The ISTQB (International Software Testing Qualifications Board) is a global umbrella organization consisting of 68 national member boards that develops and standardizes curricula for software testers. The best-known syllabus is the Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL), which was most recently expanded to include agile methods in version 4.0. All content is developed on a voluntary basis and exams are taken by independent exam providers.
Key Takeaways
- The ISTQB consists of 68 national member boards worldwide and has issued over one million exams and around 800,000 certificates without a central paid structure behind it: almost all the work is voluntary.
- The new CTFL 4.0 replaces the 2018 curriculum and introduces agile development practices as a core component of the standard curriculum for the first time, as most companies have long been working in an agile way.
- The quality assurance of the certificate is based on a deliberate separation of powers: curriculum development, training provider and examination provider are three separate roles so that no one can train and examine at the same time.
- Klaudia Dussa-Zieger cites the fact that curricula sometimes remain unchanged for over a decade as the most important structural deficit and wants to introduce a binding revision cycle of a maximum of five years.
What is the ISTQB and what does it stand for?
The International Software Testing and Qualification Board (ISTQB) is a global umbrella organization that defines the profession of software tester through standardized curricula and certifications. It consists exclusively of national member boards that come together under the international umbrella.
The idea was born more than 20 years ago at a testing conference. Seven countries, including the UK, the Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland, came together to describe a professional profile: What should a tester actually be able to do? At that time, software testing hardly existed as an independent discipline, programming courses did, but testing training did not.
The key decision was to think about the concept internationally from the outset. A Certified Tester from Austria is just as valid as one from Germany, because the concept is the same. The original seven countries have now become 68 Member Boards, some responsible for a single country, others for entire regions such as South-East Europe or South America.
The entire model is based on voluntary work. Apart from a small back office, no one is paid. The curricula, the reviews, the translations - it all comes from the working time and commitment of experts who do this alongside their main job.
What are the figures for ISTQB’s success?
The ISTQB has recorded well over one million examinations and around 800,000 certificates issued. Compared to other certification schemes such as ITIL or the iSAQB programs, the profession has nothing to hide.
One product in particular has made a major breakthrough: the Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL). It is the best-known certificate and has found its way into the business world. It appears in job descriptions as a requirement for testers, and many companies specifically train their employees for it.
Klaudia Dussa-Zieger describes the organization as an iceberg: “The tip is visible with the CTFL and perhaps one or two other courses. The much larger part, the entire organization and work behind it, remains invisible to most people.
Foundation Level 4.0: closer to actual practice
CTFL 4.0 brings foundation training closer to actual industry practice, especially agile development. The original form of the curriculum dates back to 2001, the last predecessor version 3.1 to 2018. These older versions were strongly oriented towards the V-model and had not yet arrived in the agile world.
Today, many companies work in some form of agile, whether with Scrum or other approaches. The new curriculum therefore includes significantly more agile elements: Principles and approaches from agile development are moving into the core product.
The classic methods remain valid, they are just placed in a new context. Young professionals in particular benefit from this. Anyone who sees that agile development is taking place around them will find their way around more quickly with a curriculum that reflects this reality.
What certificates are available beyond Foundation Level?
The Foundation Level is the root on which several pillars are built. The CTFL is considered the basics of testing, and everything else builds on it.
The first pillar comes from the classical world:
- Test Manager: Test management, effort estimation, project planning, test process improvement. This curriculum is currently being revised to lift the agile world.
- Test Analyst: detailed test design methods, white-box and black-box testing.
- Technical Test Analyst: Overview of non-functional test areas such as performance, security and usability.
- Above this is an Expert track.
The second pillar is the specialist curricula with a clearly defined focus. They are aimed at anyone who wants to familiarize themselves with a single topic, such as security testing, performance, usability, AI testing, mobile app testing or the domain-specific automotive testing variant.
The third pillar is the agile track. This includes Agile Test Leadership at Scale, which covers agile testing in scaled projects with several coordinated release trains. A one-day course is already available and a two-day extension is in the works.
How is an ISTQB syllabus created?
A syllabus is created through a multi-stage review process that prioritizes quality over speed. The trigger is usually an interest group that considers a topic to be important and wants to work on it.
In the case of Certified Tester AI Testing, for example, there were several groups from Europe, India and Asia, some of which already had their own curriculum drafts. Three parallel syllabuses make no sense in an organization with 68 boards. So the groups got together and worked through each learning objective together, controversially and with commitment, until a joint syllabus was created.
