholders
• Objective and honest reporting

Question 2

What are four potential drawbacks of independent testing?

Answer 2

• Isolation from the development team
• Lack of access to important information
• Developers may feel less responsible for quality
• Testers seen as a bottleneck

Question 3

What is, broadly, the test manager’s task?

Answer 3

The test manager is tasked with the overall responsibility for the test process and successful leadership of the test activities.

Question 4

Who typically performs the following tasks?
- Develop or review a test policy and test strategy for the organization
- Plan the test activities by considering the context, and understanding the test objectives and risks (e.g. selecting test approaches, estimating test time, effort and cost, acquiring resources, defining test levels and test cycles, and planning defect management)
- Write and update the test plan(s)
- Coordinate the test plan(s) with project managers, product owners, and others
- Share testing perspectives with other project activities
- Initiate the analysis, design, implementation, and execution of tests, monitor test progress and results, and check the status of exit criteria (or definition of done) and facilitate test completion activities
- Prepare and deliver test progress reports and test summary reports
- Adapt planning based on test results and progress and take any actions necessary for test control
- Support setting up the defect management system and adequate configuration management of testware
- Introduce suitable metrics for measuring test progress and evaluating the quality of the testing and the product
- Support the selection and implementation of tools to support the test process
- Decide about the implementation of test environment(s)
- Promote and advocate the testers and the test team within the organization
- Develop the skills and careers of testers

Answer 4

The test manager

Question 5

Who typically performs the following tasks?
- Review and contribute to test plans
- Analyze, review, and assess requirements, user stories and acceptance criteria, specifications, and the test basis
- Identify and document test conditions, and capture traceability between test cases, test conditions, and the test basis
- Design, set up, and verify test environment(s)
- Design and implement test cases and test procedures
- Prepare and acquire test data
- Create the detailed test execution schedule
- Execute tests, evaluate the results, and document deviations from expected results
- Use appropriate tools to facilitate the test process
- Automate tests as needed
- Evaluate non-functional characteristics such as performance efficiency, reliability, usability, security, compatibility, and portability
- Review tests developed by others

Answer 5

The testers

Question 6

The following actions are part of which test activity?
- Determining the scope, objectives, and risks of testing
- Defining the overall approach of testing
- Integrating and coordinating the test activities into the software lifecycle activities
- Making decisions about what to test, the people and other resources required to perform the various test activities, and how test activities will be carried out
- Scheduling of test analysis, design, implementation, execution, and evaluation activities, either on particular dates (e.g., in sequential development) or in the context of each iteration (e.g., in iterative development)
- Selecting metrics for test monitoring and control
- Budgeting for the test activities
- Determining the level of detail and structure for test documentation (e.g., by providing templates or example documents)

Answer 6

Test planning

Question 7

What is a test strategy?

Answer 7

A test strategy provides a generalized description of the test process. An organization’s test strategy typically applies to all its projects, and organizations can use multiple test strategies in combination.

Question 8

What is a test approach?

Answer 8

A test approach is the tailored version of the test strategy for a particular project or release.

Question 9

The following are examples of what?
- Analytical
- Model-based
- Methodical
- Process-compliant (or standard-compliant)
- Directed (or consultative)
- Regression-averse
- Reactive

Answer 9

Test strategies

Question 10

What is an analytical test strategy?

Answer 10

A test strategy based on analyzing a factor such as requirements or risk (risk-based testing is therefore an analytical strategy)

Question 11

What is a model-based test strategy?

Answer 11

A strategy where tests are designed based on a model of some required aspect of the product, such as business process models or state models

Question 12

What is a methodical test strategy?

Answer 12

A strategy that relies on systematically following a pre-defined set of tests or test conditions (e.g. lists of common types of failures, important quality characteristics, or company-wide standards)

Question 13

What is a process-compliant (or standard-compliant) test strategy?

Answer 13

A strategy that involves analyzing, designing, and implementing tests based on external rules and standards

Question 14

What is a directed (or consultative) test strategy?

Answer 14

A strategy that is driven primarily by the advice, guidance, or instructions of stakeholders, business domain experts, or technology experts

Question 15

What is a regression-averse test strategy?

Answer 15

A strategy that is motivated by a desire to avoid regression of existing capabilities, e.g. through reusing testware, standard test suites, and extensive automation

Question 16

What is a reactive test strategy?

Answer 16

A strategy where testing is guided by reactions to the component or system being tested, and the events occurring during test execution, rather than being pre-planned (e.g. exploratory testing)

Question 17

How should test cases ideally be ordered? What is the common exception to this?

