CTAL-ATT Certified Tester Advanced Level Agile Technical Tester Questions and Answers

 The correct use of Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) to design test scenarios involves specifying the behavior in a given-when-then format. This format helps to clarify the conditions under which a particular outcome should occur. Option A follows this structure correctly:

Given that the shopper scans their card (the precondition),

When they checkout (the action),

Then they should receive all the quantity discounts for everything they have purchased (the expected outcome).

This scenario clearly outlines the behavior of the system in response to the user’s actions, which is central to BDD.

References = The ISTQB Advanced Level Agile Technical Tester syllabus emphasizes the importance of creating testable acceptance criteria for a given user story using requirements engineering and test techniques, which include the application of BDD in the context of a given user story12.

Understanding the Scenario:

The requirement is to collect structured feedback from a large user base.

The method should allow users to select predefined answers, making the process scalable and results analyzable.

Why Quantitative Questionnaires?

Quantitative questionnaires are structured tools with predefined answers, ideal for efficiently gathering measurable data from a large group.

The results can be statistically analyzed to identify trends and commonalities, aiding in defining clear acceptance criteria.

Eliminating Other Options:

B. Qualitative Questionnaires: These involve open-ended responses, which are harder to standardize and analyze, especially for large user groups.

C. Quantitative Interviews: These require individual interaction, making them less efficient for engaging large groups.

D. Qualitative Interviews: These are exploratory and subjective, not suitable for structured data collection or defining clear criteria.

References:Aligned with ISTQB Advanced Agile Technical Tester objectives, which recommend using structured elicitation methods like quantitative questionnaires for large-scale feedback.

When creating a user story, it is essential to consider the perspective of the end user. This is because user stories are meant to capture the requirements and experiences of the actual users who will interact with the system or product. The ISTQB Advanced Level Agile Technical Tester syllabus emphasizes the importance of analyzing user stories and epics using requirements engineering techniques, which include creating and evaluating testable acceptance criteria from the end user’s perspective. This approach ensures that the developed features will meet the real needs and expectations of the users, leading to a more user-centered and valuable product.

References = ISTQB Advanced Level Agile Technical Tester documents and Training resources12.

The appropriate test charter for the user story provided should focus on the customer’s experience and the functionality described in the story. Option C is the most suitable because it covers the entire process from the customer’s perspective: logging in, purchasing an item, receiving information about the requirement for free shipping, adding more items, and then verifying that the delivery is free upon checkout. This test charter effectively tests the acceptance criteria of the user story by ensuring that the system provides the necessary information and applies the free shipping offer correctly when the conditions are met.

References = The ISTQB Advanced Level Agile Technical Tester syllabus outlines the importance of creating test charters that align with user stories and epics using requirements engineering techniques. It emphasizes the need for test charters to be comprehensive and to evaluate the acceptance criteria effectively123.

 The BDD test scenario provided describes a customer performing a withdrawal transaction after entering the correct PIN and having sufficient funds in their account. The outcome is the customer receiving money and a receipt. This aligns with the user story in option C, which focuses on the customer’s desire to withdraw money for a specific purpose, which is to buy a present. The other options do not match the actions described in the BDD test scenario.

References = The answer is verified based on the ISTQB Advanced Level Agile Technical Tester documents which emphasize the importance of aligning BDD scenarios with the corresponding user stories to ensure that the tests reflect the user’s needs and interactions with the system12.

Updating the test automation suite during each iteration as the code is received ensures that the suite evolves with the software. It allows for immediate feedback on the impact of changes, supports continuous integration, and helps in identifying defects early in the development process. This practice is in line with Agile principles, which advocate for continuous testing and integration to improve quality and reduce the time to market1.

References = The ISTQB Advanced Level Agile Technical Tester documents outline the importance of maintaining and updating test automation suites in an Agile environment to support continuous integration and delivery, and to ensure that the tests provide adequate coverage throughout the development cycle2.

The main flaw in the proposed test charter is that it does not cover the main functionality of the user story. The user story focuses on the customer wanting to be informed about the delivery time of their items so they can plan to be home. The proposed charter only tests for the absence of a shipping fee and does not address whether the system provides the customer with the delivery time information.

