ISTQB® Certified Tester Advanced Level - Test Manager [Syllabus 2012] Questions and Answers
Test Management
You are the Test Manager of a new project aimed at developing a software system that must be certified at level B of the DO-178B standard. The project will follow a V-Model software development life cycle and it will have four formal levels of testing: component, integration, system and acceptance testing.
You must produce the test plan documentation for this project by providing an adequate coordination across the four levels of testing in order to assure auditability.
Which of the following answers would you expect to best describe how to organize the test plan?
Number of correct responses: 1
K32 credits
Test Management
You are managing the system testing for a SOA based system. The integrated system consists of several subsystems:
- a SOA middleware
- a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system
- a BRM (Billing and Revenue Management) system
- a SMS (Subscriber Management System) system
and you performed a risk analysis based on these subsystems.
At the end of the scheduled period for test execution you produce a first classical report based on the traditional metrics of testing. Test pass/fail status and bug status (open/resolved) That table provides you a distorted picture of the quality risk, because there is no indication of the risk level of the failed tests, the tests not run, or the open bugs. Thus, you produce the following table to solve this distortion issue:
In the table above, where you have introduced the concept of risk weighting, the highest risk test or bug report has a score of 1, while the lowest risk test or bug report has a score of 0.04.
Which of the following subsystems, based on the risk scores of the table, is most risky?
Number of correct responses: 1
K43 credits
After the presentation, you are asked to explain the chart.
Assume you have applied a full risk-based testing strategy.
Which of the following answers would you expect to best describe the pie chart?
Number of correct responses: 1
K43 credits
Test Management
Which of the following statements about management of product quality risks in mature organizations with respect to the lifecycle, is true?
Number of correct responses: 1
K21 credit
Test Management
Assume you are currently working on a project developing a system where functional requirements are very well specified. Unfortunately non-functional requirements do almost not exist.
You are the Test Manager. You have to choose a technique for test selection that allows testing of non-functional characteristics, especially reliability.
Which of the following techniques for test selection do you expect being most useful in this scenario?
Number of correct responses: 1
K21 credit
People Skills – Team Composition
Which of the following would you expect to be most likely an example of a motivating factor for testers?
Number of correct responses: 1
K21 credit
People Skills – Team Composition
Assume you are managing the system testing execution phase of a project.
The system test execution period for that project is scheduled for eighteen weeks and the release date is scheduled at the end of system testing.
During the sixth week of system test execution, at the staff meeting, the project manager informs you that the project deadlines are changed and the release date that is only three weeks ahead.
This new release will not allow the completion of the system tests. Suppose also that you have followed a risk-driven test approach for this project.
Which of the following statements represents the worst way to lead your test team in the next three weeks?
Number of correct responses: 1
K21 credit
People Skills – Team Composition
Which of the following would you expect to be most likely an example of a demotivating factor for testers?
Number of correct responses: 2
K21 credit
People Skills – Team Composition
Your test team consists of four members (Mary, Bob, Mark, Dave) with different interpersonal skills.
The following skills assessment spreadsheet shows the characteristics of the team members with respect to a list of interpersonal-skills (for each characteristic only the member with the highest level of that characteristic is indicated and marked with ‘X’):
On the next project a member of your test team will have to perform some routine tasks requiring collaboration with other teams.
Who in your test team would you expect to be most suitable at doing these tasks?
Number of correct responses: 1
K43 credits
People Skills – Team Composition
Consider the following analysis of testing skills performed on four people: Alex, Robert, John and Mark (all the skills have been rated on an ascending scale: The higher the score, the better the skill):
Which of these people, based on this analysis, would you expect to be most suitable to work specifically as test designer?
Number of correct responses: 1
K43 credits
Testing Process
Consider an information system of a Pay-Tv company based on a SOA architecture.
The integrated system currently consists of three core systems:
- a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system
- a BRM (Billing and Revenue Management) system
- a CAS (Conditional Access System) system
all of them communicating with SOA Middleware.
