ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level CTFL Foundation Material

1. Topic 1, Scenario 1 "Medical Domain"

You are working as a test manager in the medical domain leading a team of system testers. You are currently working on a major release of the product which gives customers many new features and resolves a number of problem reports from previous releases.



Explain how the above mentioned report may differ from a report that you produce for the project manager, who is a test specialist Select TWO items from the following options that can be used to report to the project manager and would not be included in a report to senior management. 1 credit

2. Considerable attention will be given in this project to defining exit criteria and on reporting back on their status .

Which combination of TWO exit criteria from the list would be best to use? 1 credit

I. Total number of defects found

II. Percentage of test cases executed

III. Total test effort planned versus total actual test effort spent

IV. Defect trend (number of defects found per test run over time

3. Since the system is in the medical domain and therefore in the safety critical area, testing needs to be rigorous and evidence is required that the system has been adequately tested. Identify THREE measures that would typically be part of the test approach in this domain and which are not always applicable in other domains! 1 credit

4. Consider the typical objectives of testing .

Which of the following metrics can be used to measure the effectiveness of the testing process in achieving one of those objectives? 1 credit

5. A test log is one of the documents that need to be produced in this domain in order to provide evidence of testing. However, the level of detail of test logs can vary .

Which of the following is NOT an influencing factor for the level of detail of the test logs being produced? 1 credit

6. You have been given responsibility for the non-functional testing of a safety-critical monitoring & diagnostics package in the medical area .

Which of the following would you least expect to see addressed in the test plan? 1 credit

7. You are about to release a test progress report to a senior manager, who is not a test specialist .

Which of the following topics should NOT be included in the test progress report? 1 credit

8. Topic 2, Scenario 2 "Reviews"

A software development organization wants to introduce some specific improvements to its test process. Currently, most of their testing resources are focussedon system testing. They are developing embedded software, and do not have a simulation environment to enable them to execute software modules on the development host. They have been

advised that introducing inspections and reviews could be the most appropriate step forward.



Identify the THREE types of formal peer reviews that can be recognized. 1 credit

9. Which of the following is an example of testing as part of the requirements specification phase? 1 credit

10. IEEE 1028 also defines “management review” as a type of review .

What is the main purpose of a management review? 1 credit

11. What is the main reason why reviews are especially beneficial in the above-mentioned scenario? 2 credits

12. The introduction of reviews and inspections has often failed as a process improvement action. Identify the THREE most important measures that should be taken to reduce the risk that this test process improvement will fail. 2 Credits (for 2 out of 3 correct 1 credit)

13. As part of the improvement program, the organization is also looking at tool support .

Which type of tool could be used to ensure higher quality of the code to be reviewed? 1 credit

14. Topic 3, Scenario 3 "Tool Selection and Implementation"

Your company is considering whether or not to purchase a test tool suite from a respectable vendor. Your manager has searched the internet for comparable products but none of them meets his specific requirements. A tool demonstration has been arranged for next week and your team has been invited to attend. The tool suite consists of a test management tool, test execution tool and a requirements management tool. There is the possibility of adding a performance testing tool at a later stage. You have decided to attend the demo but raise some issues beforehand regarding expectations.



Which of the following would you least expect to form part of the analysis of initial tool costs? 1 credit

15. Select THREE issues from the options provided that should at least be raised. 1 credit

16. Topic 4, Scenario 4, V1 "Test Management Tool"

A software development company that sells an established capture-replay tool has decided to complement it with a test management tool. The capture-replay tool was developed over a number of years and is used by a large number of clients.

The test management tool will be developed by the same team that developed the capture-replay tool, using the same technology. The company test strategy mandates that structural testing is focussed at the component test level and dynamic non-functional testing is focussed at the acceptance test level.

In response to growing customer demand, it is proposed to develop the test management tool in an incremental manner. Each increment will be developed using the V life cycle model. The target platform is a PC in a local area network. The PC uses a proprietary relational database and communicates with a single PC which acts as a server.

The test management tool must interface with the company s capture replay tool. Over the first 12 months of the development period the following functionality will be developed for the tool (in two increments): basic requirements management, support for test case creation; support for test procedures, test scripts and test suites. The functionality to be included in later increments will be driven by customer demand: however they expect to provide an incident management system, a web front-end, and interfaces to other proprietary tools and database management systems.



