In recent years, updates to the core range of ISTQB certifications, such as ISTQB Foundation, ISTQB Advanced and ISTQB Agile Tester have been few and far between. In fact, for the ISTQB Foundation syllabus, it has been four years. So what changes are we to expect next year?<\/p>\n
There are rumors in the QA community that the ISTQB is working on updates to its ISTQB Foundation syllabus and ISTQB Advanced syllabus, which we are t o expect in the new examination next year (2016). Whether or not these rumors turn out to be true remains to be seen. There certainly is no word on the official ISTQB website. So what changes are we likely to see in any future ISTQB syllabus?<\/p>\n
There is a lot of ‘buzz’ at the moment for a world-wide official certification for Mobile App Testing (Mobile QA). While this would be relatively welcomed by the QA community, do we actually need it. What the ISTQB promotes is the key fact that good software testing principles can be applied to any software product or platform. Fortunately for Software Testers is that the key fundamentals of software testing do not change very often, nor will they. Will a tester who has completed a mobile app training course find more defects in a mobile app than a tester who holds an ISTQB certification? The answer will probably be know. Obviously there are several other contributory factors to consider, but essentially a good tester should be able to plan and execute a good test strategy to uncover defects regardless of the software platform.<\/p>\n
There are many calls for and expectations that the ISTQB will(and must) add mobile testing information to its future ISTQB range of QA certifications. I very much doubt this will actually be the case. Just take a look through the current ISTQB syllabi, and see for yourself how much of it is still relavant and can be applied to a mobile app.<\/p>\n
Mobile app development (and subsequent QA) is a huge proportion of the worlds current software market, and its here to stay. As Testers, do we need to update our skill-sets? or simply change our attitude?<\/p>\n
Simon K. Jones<\/p>\n