Graham Bath - Improving the Test Process Implementing Improvement and Change - A Study Guide for the ISTQB Expert Level Modul

Graham Baths experience in testing spans over 25 years and has covered a wide array of domains and technologies. As a test manager, he has been responsible for the testing of mission-critical systems in spaceflight, telecommunications, and police incident control. Graham has designed tests to the highest levels of rigor within real-time aerospace systems such as the Eurofighter military aircraft.

As a principal consultant for the T-Systems Global Delivery Unit, Testing Services, he has mastered the Quality Improvement Programs of several major companies, primarily in the financial and government sectors. In his current position, Graham is responsible for the companys training and test-consulting programs. Graham is co-author of the ISTQB Expert Level syllabus, Improving the Test Process. He is a long-standing member of the German Testing Board and is chairman of the ISTQB Expert Level working group.

Drs. Erik van Veenendaal, CISA (www.erikvanveenendaal.nl), has been working as a practitioner and manager in the IT-industry since 1987. After a career in software development, he transferred to the area of software quality. As a test analyst, test manager, and test consultant, Erik has over 20 years of practical testing experience. He has also been a senior lecturer in the Technology Management department at the Eindhoven University of Technology for almost 10 years.

Erik founded Improve Quality Services BV (www.improveqs.nl) in 1998 as an independent organization that focuses on advanced high-quality services. He has been the company director for over 12 years. Under his direction, Improve Quality Services became a leading testing company in The Netherlands.

Erik is the co-author of numerous papers and a number of books on software quality and testing, including the best sellers ISTQB Foundations of Software Testing and Test Maturity Model integration (TMMi). He is a regular speaker at both national and international testing conferences and a leading international trainer in the field of software testing.

Since its foundation in 2002, Erik has been heavily involved in the International Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB). From 2005 to 2009, he was the vice president of the ISTQB organization; he has also been the lead of the ISTQB Expert Level working party for over 10 years. As a co-author, he is also involved in writing the Foundation, Advanced, and Expert Level syllabi. Erik is one of the founders of the TMMi Foundation and is the lead developer of the TMMi model. For his outstanding contribution to the field of testing, Erik received the European Testing Excellence Award in December 2007.

Publisher: Gerhard Rossbach

Editor: Michael Barabas

Copyeditor: Judy Flynn

Proofreader: Julie Simpson

Project Manager: Matthias Rossmanith

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Cover Design: Helmut Kraus, www.exclam.de

Printer: Sheridan

Printed in USA

ISBN 978-1-933952-82-6

1st Edition 2014

2014 by Graham Bath and Erik van Veenendaal

Rocky Nook, Inc.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bath, Graham, 1954

Improving the test process : implementing improvement and change--a study guide for the ISTQB expert level module / by Graham Bath, Erik van Veenendaal.

pages cm

ISBN 978-1-933952-82-6 (softcover : alk. paper)

1. Computer software--Testing--Examinations--Study guides. 2. Electronic data processing personnel--Certification. I. Veenendaal, Erik van. II. Title.

QA76.76.T48B376 2013

005.30287--dc23

2013035049

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Preface

If your objective is to gain well-rounded, in-depth knowledge of how to improve testing processes, this book is for you. It is a one-stop study guide for the Improving the Test Process module of the ISTQB Certified Tester Expert Level.

This book will give you a thorough understanding of how to approach test process improvement from two fundamental viewpoints: the process itself and the people issues concerned with improving the process. Its not a book about using model XYZ or applying technique ABC; it considers test process improvement itself as a process, with a wide range of options, choices, and interactions.

Of course, youll get in-depth information about models and techniques; we need to know the tools of the trade and how to use them. But theres more to test process improvement than merely applying models and techniques.

This book will also help you improve your soft skills. In particular it will allow you to appreciate the way people interact, how they respond to change and how they can be guided through the changes that lead to process improvement. Dont worry, you dont need to be a psychologist to improve testing processes, but understanding people issues is a critical success factor.

This book is aimed at anyone charged with improving processes. The focus is on test processes, so test managers and test consultants in particular will benefit, but many of the issues covered apply equally well to improving other IT processes and will benefit many IT professionals.

The book provides full coverage of the Improving the Test Process module of the ISTQB Certified Tester Expert Level [ISTQB-CTEL-ITP]. Two of the three core authors of this syllabus are also the authors of this book; we cover everything you will need to know to successfully sit for the examinations.

Acknowledgements

Our thanks go to co-author Isabel Evans, with whom we developed this ISTQB Expert Level Certified Tester Syllabus.

I (Erik) would especially like to acknowledge Danielle for her continuous support.

I (Graham) would especially like to acknowledge my family (Elke, Christopher, Jennifer) for their understanding and patience.