Which of the following would you expect to see in the master test plan? 1 credit

17. Which of the following is a characteristic of good testing in any life cycle model? 1 credit

18. Which of the following are valid reasons for adopting a different life cycle (from the V model), for increments after the first year? 2 credits

i. We do not have a clear understanding of the requirements from a customer perspective.

ii. We see the risk of delivering requested functionality late as being higher than the risk of delivering a lower quality product.

iii. We do not have a budget for additional regression testing which is needed to ensure that existing functionality is not compromised by future iterations.

iv. The company test strategy does not fit well within the V life cycle model.

19. Which of the following would be the most significant input to estimating the time to carry out the specified testing tasks? 3 credits

20. Which of the following would be the TWO most appropriate examples of entry criteria documented in the system integration test plan? 2 credits

21. Topic 5, Scenario 4, V2 "Test Management Tool"

The project situation after 11 months is:

- The first increment was released one week late but contained sufficient functionality to be declared fit for purpose'. However, there were 20 outstanding incidents deferred to increment two.

- The amount of voluntary overtime worked PV the test team has reduced the second Increment slippage to just 3 weeks.

- There is talk of reducing the scope of requirements. The purpose of this is to first deliver the application with support for manual testing and then to provide a delivery * weeks later to resolve any remaining points and provide support for automated testing (i.e. the link to the capture-replay tool).

- Concerns have been expressed by a section of the user community, that in some places the usability is very poor.



Which test management control option is most appropriate to adopt under these circumstances? 2 credits

22. Which of the following is a project risk mitigation step you might take as test manager? 1 credit

23. Which of the following is least likely to be used as a technique to identify project and product risks? 1 credit

24. Risks should be constantly reviewed. Given the current situation, which one of the following factors is most likely to lead to a revised view of product risk? 3 credits

25. Topic 6, Scenario 5, V1"Human Resource System"

You have recently been employed as a test manager for a software house producing Human Resource (HR) systems, namely Payroll, Personnel and Recruitment systems. The company is relatively new and wants to make a major impact in the market by producing a worldwide enterprise HR product.



You have been asked to write a testing strategy for the company .

Which statement best explains how risk can be addressed within the testing strategy? 1 credit

26. Part of the testing strategy indicates that you are going to be using systematic test design techniques. Your manager has asked that you present the main advantages of using these techniques at the next board meeting. Identify THREE main benefits of using systematic test design techniques within this company. 2 credits (for 2 out of 3 correct 1 credit)

27. In addition to risk, identify TWO other components of a testing strategy. 1 credit

28. Topic 7, Scenario 5, V2 "Human Resource System"

For the first increment of the new enterprise HR product you have performed a product risk analysis using the FMEA method. Five risk items have been identified and the likelihood and impact have been scored using scoring tables.

This has resulted in the following scores:







What is the Risk Priority Number for risk item number 2? 2 credits

29. What would be a test approach regarding the test design techniques to be applied that would fit an item with the highest risk? 2 credits

30. Which of the following is a valid drawback of independent testing? 1 credit

31. Which of the following is a benefit of independent testing? 1 credit

32. A number of options have been suggested for the level of independence to be employed for the testing on the next project, and are shown below.

i. External test specialists perform non-functional testing.

ii. Testing is outsourced.

iii. Testing is carried out by the developer.

iv. A separate test team carries out the testing.

v. Testing is performed by the business.

vi. Testing is performed by a different developer.

Which of the following orders the above in a correct order of independence? 1 credit

33. Based on the information given in the scenario, identify how the team could be improved

most effectively? 2 credits

34. Topic 9, Scenario 6, V2 "Independent Test Team"

The project has been running for a few months and the team seems not to be progressing in their test approach. The team also lacks drive and enthusiasm and is sometimes seen to be performing their tasks too slowly. You have been asked to recruit an extra person into the team.



In addition to introducing the new team member, you have decided to raise motivation .

