Certified Tester

Foundation Level Extension Syllabus

Agile Tester

Version 2014

International Software Testing Qualifications Board

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 International
Certified Tester Software Testing
Foundation Level Syllabus – Agile Tester Qualification Board

The whole team is involved in any consultations or meeting in which product features are presented.
Analysed or estimated. The concept of involving testers, developers, and business representative in
all feature discussions is known as the power of three Crispin08].

1.1.3 Early and Frequent Feedback

Agile projects have short iterations enabling the project team to receive early and continuous
feedback on product quality throughout the development lifecycle. One way to provide rapid
feedback is by continuous integration (see Section 1.2.4).

When sequential development approaches are used, the customer often does not see the product
until the project is nearly completed. At that point, it is often too late for the development team to
effectively address any issues the customer may have. By getting frequent customer feedback as the
project progresses. Agile team can incorporate most new changes into the product development
process. Early and frequent feedback helps the team focus on the features with the highest business
value, or associated risk, and these are delivered to the customer first. It also helps manage the team
better since the capability of the team is transparent to everyone. For example, how much work can
we do in a sprint or iteration? What could help us go faster? What is preventing us from doing so?

The benefits of early and frequent feedback include:

 Avoiding requirements misunderstandings, which may not have been detected until later in
the development cycle when they are more expensive to fix.
 Clarifying customer feature requests, making them available for customer use early. This
way, the product better reflects what the customer wants.
 Discovering (via continuous integration), isolating, and resolving quality problems early.
 Providing information to the Agile team regarding its productivity and ability to deliver.
 Promoting consistent project momentum.

1.2 ASPECTS of Agile Approaches

There are a number of Agile approaches in use by organizations. Common practices across most Agile
organizations include collaborative user story creation, retrospectives, continuous integration,
and planning for each iteration as well as for overall release. This subsection describes some of the
Agile approaches.

1.2.1 Agile Software Development Approaches

There are several Agile approaches, each of which implements the values and principles of the Agile
Manifesto in different ways. In this syllabus, three representatives of Agile approaches are
considered:
Extreme Programming (XP), Scrum, and Kanban.

Extreme Programming
Extreme Programming (XP), originally introduced by Kent Beck [Beck04], is an Agile approach to
software development described by certain values, principles, and development practices.

XP embraces five values to guide development: communication, simplicity, feedback, courage, and
respect.

XP describes a set of principles as additional guidelines: humanity, economics, mutual benefit, self-
similarity, improvement, diversity, reflection, flow, opportunity, redundancy, failure, quality, baby
steps, and accepted responsibility.

Version 2014 Pag 11 of 43 30 Sep 2014

 © International Software Testing Qualification Board

International
Certified Tester Software Testing
Foundation Level Syllabus – Agile Tester Qualification Board

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This document was produced by a team from the International Software Testing Qualifications Board
Foundation Level Working Group.

The Agile Extension team thanks the review team and the National Boards for their suggestions and
input.

At the time the Foundation Level Agile Extension Syllabus was completed, the Agile Extension
Working Group had the following membership: Rex Black (Chair), Bertrand Comanguer (Vice Chair),
Gerry Coleman (Learning Objectives Lead), Debra Friedenberg (Exam Lead), Alon Linetzki (Business
Outcomes and Marketing Lead), Tauhida Parveen (Editor), and Leo van der Aalst (Development
Lead).

Authors: Rex Black, Anders Claesson, Gerry Coleman, Bertrand Cornanguer, Istvan Forgacs, Alon
Linetzki, Tilo Linz, Leo van der Aalst, Marie Walsh, and Stephan Weber.

Internal Reviewers: Mette Bruhn-Pedersen, Christopher Clements, Alessandro Collino, Debra

Friedenberg, Kari Kakkonen, Beata Karpinska, Sammy Kolluru, Jennifer Leger, Thomas Mueller, Tuula
Paakk?nen, Meile Posthuma, Gabor Puhalla, Lloyd Roden, Marko Rytkonen, Monika Stoecklein-
Olsen, Robert Treffny, Chris Van Bael, and Erik van Veenendaal.

The team thanks also the following persons, from the National Boards and the Agile expert
community, who participated in reviewing, commenting, and balloting of the Foundation Agile
Extension Syllabus: Dani Almog, Richard Berns, Stephen Bird, Monika Bogge, Afeng Chai, Josephine
Crawford, Tibor Csondes, Huba Demeter, Arnaud Foucal, Cyril Fumery, Kobi Halperin, Inga Hansen,
Hanne Hinz, Jidong Hu, Phill Isles, Shirley Itah, Martin Klonk, Kjell Lauren, Igal Levi, Rik Marselis,
Johan Meivert, Armin Metzger, Peter Morgan, Ninna Morin, Ingvar Nordstrom, Chris O'Dea, Klaus,
Olsen, Ismo Paukamainen, Nathalie Phung, Helmut Pichler, Salvatore Reale, Stuart Reid, Hans
Rombouts, Petri Sailynoja, Soile Sainio, Lars-Erik Sandberg, Dakar Shalom, Jian Shen, Marco Sogliani,
Lucjan Stapp, Yaron Tsubery, Sabine Uhde, Stephanie Ulrich, Tommi Valimaki, Jurian Van de Laar,
Marnix Van den Ent, Antonio Vieira Melo, Wenye Xu, Ester Zabar, Wenqiang Zheng, Peter
Zimmerer, Stevan Zivanovic, and Terry Zuo.