Answer 17

Test cases should ideally be ordered to run based on priority, except when certain test cases depend on other, lower priority test cases

Question 18

What are the two main test estimation techniques?

Answer 18

• Metrics-based: estimating test effort based on metrics from former projects
• Expert-based: estimating test effort based on people’s past experience

Question 19

What are three examples of test control actions?

Answer 19

• Re-prioritizing tests
• Changing the test schedule
• Re-evaluating items

Question 20

The following are examples of what?
- Percentage of planned test cases implemented
- Percentage of planned work done in test environment preparation
- Test case execution (e.g., number of test cases run/not run, test cases passed/failed, and/or test conditions passed/failed)
- Defect information (e.g., defect density, defects found and fixed, failure rate, and confirmation test results)
- Test coverage of requirements, user stories, acceptance criteria, risks, or code
- Task completion, resource allocation and usage, and effort
- Cost of testing, including the cost compared to the benefit of finding the next defect or the cost compared to the benefit of running the next test

Answer 20

Test metrics

Question 21

What kind of test report might include the following items?
- The status of the test activities and progress against the test plan
- Factors impeding progress
- Testing planned for the next reporting period
- The quality of the test object

Answer 21

Test progress report

Question 22

What kind of test report typically includes the following items?
- Information on what occurred during a test period
- Deviations from plan, including deviations in schedule, duration, or effort of test activities
- Status of testing and product quality with respect to the exit criteria
- Factors that have blocked or continue to block progress
- Metrics of defects, test cases, test coverage, activity progress, and resource consumption
- Residual risks
- Reusable test work products produced

Answer 22

Test summary report

Question 23

The following actions are part of what activity?
- All test items are uniquely identified, version controlled, tracked for changes, and related to each other
- All items of testware are uniquely identified, version controlled, tracked for changes, related to each other and related to versions of the test item(s) so that traceability can be maintained throughout the test process
- All identified documents and software items are referenced unambiguously in test documentation

Answer 23

Configuration management

Question 24

What determines risk level?

Answer 24

The likelihood of the event and the impact (the harm) from that event

Question 25

What is a product risk?

Answer 25

The possibility that a work product (e.g., a specification, component, system) may fail to satisfy the legitimate needs of its users and/or stakeholders.

Question 26

What is a project risk?

Answer 26

The possible occurrence of situations that may have a negative effect on a project’s ability to achieve its objectives.

Question 27

The following are examples of what type of risk?
- Software might not perform its intended functions according to the specification
- Software might not perform its intended functions according to user, customer, and/or stakeholder needs
- A system architecture may not adequately support some non-functional requirement(s)
- A particular computation may be performed incorrectly in some circumstances
- A loop control structure may be coded incorrectly
- Response-times may be inadequate for a high-performance transaction processing system
- User experience (UX) feedback might not meet product expectations

Answer 27

Product risks

Question 28

The following are examples of what type of risk?
o Delays may occur in delivery, task completion, or satisfaction of exit criteria
o Inaccurate estimates, reallocation of funds to higher priority projects, or general cost-cutting across the organization may result in inadequate funding
o Late changes may result in substantial re-work
o Skills, training, and staff may not be sufficient
o Personnel issues may cause conflict and problems
o Users, business staff, or subject matter experts may not be available due to conflicting business priorities
o Testers may not communicate their needs and/or the test results adequately
o Developers and/or testers may fail to follow up on information found in testing and reviews
o There may be an improper attitude toward, or expectations of, testing
o Requirements may not be defined well enough
o The test environment may not be ready on time
o Data conversion, migration planning, and their tool support may be late
o Poor defect management and similar problems may result in accumulated defects
o A third party may fail to deliver a necessary product or service, or go bankrupt
o Contractual issues may cause problems to the project

Answer 28

Project risks

Question 29

The following actions are part of what kind of test strategy?
- Analyze (and re-evaluate on a regular basis) what can go wrong (risks)
- Determine which risks are important to deal with
- Implement actions to mitigate those risks
- Make contingency plans to deal with the risks should they become actual events

Answer 29

Risk-based testing

Question 30

The following items are typically included in what?
- An identifier
- A title and a short summary of the defect being reported
- Date of the defect report, issuing organization, and author
- Identification of the test item and environment
- The development lifecycle phase(s) in which the defect was observed
- A description of the defect to enable reproduction and resolution, including logs, database dumps, screenshots, or recordings
- Expected and actual results
- Scope or degree of impact (severity) of the defect on the interests of stakeholder(s)
- Urgency/priority to fix

Answer 30

A defect report