Which of the measures listed below would be the best measure to take in order to increase the motivation of the team? 2 credits

35. Which of the following team roles would be most appropriate to enhance the team and why? 2 credits

36. You are considering involving users during test execution. In general, what is the main reason for involving users during test execution? 1 credit

37. Topic 10, Scenario 6, V3 "Independent Test Team"

Three exit criteria have been defined for the project:

- A: Test cases passed more than 70%

- B: Number of outstanding defects lest than 5

- C: Number of defects per test case less than 0.5

The first week of the testing has shown the following results:







Evaluate the status of the project against the defined exit criteria .

Which of the following options shows the correct status? 2 credits

38. Topic 11, Scenario 6, V4 "Independent Test Team"

You have for a while been trying to hire a second test automation specialist for your test team However, you did not have any luck in finding a suitable candidate. So now, you have been asked by IT management of XYZ to forward a proposal with alternative solutions for building an automated regression test suite at system test level over a period of 2 years including needed training and eventual handover to the test team.



You have investigated different possibilities and selected four of them to present to IT management .

Which of the proposals will you most likely give your highest recommendations? 3 credits

39. Instead of having an independent test team within the company, the company is considering to outsource testing .

What are THREE key challenges that are typical for outsourcing? 1 credit

40. Topic 12, Scenario 7 "Test Estimation"

You have been contracted to manage the acceptance testing of a new computer-based reservation system for a travel agency. You have provided an approximate budget estimate for the testing project based on previous experience with similar sized projects. However, the management of the parent company of the travel agency will not commit to the budget until detailed cost estimates are provided.

The reservation system is being developed by a third party However, detailed specifications of the software are available, as well as an estimate of the total effort that will be spent in developing the software. The software is to be delivered in four increments, and the functionality to be delivered in each increment has already been agreed on.



In general, why is it NOT a good idea to estimate the testing effort based only on a percentage of development effort? Identify THREE valid reasons. 1 credit

41. In general which part of the testing activity is most difficult to estimate? 1 credit

42. Which aspect in the test estimate is the main risk in this project? 1 credit

43. Identify THREE items that would be part of the work-breakdown structure showing the key testing activities for the acceptance test project. 2 credits (for 2 out of 3 correct 1 credit)

44. Topic 13, Scenario 8, V1 "Test Process Improvement"

You have been asked to investigate various test process Improvement models to be introduced for the next project. You have been asked to provide a comparison between the TMMi and TPI models and provide a recommendation.



Model characteristics:

Which THREE of the below mentioned characteristics relate to TMMi? 1 credit

45. The test improvement project will take place in an organization developing a safety-critical avionics application .

Which one of the following standards do you believe would be most appropriate to take into account for compliance during your assignment? 1 credit

46. A test assessment has been carried out using the selected model as a reference framework. A number of recommendations have been identified and you are asked to prioritize them. Based on your knowledge of the project, you are expecting severe resistance to change .

Which of the following would be the most important selection criterion for defining the priority of the recommendations? 2 credits

47. Comparing TMMi and TPI, which is not a valid reason for choosing either TPI or TMMi? 2 credits

48. Topic 14, Scenario 8, V2 "Test Proems Improvement'

You have raised the issue that improving the testing process is also dependent on the status of the software development process.



During test process improvement it is recommended to use standards where possible. Standards originate from various sources and they cover different subjects in relation to testing Pick TWO sources of software standards, useful to software testing from the ones mentioned below. 1 credit

49. Which of the following phases in the fundamental test process is considered to deliver a document which can be used as a major input for test process improvement? 1 credit

50. Topic 15, Scenario 9 "Test Management Documentation"

A software house is concerned about the number of defects found in software released to its customers. They are starting to plan a new software product. In the past, releases have often been stopped due to poor planning and too many defects found during high level testing. You have been recruited to the newly created position of test manager and asked to develop a test strategy, manage the testing of the project and organize the resources needed to carry out the testing.



As part of the test strategy, entry and exit criteria will be defined for each test level .