You have been asked to manage the testing activities for the integration of two additional off-the-shelf systems from two different vendors: a SMS (Short Message Service) server and an IVR (Interactive Voice Response) system.
Assume that there is a high likelihood that the two off-the-shelf systems will be low-quality and that you have a clear proof that the testing performed by the two vendors on their systems has been unsystematic and unprofessional. This obviously leads to higher quality risk for the overall integrated system.
You are the Test Manager of this project. Your main goal is to plan for testing activities to mitigate this risk.
Which of the following answers best describes the test activities (assuming it is possible to perform all of them) you should plan for?
Number of correct responses: 1
K43 credits
The following is the unique “critical” quality risk item that has been identified:
CR-RSK-1. The GUI of the application might accept non-integer values for the input field designed to get the number of bottles from the user
Test analysis for system testing has just begun and the following test conditions have been identified:
TC-SEL-2. Test the selection of the package sizes
TC-SEL-4. Test wrong numbers of bottles for an order
TC-CR-RSK-1. Test the accepted values from the input field designed to get the number of bottles from the user
Assume that you have used traceability to determine the logical test cases that cover all the requirements and the single risk item identified in that scenario.
Which of the following is a positive logical test that is complete and correct, and covers the REQ-SEL-4 requirement?
Number of correct responses: 1
K32 credits
The following are the requirements identified as “critical”:
REQ-SEL-001. The user shall be able to combine all the three products with all the four durations to define an item to purchase
REQ-SEL-002. The user shall be able to add a maximum of six different items to the shopping cart
REQ-PUR-001. The user shall be able to purchase all the items in the shopping cart using a credit voucher
REQ-PUR-002. The user shall be able to purchase all the items in the shopping cart using the available credit already charged on the smartcard
REQ-PUR-003. The user shall be able to purchase all the items in the shopping cart using all the accepted credit cards (Visa, MasterCard and Great Wall Card)
REG-LOGO-001. The user shall be able to logout (by clicking the logout button) from both the “select” and “purchase” pages going back to the “browse” page (anonymous navigation)
Moreover the following quality risk item has been identified as “critical”:
QR-P1. The web customer portal might not be able to provide the expected response time (less than 10 sec) for the purchase transactions under a load of up-to 1000 concurrent users
Test analysis for system testing has just begun and the following test conditions have been identified:
TC-SEL-01. Test the combinations of products and durations to define an item to purchase
TC-SEL-02. Test the maximum number of items, which can be added to the shopping cart
TC-PUR-01. Test the purchase of an item
TC-PUR-02. Test the purchase of an item with the credit charged on the smartcard
Assume that you have used traceability to determine the logical test cases that cover all the requirements and the single risk item identified in that scenario.
Which of the following is a positive logical test that is complete, is correct, and covers the REG-LOGO-001 requirement?
Number of correct responses: 1
K32 credits
A chart showing the trend in the lag time from defect reporting to resolution during system testing is also available. The chart shows that the daily closure period is consistently and significantly above the rolling closure period for a long period of the system testing phase.
Almost all defects found during system testing have been related to the system as a whole, not related to single units or integrations issues. Almost all quality risks have been addressed during the unit and integration testing phase and no residual quality risks were present in the integrated system. This has been confirmed by exploratory testing sessions performed during system testing, targeted at finding defects in these quality risk areas.
Based on the given information only, which one of the following areas would you expect to be considered more in the retrospective meeting in order to be improved?
Number of correct responses: 1
K33 credits
The following is the unique “critical” quality risk item that has been identified:
CR-RSK-1. The GUI of the application might accept non-integer values for the input field designed to get the number of bottles from the user
Test analysis for system testing has just begun and the following test conditions have been identified:
TC-SEL-2. Test the selection of the package sizes
TC-SEL-4. Test wrong numbers of bottles for an order
TC-CR-RSK-1. Test the accepted values from the input field designed to get the number of bottles from the user
What is the MINIMUM number of test conditions that must be added to fulfill both the EXCR1 and EXCR2 exit criteria?