References = The ISTQB Advanced Level Agile Technical Tester syllabus emphasizes the importance of aligning test charters with the user story’s main functionality to ensure that tests provide adequate coverage12. It is crucial in Agile methodologies to create and evaluate testable acceptance criteria that reflect the user story’s objectives12.

When a conflict arises regarding user story requirements, it is essential to engage in active collaboration to resolve the issue. The tester should work with the Business Analyst (BA) and the product owner to clarify and negotiate the requirements. This approach ensures that the user story reflects the needs of all stakeholders and that the acceptance criteria are agreed upon before testing proceeds. It aligns with Agile principles, which emphasize teamwork, customer collaboration, and the ability to respond to change.

References = The ISTQB Advanced Level Agile Technical Tester documents highlight the importance of collaboration and communication within Agile teams to resolve differences and refine requirements. It also underscores the role of the tester in facilitating discussions to ensure that the user stories are well-understood and testable12.

 In Agile settings, the availability of resources is indeed a challenge for test automation. Agile projects require rapid development and frequent changes, which means that the test suite must be continuously updated and maintained. This requires dedicated resources that can quickly adapt to these changes and ensure that the test automation is effective and up-to-date. Without sufficient resources, the test automation efforts can become a bottleneck, hindering the Agile team’s ability to deliver quality software at speed.

References = The ISTQB Advanced Level Agile Technical Tester documents discuss the challenges of test automation in Agile settings, including the need for resources to support test automation activities12. It emphasizes the importance of having a well-maintained test suite that can keep up with the pace of Agile development3.

Acceptance Test-Driven Development (ATDD) involves the whole team collaboratively discussing acceptance criteria, with examples, and then distilling them into a set of concrete acceptance tests before development begins. It’s a way to get clear on what to build, and it’s done in a way that allows the team to know when a story is complete. ATDD helps to make sure that all the stakeholders have a common understanding of what is being built and what the success criteria are.

References = The ISTQB Advanced Level Agile Technical Tester documents emphasize the importance of defining testable requirements within an Agile team and creating and implementing various Agile test approaches using appropriate techniques1. It also supports the contribution to test automation activities in an Agile project2, which aligns with the principles of ATDD.

The increase in automated test coverage allows for more frequent and extensive testing of the software, which in turn provides more up-to-date information about the current state of the system. This enables testers to apply reactive strategies effectively, as they can focus manual testing efforts on areas that are most likely to be affected by recent changes or that are identified as high-risk. Reactive strategies are adaptive and context-dependent, making them well-suited for the dynamic and iterative nature of Agile projects.

References = The ISTQB Advanced Level Agile Technical Tester syllabus and study materials emphasize the importance of integrating automated testing within the Agile process to support continuous integration and delivery. It also highlights the need for manual testing to complement automated tests by focusing on areas that require human judgment and exploratory testing skills12.

In a reactive test approach, tests are designed and executed in response to the actual system under test and the results obtained. This approach is characterized by a reduced planning cycle, and the design and implementation of test phases are not carried out until the test object is received. For projects that need to adhere to external regulations, it is crucial that automated tests and their results are traceable back to the requirements to ensure compliance. This traceability allows for the verification that all requirements have been tested and met, which is a common requirement in regulated industries.

References = The explanation aligns with the principles of test automation in a reactive test approach, as outlined in resources related to the ISTQB Advanced Level Agile Technical Tester certification123. These resources emphasize the importance of traceability in test automation, especially in contexts where compliance with external regulations is necessary.

 In the context of Agile Technical Testing, when a test class fails, the immediate next step is to repair the failing code. This aligns with the Agile principle of fast feedback and continuous improvement. The failing test indicates that the current implementation does not meet the specified criteria, hence the need to correct the code. Once the code is repaired, it should be re-executed to verify that the test now passes, ensuring that the validation criterion is met.

