ISTQB vs. Other Software Testing Certifications
The Information Technology(IT) sector of late has seen tremendous growth. People from different streams are moving into the IT sector due to better career growth. In the present situation there has been an increase in need of quality applications among customers which can help in performing their real life tasks in short span of time.This development of software is possible through IT sector by various software developers.It is also equally important to ensure that the software applications developed are of good quality and therefore it becomes necessary to test the software applications before releasing into the market. This is done through the Software Testing process by Software Testers.
Software Testing is an integral part of Software Development which involves testing all the functionalities of the software application as per customer requirements so that a good quality of software application is delivered to customers.
Software Test Life Cycle(STLC) is a detailed step by step procedure in the software development process for testing software applications. In order to ensure that software testing is properly done it is necessary for organisations to recruit certified testers. Software Testing Certification ensures that the testers have adequate knowledge regarding all aspects of software testing like principles of software testing, techniques and tools involved in software testing and end to end knowledge of software testing life cycle and defect life cycle.
In the IT Sector apart from developers testers play an important role in software development and release to customers in a short interval of time. There will always be a need for software testers so that a good quality of software application is delivered to customers in a short period of time. Before Testing Software Application, testers should have thorough knowledge on all concepts of software testing and tools used for testing and defect tracking. Software testing certifications are the proofs which ensure that testers have end to end knowledge in software testing like benefits and risks of software testing, requirements in software testing,principles of software testing,different types of software testing like static testing and dynamic testing, tools used for software testing and defect tracking. The different software testing certifications courses are:
Certified Associate in Software Testing(CAST) is a software testing certification course for those people who want to pursue their career in software testing.It ‘s exam is conducted by Quality Assurance Institute(QAI) which is a global institute.This certification ensures that testers have sufficient expertise in all testing related concepts, testing principles, testing life cycles, test automation through web and mobile applications, knowledge of performing parallel testing, cross browser testing,cross platform and compatibility testing. Software Testers on gaining knowledge through CAST certification can utilise that knowledge in their organisations which can result in timely delivery of software applications to customers as well as rapid growth and development of the organisations in which they work.
- A Bachelor’s degree of 3 to 4 years from a recognised university
- A Bachelor’s degree of 2 years with 1 year of relevant experience in IT industry
- 3 Years of work experience in IT sector
- There will be total 100 questions
- All questions will be of multiple choice
- Total time duration to answer the questions will be 75 minutes
- The pass percentage will be 70%
- The exam fee is $100
Software quality assurance refers to the group of activities that focuses on the processes,procedures and standards involved in software application development so as to ensure that a good quality of software is developed before being released into the market. Gaining a certificate of Software Quality Analyst ensures that the tester has in-depth knowledge on all principles and methods of Software Quality Assurance which they can implement in the real life scenario in their organisation resulting in growth of organisation as well as personal recognition. This also results in becoming members of recognised professional groups and job promotion in their workplace.
- 4 years of Bachelor’s degree from a recognised institute alongwith 2 years of experience in IT sector.
- 3 years of Bachelor’s degree from a recognised institute alongwith 3 years of experience in IT sector
- 2 years of Bachelor’s degree from a recognised institute alongwith 4 years of experience in IT sector
- 6 years of relevant experience in IT sector
- There will be total 100 questions
- The total time allotted to complete all the questions will be 90 minutes
- The pass percentage for this exam will be 70 percent
- The fee for this certification exam will be in between $350 to $450
Cloud testing refers to the testing of functionality of software applications by using cloud based technologies. With the help of cloud based tools, testers are able to perform various functional testing like component testing, integration testing and non functional testing like performance testing, web security testing in a smoother way. Companies having limited budgets for testing, finding difficulty in completing tasks within deadline and need to cover a large number of test cases within a short period of time follow cloud testing. They also keep their test related documents in a cloud repository.
- The total number of questions will be 40 all questions will be of multiple choice based
- The total number of questions to be answered correctly for passing the exam will be 28
- The duration of the exam will be 1 hour
- The entire exam will be online based with a proper internet connection and webcam
- The fees structure will be $70 which has 10 to 20 hours of course,$128 which is known as an exam voucher and $140 which consists of both the exam voucher and the entire course.
International Software Testing Qualifications
Board (ISTQB) is an organisation that conducts certification courses and provides certificates to aspiring testers after clearing the certification exam. It is a globally recognised organisation whose certification ensures that testers have adequate knowledge on each and every concept of software testing, like principles of software testing, test case design techniques, tools used for testing and bug tracking and they can utilise these knowledge in their organisations to successfully complete the task. Testers with ISTQB certification are given higher preference in job recruitment and they receive better recognition and job promotion in their organisation. The certification exam is of different levels starting from the foundation level to the advanced level.
- There will be total of 40 Multiple choice questions
- Each correct answer will fetch one mark and there will be no negative marks for wrong answer
- The pass percentage will be 65%
- The duration of the exam will be 60 minutes if the examination is in native language of the candidate and 75 minutes if the examination is not in native language of the candidate.
- The fees for this certification exam will be $250.
- There will be total 40 questions and each correct answer will fetch 2 marks
- The passing mark is 52
- The duration of exam is 120 minutes
- The exam fee will be $249
A person who has got the certification of Quality Engineer will be better equipped to understand and evaluate product principles,can analyse different statistical methods for proper quality control as well understand the practical usage of metrology and quality control in industries.
The exam for Certified Quality Engineer will be divided into two parts.
- There will be a total of 175 Questions out of which 160 Questions will be multiple choice based and remaining questions will not affect the final marks tally.
- The exam will be completely computer based
- The time duration for the exam will be 5 hours and 18 minutes.
- The exam will be pen and paper based
- There will be total of 160 Questions
- The total time duration of the exam will be 5 hours.
Among all the testing certifications ISTQB is regarded as best due to the structured course content, division of certification exam from basic to advanced level and better recognition of employees in their respective organisations.
The various benefits associated with ISTQB compared to other Software Test Certification are
An ISTQB Certified tester will have better growth in career due to the complete knowledge in all testing concepts starting from the basic to the advanced. As a result there is greater chance for Organisational Promotion, getting higher salary jobs and better testing skills as compared to non ISTQB certified testers.
Testers having ISTQB certification will be given more preference for job as compared to non ISTQB certification testers due to their greater knowledge in testing domain and better ability to utilise that knowledge for performing tasks in a short period of time. ISTQB certification testers will be getting job opportunities for different testing designations more than the non ISTQB certification testers.
Testers with ISTQB certification receive better recognition due to their immense knowledge and skills in software testing as well as their ability to utlise their skills to successfully complete the task resulting in better productivity of organisation as well as fulfilment of organisational needs. As a result they are assigned with more roles and responsibilities and better positions in the organisation.
Since ISTQB certified testers have thorough knowledge on all testing concepts like testing principles, test plan and testing tools, they get a higher degree of confidence to perform any task in the organisation as well as to take up any roles and responsibilities offered to them by their superiors.
ISTQB Certification ensures that testers have better understanding and knowledge on software testing concepts compared to non ISTQB certified testers resulting in job promotion, better job opportunities,higher preference in jobs, increase in salary and higher degree of confidence to complete the task. The reason for ISTQB certified testers getting better knowledge is because the certification course syllabus has been made in a systematic manner from the very basic to the advanced level.
ISTQB Certification has proven to be a better certification course for aspiring software testers as compared to other certification courses due to the systematic course content, better exam pattern and its applicability for everyone.In other words ISTQB Certification is background agnostic. ISTQB Certified testers have all the required knowledge and skills for performing various tasks in a short period of time resulting in tremendous growth of organisation.
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