ISTQB® CTFL - Certified Tester Foundation Level

This chapter builds the vocabulary the rest of the course runs on.

• Test objectives, and what separates testing from debugging
• Error, defect and failure, and their root causes
• The testing principles
• The whole team approach and the independence of testing

Here you place tests in the phases where they actually happen.

• DevOps and testing, and what shift-left means in practice
• Test levels from component testing to acceptance testing
• Functional, non-functional, black-box and white-box test types
• Confirmation testing, regression testing and maintenance testing

The part that finds defects before any code exists for them.

• Which work products can be examined statically
• Where static testing and dynamic testing part ways
• The activities of the review process, its roles and responsibilities
• Review types and the success factors behind them

The longest chapter in the syllabus: this is where the test cases come from.

• Equivalence partitioning, boundary value analysis, decision tables and state transition testing
• Statement and branch coverage as the measure of structural testing
• Experience-based techniques: error guessing, exploratory testing, checklist-based testing
• Collaboration-based approaches such as acceptance test-driven development

This part answers what gets tested first and when you stop.

• The purpose and content of a test plan, entry and exit criteria
• Estimation techniques, test case prioritisation, the test pyramid and testing quadrants
• Product risk analysis and product risk control
• Defect management, test reports and configuration management

The shortest chapter, and deliberately not tool training.

• Tool support for testing
• The benefits and the risks of test automation