References = The ISTQB Advanced Level Agile Technical Tester materials emphasize the importance of quick iterations and prompt responses to test failures. This approach helps maintain the momentum of the development process and ensures that issues are addressed as soon as they are identified1

 Exploratory testing is a type of testing that emphasizes the personal freedom and responsibility of the individual tester to continually optimize the quality of his/her work by treating test-related learning, test design, test execution, and test result interpretation as mutually supportive activities that run in parallel throughout the project. While exploratory testing can be highly effective in certain contexts, for safety-critical systems, it is generally not recommended. Safety-critical systems require a high degree of assurance and predictability that each component of the system behaves as expected under all circumstances. Manual black-box tests, which are more structured and can be thoroughly planned and documented, are preferred in these scenarios to ensure comprehensive coverage and traceability.

References = The ISTQB Advanced Level Agile Technical Tester syllabus and training materials provide guidance on the appropriate use of different testing techniques in various contexts, including the recommendation of structured manual black-box testing over exploratory testing for safety-critical systems1234.

The correct BDD scenario for the given user story is option C, which aligns with the principles of Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) and the Gherkin syntax. This scenario clearly specifies the context (Given), the action (When), and the outcome (Then), along with handling alternate flows (ELSE). It ensures that the customer can access and update their booking details only if they provide both the correct surname and flight number, which is a common practice for verifying a customer’s reservation. This scenario also includes an error handling path, which is essential for a comprehensive test case.

References = The ISTQB Advanced Level Agile Technical Tester syllabus and related materials emphasize the importance of creating testable acceptance criteria for user stories using requirements engineering and test techniques, which include the formulation of BDD scenarios in Gherkin format123.

 Service virtualization is a technique that allows teams to simulate the behavior of dependent systems or components that are not readily accessible during the testing phase. In the context of developing an e-shop application with a payment gateway still under development, service virtualization offers the following benefits:

Realistic Testing: It enables the testing of the e-shop application (SUT) in a manner that closely resembles the final production environment by simulating the payment gateway’s behavior. This allows for the identification of defects and issues early in the development process12.

Simplification of the Test Environment: By using virtual services, the complexity of the test environment is reduced. There’s no need to set up and maintain actual integrations with the third-party payment gateway until it is fully developed, which simplifies the testing process and infrastructure requirements12.

References = The benefits of service virtualization are well-documented in the ISTQB Advanced Level Agile Technical Tester syllabus and other software testing resources, which highlight its role in enabling early and realistic testing, as well as simplifying the test environment3412.

Quantitative questionnaires are best suited for eliciting non-functional requirements from a large number of stakeholders. This is because they allow for the collection of measurable, statistical data that can be analyzed to understand the stakeholders’ needs regarding system qualities like performance, usability, and reliability. These questionnaires can be designed to include specific questions about non-functional aspects, which can then be quantitatively assessed to inform the acceptance criteria1.

References = The ISTQB Advanced Level Agile Technical Tester syllabus and study resources emphasize the importance of understanding and defining both functional and non-functional requirements in Agile environments. They outline various elicitation techniques that can be used to gather these requirements, including the use of questionnaires for collecting quantitative data23.

 Service virtualization is a technique used in software testing where a virtualized service simulates the behavior of dependent components that are not available for testing. This allows testing to proceed without waiting for the actual components to be available or operational. It is particularly useful in Agile and continuous testing environments where components may be developed in parallel or where integration points may not yet be stable. Service virtualization helps to create a more controlled and deterministic testing environment, enabling more thorough testing of the product under development.

References = The ISTQB Advanced Level Agile Technical Tester syllabus includes service virtualization as one of the key concepts to understand in the context of Agile testing123.

This statement is true because increasing test suite coverage refers to adding more test cases or enhancing existing ones to cover more features or scenarios. This can be done independently of refactoring, which is the process of restructuring existing code without changing its external behavior. While refactoring can improve the design and maintainability of both production code and test scripts, it is not a prerequisite for increasing test suite coverage.

References = The ISTQB Advanced Level Agile Technical Tester syllabus outlines the importance of test automation in Agile projects, including the ability to increase test coverage through various test automation strategies12.

After identifying test cases that require refactoring, the next task is to analyze the impact of the current iteration’s functionality on the existing regression tests. This involves assessing how the new changes will affect the tests and determining if the tests still cover the necessary aspects of the software. The goal is to ensure that the regression tests remain relevant and effective in light of the recent changes made to the application.