The formal process follows fixed steps:
- Accord learning objectives, then assign tasks and write texts.
- Internal group peer review of the combined document.
- **Alpha review within the ISTQB. Comments must be answered and discussed with the authors.
- Beta review in a larger group, including training and exam providers outside the organization. This feedback is also incorporated.
- Approval by the General Assembly, the voting body of the ISTQB.
In addition, technical edits are made to ensure language quality. Only a small percentage of the contributors are native English speakers, so an editorial layer is required. The release package includes not only the syllabus, but also test specifications, a sample test and a description.
The process is laborious and lengthy. This is exactly what ensures the quality that the certificate should carry.
Why does ISTQB work sometimes take longer?
Delays almost always arise from the voluntary nature of the work, not from malice. Around 98 percent of the work is voluntary. Those involved reserve time slots for themselves, meeting for two hours a week or so, but this doesn’t always work.
A lot depends on the so-called task force leader, who is responsible for a curriculum. How well they bring people together and guide them through the discussions has a noticeable impact on the lead time. Volunteering means a great deal of passion and commitment, but also longer cycles.
How is a curriculum translated into the respective national language?
English is the core language of the ISTQB, and each Member Board has the right to localize the syllabus and sample exam into its language. This is not mandatory, but it happens regularly.
In German-speaking countries, the German, Austrian and Swiss Boards jointly produce the German versions. The French, Japanese and Korean boards also translate their syllabuses. The boards have their own transition periods for localization, as they can only usefully start with the beta version.
The need is real. Software is developed and tested in many government agencies, and English is still a noticeable hurdle there. Translation is not a minor matter, but hard work.
How does the knowledge reach the market?
The ISTQB itself only creates the curricula as a PDF, but does not teach or test. Behind this is an ecosystem with a clear separation of powers between three partners.
| Role | Task |
|---|---|
| ISTQB creates the curriculum, runs marketing and webinars | |
| Training provider | creates training materials and exercises, holds the training courses |
| Exam-Provider | takes the exams, organizes rooms, examiners and remote proctoring |
The syllabus is just a document, you can’t train on it. The training providers turn it into real training materials and exercises. Their materials must be accredited by the Member Boards to ensure that all content is covered correctly and completely.
The separation of training and examination is intentional. Whoever gives the training should not also give the exam, otherwise every participant would automatically pass. The trainers do not know the exam questions. This is exactly what keeps the value of the certificate high: you don’t click through, you have to invest work.
We didn’t want the person who does the training to also take the exam. The certificate should have a certain quality. Klaudia Dussa-Zieger
In Germany, board, training and exam providers meet four to five times a year to exchange ideas. If there is an urgent need from the industry, for example for big data testing or machine learning testing, this flows back through this channel.
Test knowledge also belongs in the university
The ISTQB tries to take its content beyond industry and into education. In Germany, a dedicated group takes care of university contacts, writes to professors, meets them at specialist meetings and makes the CTFL material available for free use.
More than 50 universities already have a contact there who has accepted the material. Due to the freedom of teaching, each university decides for itself whether to use the material. Several Board members themselves teach as lecturers at universities.
What appeals to students is the combination of theory and project insights. Those who hear in class where something went well in practice and where it went badly take away more than from pure methodology teaching.
Other boards also tackle the topic. The English board is in talks with the UK Apprenticeship Board to introduce test content into apprenticeship training. Such approaches via state authorities are complex and non-trivial.
Three priorities for the next few years
The agenda for the coming term of office rests on three points that Klaudia Dussa-Zieger wants to advance as President.
**Firstly: a more up-to-date portfolio ** The fact that a curriculum remains unchanged for ten, eleven or twelve years does not fit in with the development of the industry. A mechanism similar to ISO could help, in which a decision is made after five years at the latest as to whether a curriculum still fits or needs to be revised. This also includes making the lesser-known curricula more visible and creating cross-connections via alliances, for example with requirements engineering or business analysis. Partnerships already exist with IREB and TMMi, and talks are underway with iSAQB.
**Secondly, activate new, younger member boards ** Those who founded the ISTQB 20 years ago were in their mid to late 30s and are correspondingly older today. We need new blood, new ideas and people who bring the latest technology from the university with them. One hurdle is that many representatives of the younger boards hardly dare to get in touch or ask questions in front of the established names.
**Thirdly, promote women in testing ** The Women in Testing initiative should continue, possibly with a focus on individual parts of the world.