This document was formally approved for release by the General Assembly of the ISTQB® on May 31,
2014.
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© International Software Testing Qualification Board
International
Certified Tester Software Testing
Foundation Level Syllabus – Agile Tester Qualification Board

Table of Contents
Revision History…………………………………………………………………………………………………….……………………………………3
Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………………………………….…………………………………………4
Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………………………….……………………………………………..6
0.V Introduction to this Document……………….
…………………………………………………………………………………………..7
0.1 Purpose of this document………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 7
0.2 Overview……………..……………………………….………………………………………………………………………………….7
0.3 Examinable Learning Objectives …….……….……………………………………………………………………………….7
1. Agile Software Development – 150 mins …………………………………………………………………………..………………8
1.1 The fundamentals of Agile Software Development…………………………………………………………………….…...9
1.1.1 Agile Software Development and the Agile Manifesto…………………………………………………………….9
1.1.2 Whole-Team Approach …………………………………………………………………………………………………………10
1.1.3 Early and frequently Feedback ……………………………………………………………………………………………..11
1.2 Aspects of Agile Approaches ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….11
1.2.1 Agile Software Development Approaches …………………………………………………………………………….11
1.2.2 Collaborative User Story Creation …………………………………………………………………………………………13
1.2.3 Retrospectives………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………14
1.2.4 Continuous Integration …………………………………………………………………………………………………..…...14
1.2.5 Release and Iteration Planning …………………………………………………………………………………………….16
2 Fundamental Agile Testing Principle, Practices, and Processes – 105 mins ……………………………………..18
2.1 The Differences between Testing in Traditional and Agile Approaches…………………………………….…….19
2.1.1 Testing and Development Activities……………………………………………………………………………….……..19
2.1.2 Project Work Products…………………………………………………………………………………………………...…….20
2.1.3 Test Levels ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…. 21
2.1.4 Testing and Configuration Management………………………………………………………………………….……22
2.1.5 Organizational Options for Independent Testing ……………………………………………………………….…22
2.2 Status of Testing in Agile Projects…………………………………………………………………………………….…..23
2.2.1 Communicating Test Status, Progress, and Product Quality ………………………………………………...23
2.2.2 Managing Regression Risk with Evolving Manual and Automated Test Cases………….…………...24
2.3 Roles and Skills of a Tester in an Agile Team …………………………………………………………….……………….….25
2.3.1 Agile Tester Skills……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..……25
2.3.2 The Role of a Tester in an Angle Team…………………………………………………………………………………..26
3 Agile Testing Method, Techniques, and Tools – 480 mins……………………………………………………………….27
3.1 Agile Testing Methods …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..28
3.1.1 Test-Driven Development , Acceptance Test-Driven Development and Behaviour-Driven
Development …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….28
3.1.2 The Test Pyramid ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….……..29
3.1.3 Testing Quadrants, Test Levels and Testing Types………………………………………………………….…….29
3.1.4 The Role of Tester………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…….30
3.2 Assessing Quality Risks and Estimating Test Effort…………………………………………………………………31
3.2.1 Assessing Quality Risks in Agile Projects……………………………………………………………………………….31
3.2.2 Estimating Testing Effort Based on Content and Risk……………………………………………………………32
3.3 Techniques in Agile Projects……………………………………………………………………………………………………….33
3.3.1 Acceptance Critea, Adequate Coverage, and Other Information for Testing…………………………33
3.3.2 Applying Acceptance Test-Driven Development ………………………………………………………………….36
3.3.3 Functional and Non-Functional Black Box Test Design …………………………………………………………36
3.3.4 Exploratory Testing and Agile Testing ………………………………………………………………………………….36
3.4 Tools in Agile Projects …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….38
3.4.1 Task Management and Tracking Tools ………………………………………………………………………………….38
3.4.2 Communication and Information Sharing Tools ……………………………………………………………………39
3.4.3 Software Build and Distribution Sharing Tools ……………………………………………………………………..39
3.4.4 Configuration Management Tools …………………………….………………………………………………………….39
Version 2014 Pag 6 of 43 30 Sep 2014
© International Software Testing Qualification Board