References = The ISTQB Advanced Level Agile Technical Tester syllabus and related materials emphasize the importance of maintaining the relevance and effectiveness of regression tests throughout the development iterations, which includes analyzing the impact of new functionalities on existing tests12.

The Java function provided is intended to determine if a number input by the user is even or odd. Upon reviewing the code against the checklist provided:

The variable Number does not start with a capital letter, violating the first checklist item.

The output messages do not start with a capital letter, violating the second checklist item.

There is no comment line explaining the purpose of the class, violating the third checklist item.

Therefore, none of the checklist items have been fulfilled.

References = The ISTQB Advanced Level Agile Technical Tester documents emphasize the importance of adhering to coding standards and best practices, which include proper naming conventions and documentation within the code to enhance readability and maintainability12. These principles are fundamental in organizations using an Agile development approach, as they support continuous integration and delivery, which are key aspects of Agile methodologies1.

What is Static Code Analysis?

Static code analysis examines code without executing it, identifying issues such as inefficiencies, complexities, and vulnerabilities.

How It Reduces Technical Debt:

By pinpointing areas of inefficient or overly complex code, developers can address these issues early, reducing the accumulation of technical debt over time.

Security vulnerabilities identified through static analysis prevent future costly rework or fixes.

Analyzing the Options:

A: Correctly identifies the benefits of identifying inefficiencies, complexities, and insecure code.

B: Static analysis happens after code is written, not during the writing process.

C: Static analysis complements but does not replace code reviews.

D: Static analysis does not replace unit tests, as they serve different purposes.

References:Aligned with ISTQB Advanced Agile Technical Tester syllabus on technical debt management and the role of static code analysis.

Keyword-Driven Testing:This approach requires a focused set of keywords tailored to the actions described in the user story.

Story Actions:

The ability to add and delete items from the cart.

Viewing the cart to confirm changes.

Calculating shipping costs.

Smallest Set of Keywords:

Login: To simulate a user session.

Add Item and Delete Item: For cart modifications.

View Cart: To verify cart contents.

Compute Shipping: To check shipping costs.

Conclusion:Option D includes the minimum keywords required to meet the story’s needs.

Preferred Approach for Acceptance Criteria:

Collaboratively eliciting examples from the product owner ensures that the acceptance criteria reflect real-world usage and expectations.

Combining these examples with testing techniques ensures coverage of edge cases and system behavior.

Analyzing Options:

A: Proposes specific criteria but does not involve the product owner in the process.

B: Boundary value analysis is useful but does not address broader acceptance criteria.

D: Lists numerous acceptance criteria without first understanding the product owner’s expectations.

References:Aligned with ISTQB Agile Technical Tester syllabus emphasizing collaboration with stakeholders to define robust acceptance criteria.

Regression-Averse Test Approach:This approach minimizes risks by ensuring tests remain relevant and effective over time. The key focus is maintaining and enhancing the regression suite to reflect changes in the software.

Continuous Improvement of Tests:Keeping tests updated ensures the test suite is reliable and maintains high coverage. This involves adding tests for new features, removing obsolete tests, and refining existing ones.

Conclusion:Option D is correct because it aligns with the goals of regression-averse approaches.

Testing Constraints in CI:The time limitations for test execution and results review necessitate prioritization of tests based on criticality and frequency of code changes.

Efficient Allocation:

High-priority tests should run on each build to catch critical issues early.

Medium-priority tests can be run nightly to balance coverage and time constraints.

Low-priority tests are less critical and can run weekly.

Non-functional tests require the integrated stage environment and should run at a predefined time (e.g., Thursday night before sprint end).

Analysis of Options:

A: Running all tests every night is impractical due to time constraints.

B: Medium-priority tests should be run more frequently than at the end of the sprint.

C: Running all tests on every build is unrealistic given the time and resource limitations.

D: Correct, as it ensures efficient prioritization and scheduling of test sets.

Conclusion:Option D provides the most efficient and effective test execution strategy.