Number of correct responses: 1
K32 credits
Defect Management
Which of the following information would you expect to be the most useful to perform a defect clustering analysis?
Number of correct responses: 1
K21 credit
Defect Management
During the system testing phase a tester from your test team observes a failure in the system under test and he/she decides to create an incident report. The incident report is currently in a “new” state, indicating it needs to be investigated.
Which THREE of the following information items can’t yet be present in the incident report?
Number of correct responses: 3
K32 credits (2 credits out of 3 credits correct, 1 credit point)
Defect Management
Consider a defect report and assume that a part of its lifecycle includes the following states:
New: Is the initial state
Working: Means that the developers are addressing the defect in order to produce a fix for the defect
Clarification: Means that the developers need more information from the tester to address the defect and produce a fix for the defect and the tester is working to provide this information to the developers
Verification: Means that a fix for the defect has been produced and the tester is running the adequate tests to verify whether the fix solves the defect
Closed: is the final state
Which of the following answers represents an invalid sequence of states that can’t lead the bug report to the “Closed” state?
Number of correct responses: 1
K21 credit
Defect Management
Assume you are working on a defect management process to be used by a software organization to track the current status of the defects reports for several projects.
When a defect is found for investigation a defect report is created in “Opened” state that is the unique initial state. The defect report status has also a unique finale state that is the “Closed” state.
The following state transition diagram describes the states of this defect management process:
where only the initial (“Opened”) and final (“Closed”) states are indicated while the remaining states (V, W, X, Y, Z) have yet to be named.
Which of the following assignments would you expect to best complete the defect management process?
Number of correct responses: 1
K32 credits
Your test team is in the process of completing final regression testing one week before the release date. One of your staff has just uncovered a critical defect that causes
data corruption.
What should you do? [2]
During the follow-up phase the following conditions are checked:
X1. The code has been completely reviewed
X2. All the identified defects have been correctly fixed and the modified code has been compiled successfully and run through all the static analyzers used by the project without warnings and errors
X3. The modified code is available under the configuration management system with a new version number for the specified CI
If these conditions are fulfilled then the review process terminates.
Which of the following characteristics of a formal review is missing in this description?
Number of correct responses: 1
K21 credit
Reviews
You are a Test Manager working for a software organization where reviews have never been applied. After a meeting with your managers examining a business case for reviews, (including their costs, benefits, and potential issues), the management finally decides to adopt formal reviews for future projects.
You have been given a budget that you have spent to provide training in the review process and to introduce the review process on a pilot project.
On that pilot project the introduction of reviews has been very positive in terms of positive involvement from all the participants. All the reviews applied to different documents have been very effective for their purposes (especially at revealing defects).
Which of the following answers describes an important success factor for the introduction of formal reviews which is missing in this scenario?
Number of correct responses: 1
K43 credits
Reviews
Consider the following list of statements about audits and management reviews:
I. Audits are usually more effective than management reviews at finding defects
II. Audits and management reviews have the same main goals, the only difference is related to the roles and level of formality
III. A typical outcome of an audit includes observations and recommendations, corrective actions and a pass/fail assessment
IV. An audit is not the appropriate mechanism to use at the code review in order to detect defects prior to dynamic testing
Which of the following statements is true?
Number of correct responses: 1
K21 credit
The main objectives the senior management team wants to achieve are:
- to reduce the costs associated with dynamic testing
- to use reviews to ensure that the project is on course for success and following the plan
- to use reviews as a well-documented and effective bug-removal activity following a formal process with well-defined roles
- to determine the effectiveness of reviews in terms of phase containment
- to improve phase containment effectiveness
Which of the following answers would you expect to describe the best way to achieve these objectives?
Number of correct responses: 1
K43 credits
Reviews
Which of the following factors could negatively influence a review?
Number of correct responses: 1
K21 credit
Test Tools and Automation
Assume you are a Test Manager involved in system testing of a CRM application for a Pay-TV company. Currently the application is able to support a proper number of users assuring the required responsiveness. Since the business is expected to grow, you have been asked to evaluate the ability of the application to grow to support more users while maintaining the same responsiveness.