Which is NOT a valid reason for using entry and exit criteria? 1 credit

51. Which THREE activities would be valid steps during the development of the test strategy?2 credits (2 out of 3 correct 1 credit)

52. Within the projects, a master test plan and phase test plan will be used.

Following is a list of characteristics applicable for test plans:

a. Any deviation from the procedures described in the test

b. strategy document

c. The overall estimated costs, timescales and resource

d. requirements

e. A detailed schedule of testing activities

f. The development deliverables to be tested

g . Which test staff members (names) will be involved and when

h. Level of requirements coverage achieved

Which TWO of the above mentioned characteristics relate to the phase test plan? 1 credit

53. Within the projects, a master test plan and phase test plan will be used.

Following is a list of characteristics applicable for test plans:

a. Any deviation from the procedures described in the test strategy document

b. The overall estimated costs, timescales and resource requirements

c. A detailed schedule of testing activities

d. The development deliverables to be tested

e . Which test staff members (names) will be involved and when

f. Level of requirements coverage achieved

Which THREE of the above mentioned characteristics relate to the master test plan? 1 credit

54. Topic 16, Scenario 10, V1 "Online Application"

There is a formal requirement from the business to develop an additional on-line application to the company website which will allow existing policyholders to extend their cover for short-term foreign use of their vehicle overseas. The current manual process will be retained. The application must be implemented in months time in line with the marketing department's green initiative, which is anticipated to generate a significant increase in demand.

The development manager has insufficient resources to meet this request and has issued an invitation to potential bidders so that the development work can be outsourced.

The application must initially cover Western Europe, and later Eastern Europe, Russia, the Middle East, the Far East and Africa. A decision has yet to be made with respect to Australia, New Zealand, North and South America.

You have been asked to ensure the quality and suitability of the document sent to potential bidders and also that the application delivered by the successful bidder is ‘Tit for purpose’.



The development manager is managing the review of the responses received from bidders, and has asked the in-house test manager to provide a review checklist for the test management aspects of the responses .

Which of the following checkpoints would be appropriate? 2 credits

55. Which of the following product risks would be most effectively addressed just by static testing? 3 credits

56. Topic 17, Scenario 10, V2 "Online Application"

While waiting for the responses, the test manager has been asked to prepare test plans to validate the software application delivered by the successful bidder.



Which one of the following estimation approaches is appropriate at this stage of the project? 2 credits

57. Topic 18, Scenario 10, V3 "Online Application"

The cancellation of a current major development project has released resources. The development manager has decided to respond to his own request to tender and has

proposed an in-house development with the use of a Rapid Application Development (RAO) approach.



Why might a RAD approach be a better option for the test manager rather than a sequential development? 2 credits

58. Which of the following is NOT a typical key challenge for testing in a RAD based development approach? 1 credit

59. The business has asked for a weekly progress report .

Which of the following would be appropriate as a measure of test coverage? 2 credits

60. As a result of the RAD based development approach, the test manager has decided to change the risk mitigation approach .

Which test technique might be most appropriate to use? 2 credits

61. Regarding the process described above, what is the most important recommendation you would make using IEEE 1044 as a guide? 2 credits

62. Topic 20, Scenario 12 “Automatic Teller Machine (ATM)”

You are a test manager in charge of integration, system and acceptance testing for a bank. You are working on a project to upgrade an existing ATM to allow customers to obtain cash advances from supported credit cards. The system should allow cash advances from 20 to 500, inclusively, for all supported credit cards. The supported credit cards are American Express, VISA, Eurocard and Mastercard.

In the master test plan the following items are listed in the section named “items and/or features to be tested”:

I All supported credit cards

II Language localization

II Valid and invalid advances IV Usability

V Response time



Given is the following defect removal chart reported at the end of system testing - showing total defects detected and closed defects (fixed and successfully retested). A number of open defects are classified as critical. All tests have been executed.





Based on the chart above, what is the most appropriate next test phase? 1 credit

63. Relying only on the information provided in the scenario, select the TWO items and/or features for which sufficient information is available to proceed with test design. 2 credits

64. Given the following figures for the testing on a project, and assuming the failure rate for initial tests remains constant and that all retests pass, what number of tests remain to be run? 3 credits

65. Continuing with the Scenario described in the previous question, which of the following topics would you need to address in detail in the master test plan? 3 credits

66. Topic 21, Mix Questions Set A



When assembling a test team to work on an enhancement to an existing system, which of the following has the highest level of test independence?

67. Consider the following pseudo code:

1 Begin

2 Read Time

3 If Time < 12 Then

4 Print(Time, "am")

5 Endif

6 If Time > 12 Then

7 Print(Time 12, "pm")

8 Endif

9 If Time = 12 Then

10 Print (Time, "noon")

11 Endif

12 End

How many test cases are needed to achieve 100 per cent decision coverage?