Which of the following tools would you expect to be the most useful at performing this evaluation?
Number of correct responses: 1
K21 credit
Test Tools and Automation
After a selection process you have selected a test management tool that is going be introduced in your organization and used by your test team in a pilot project.
You have already identified the member of your test team who will be the administrator of the tool, since he/she has a significant experience with the administration of test management tools and so he/she is able to make effective and efficient up-front decisions about "how" the tool will be used. You have also developed a training plan for the other members of your test team.
In collaboration with the administrator of the tool you have also devised standard ways of managing, storing and maintaining the tool and its assets including backup/restore procedures.
You have also analyzed standard formats supported by the tool (CSV, XLS, XML, etc.) to export, import and archive all the information managed by the tool itself (requirements, test case specifications, test plans etc.) for compliance with the most important test management tools, in order to minimize the impacts of migrating this information to a new tool that could replace the existing one in the future.
Which of the following phases in the lifecycle of the new tool has NOT been adequately considered in this description?
Number of correct responses: 1
K21 credit
Test Tools and Automation
Assume you are managing a test automation project for a mission-critical system.
Because vendor provided tools and open source solutions don't meet the needs of this project, you ask your test team to develop a custom automation framework.
Which of the following management issues associated to the development of this custom automation framework is least likely to manage?
Number of correct responses: 1
K21 credit
Test Tools and Automation
Assume you are the Test Manager in charge of independent testing for avionics applications.
You are in charge of testing for a project to implement three different CSCI (Computer Software Configuration Item):
- a BOOT-X CSCI that must be certified at level B of the DO-178B standard
- a DIAG-X CSCI that must be certified at level C of the DO-178B standard
- a DRIV-X CSCI that must be certified at level A of the DO-178B standard
These are three different software modules written in C language to run on a specific hardware platform.
You have been asked to select a single code coverage tool to perform the mandatory code coverage measurements, in order to meet the structural coverage criteria prescribed by the DO-178B standard. This tool must be qualified as a verification tool under DO-178B.
Since there are significant budget constraints to purchase this tool, you are evaluating an open-source tool that is able to provide different types of code coverage. This tool meets perfectly your technical needs in terms of the programming language and the specific hardware platform (it supports also the specific C-compiler).
The source code of the tool is available.
Your team could easily customize the tool to meet the project needs. This tool is not qualified as a verification tool under the DO-178B.
Which of the following are the three main concerns related to that open-source tool selection?
Number of correct responses: 3
K43 credits (2 credits out of 3 credits correct, 1 credit point)
Test Tools and Automation
In your organization the following tools of the same vendor are currently in use: a requirements management tool, a test management tool and a bug tracking tool.
You are the Test Manager.
You are currently evaluating a test automation tool of the same vendor (to complete the vendor's tool suite) against an interesting open-source test automation tool under the GNU GPL (General Public License).
There are no initial costs associated to that open-source tool.
Which of the following statements associated to the selection of the open-source tool is correct in this scenario?
Number of correct responses: 1
K21 credit
Improving the Testing Process
Which of the following statements about the STEP test process improvement model is true?
Number of correct responses: 1
K21 credit
Improving the Testing Process
Which of the following statements about the TMMi test process improvement model is true?
Number of correct responses: 1
K21 credit
Improving the Testing Process
Consider the following statements describing the importance of improving the test process:
I. Test process improvement is important because being focused only on the test process it can provide recommendations to improve the test process itself, but it can’t indicate or suggest improvement to areas of the development process
II. Test process improvement is important because it is much more effective than software process improvement to improve the quality of a software system
III. Test process improvement is important because several process improvement models (STEP, TPI Next, TMMi) have been developed over the years
IV. Test process improvement is important because every organization, regardless of the context, should always achieve the maximum level of maturity of testing described in the test improvement models such as TMMi
Which of the following answers is correct?
Number of correct responses: 1
K21 credit