68. Acceptance test cases are based on what?

69. What should be the MAIN objective during development testing?

70. Which statement correctly describes the public and profession aspects of the code of ethics?

71. Which of the following terms is used to describe the management of software components comprising an integrated system?

72. Which of the following pairs of test tools are likely to be most useful during the test analysis and design stage of the fundamental test process?

(i) Test execution tool

(ii) Test data preparation tool

(iii) Test management tool

(iv) Requirements management tool

73. Which of the following is usually the test basis for integration testing?

74. Which of the following are the most important factors to be taken into account when selecting test techniques?

(i) Tools available.

(ii) Regulatory standards.

(iii) Experience of the development team.

(iv) Knowledge of the test team.

The need to maintain levels of capability in each technique.

75. Which of the following is correct?

Debugging is:

A. Testing/checking whether the software performs correctly.

B. Checking that a previously reported defect has been corrected.

C. Identifying the cause of a defect, repairing the code and checking the fix is correct.

D. Checking that no unintended consequences have occurred as a result of a fix.

76. A top-down development strategy affects which level of testing most?

77. Which of the following is the main purpose of the component build and integration strategy?

78. What is the concept of introducing a small change to the program and having the effects of that change show up in some test..?

79. Which is not the testing objective?

80. The difference between re-testing and regression testing is:

81. What is the purpose of exit criteria?

82. What is important to do when working with software development models?

83. Security falls under..?

84. What do static analysis tools analyze?

85. What benefits do static analysis tools have over test execution tools?

86. Which of the following is not a part of the Test Implementation and Execution Phase?

87. Designing the test environment set-up and identifying any required infrastructure and tools are a part of which phase:

88. “How much testing is enough?”

89. A deviation from the specified or expected behavior that is visible to end-users is called:

90. A system is designed to accept values of examination marks as follows:

Fail: 0C39 inclusive

Pass: 40C59 inclusive

Merit: 60C79 inclusive

Distinction: 80C100 inclusive

In which of the following sets of values are all values in different equivalence partitions?

91. Which one of the following roles is typically used in a review?

92. What can a risk-based approach to testing provide?

93. Which of the following defines the expected result of a test?

94. A software component has the code shown below:

Program BiggestA,

Biggest: Integer

Begin

Read A

Biggest = 10

While A > 0

Do

If A > Biggest

Then Biggest = A

Endif

Read A

Enddo

End

The component has exit criteria for component testing that include 100% statement coverage .

Which of the following test cases will satisfy this criterion?

95. Which of the following is most likely to cause failure in the implementation of a test tool?

96. Important consequences of the impossibility of complete testing are:

97. Which of the following has the typical formal review activities in the correct sequence?

98. What if the project isn't big enough to justify extensive testing..?

99. What do you mean by “Having to say NO”..?

100. What test roles (or parts in the testing process) is a developer most likely to perform?

(i) Executing component integration tests.

(ii) Static analysis.

(iii) Setting up the test environment.

(iv) Deciding how much testing should be automated.

101. One Key reason why developers have difficulty testing their own work is:

102. Consider the following pseudo code:

1 Begin

2 Read Time

3 If Time < 12 Then

4 Print(Time, "am")

5 Endif

6 If Time > 12 Then

7 Print(Time 12, "pm")

8 Endif

9 If Time = 12 Then

10 Print (Time, "noon")

11 Endif

12 End

If the test cases Time = 11 and Time = 15 were input, what level of decision coverage would be achieved?

103. Which of the following, if observed in reviews and tests, would lead to problems (or conflict) within teams?

104. Incorrect form of Logic coverage is:

105. Which of the following are most characteristic of structure-based testing?

(i) Information about how the software is constructed is used to derive test cases.

(ii) Statement coverage and/or decision coverage can be measured for existing test cases.

(iii) The knowledge and experience of people are used to derive test cases.

(iv) Test cases are derived from a model or specification of the system.

106. Test Implementation and execution has which of the following major tasks?

i. Developing and prioritizing test cases, creating test data, writing test procedures and optionally preparing the test harnesses and writing automated test scripts.

ii. Creating the test suite from the test cases for efficient test execution.

iii. Verifying that the test environment has been set up correctly.

iv. Determining the exit criteria.