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Writer's pictureNancy Smith

What is Test Management Certification?

Updated: Jun 21, 2019

Test Management certification questions and exam summary helps you to get focused on the exam. This guide also helps you to be on CTEL-TM exam track to get certified with good score in the final exam.

The Master Level qualification is sighted at people who have already gained an advanced point in their careers in software testing and wish to further develop their expertise in a specific area. The modules offered at the Expert Level cover a wide range of testing topics.


A testing specialist in the subject of Test Management is one who has extensive experience of testing in general, and an in-depth understanding of a specific test area. An in-depth understanding is defined as having sufficient knowledge of testing theory and practice to be able to influence the direction that an organization and project takes when creating, implementing, and administering testing processes.


Test Management (CTEL-TM) Certification Summary

Test Management (CTEL-TM) Certification Exam Syllabus


01.Test Missions, Policies, Strategies and Goals


Mission, Policy, and Metrics of Success

  • Discuss the quality goals of the organization and define a test team’s mission consistent with those goals

  • Define, describe and evaluate test objectives, priorities and test goals that might have long term effects on the software, quality, and dependencies (organizational, economical and technical)

  • For a given situation, define effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction metrics for the test process, identifying opportunities for improvement

Test Strategies

  • Analyze a given situation and determine which individual strategies, or blended strategies, are most likely to succeed in that situation

  • Analyze a situation in which a given test strategy failed, identifying the likely causes of failure

  • For a given situation, create a test strategy document that contains the important elements, enables success factors, and mitigates causes of failure

Alignment of Test Policy and Test Strategy with the Organization

  • Define, describe, evaluate and improve the test policy and strategy(ies) both long and short term for a company, organization and/or a test team, including process and organization of test, people, tools, system and techniques


02. Managing the Test Team


Building the Test Team

  • For a given job opening, evaluate a set of resumés and determine the best candidate

  • For a given job opening, devise an appropriate and effective approach to interviewing candidates, and conduct the interview

  • Outline the major points of a training program for new people

  • List considerations that must be made when terminating an employee or contractor

Developing the Test Team

  • Discuss the purpose for creating development plans and stating goals and objectives for individual testers

  • Review a set of S.M.A.R.T goals for an individual tester to determine if the goals are appropriate based on the tester’s resumé and the organization’s test strategy

  • Explain the importance of an individual understanding their role and responsibilities within a test team

  • Explain how a particular Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® profile might determine the role assignment for an individual

  • Identify areas where a tester should monitor and develop their skills, and select appropriate learning options including training and mentoring

  • Conduct a performance review that is targeted to encourage growth in a high performing individual as well as to acknowledge and reward their accomplishments

  • Conduct a performance review that is targeted to redirect the efforts of a poor performer to improve performance and to set achievable short term and long term goals

Leading the Test Team

  • For a given situation, evaluate the information and guidance needed by the test team and determine the most effective method of communication

  • Brainstorm on various team-building activities that will help to foster loyalty and trust within the team

  • Explain the challenges of motivating a test team, both short term and long term

  • Create a plan for team building activities that includes offshore teams and helps improve communication


03.Managing External Relationships


Types of External Relationships

  • For a given contract, define the third-party relationship regarding testing responsibilities

Contractual Issues

  • For a given project with an external vendor, define suitable SLAs

Communication Strategies

  • Discuss potential communication strategies for a given third party engagement

Integrating from External Sources

  • Analyze a given project scenario to determine the appropriate level of testing required by the internal test team for a product that has employed a third party for some portion of the development/testing

Merging Test Strategies

  • Summarize the items that must be considered when merging test strategies with a third party organization

Verifying Quality

  • Create a set of entrance and exit criteria for a specified third party project scenario


04.Managing Across the Organization


Advocating the Test Team

  • Define appropriate steps to take to promote or advocate the test team

  • For a given situation, define the quantitative and qualitative benefits of testing and communicate those benefits effectively to project stakeholders

  • Give examples of situations in which the Test Manager would need to defend the test team

Placement of the Test Team

  • Evaluate an organization’s structure, its missions, its products, customers, and users, and its priorities, in order to determine the options for proper placement of the test team within the organization, assess the implications of those options, and create an analysis for upper management of those options

Stakeholder Communication

  • Communicate effectively with testing stakeholders, including non-test staff, about critical issues related to testing

Creating and Building Relationships

  • For a given situation, demonstrate how to create and build relationships with other managers and teams

  • Explain and give examples of important relationships a Test Manager needs to create in a complex project environment

Advocating Quality Activities Across the Organization

  • Identify other groups within the organization who are also involved in quality-related activities

Integrating Tools Across the Organization

  • Define the issues that should be considered when dealing with multi-use tools

  • Analyze a proposed change to a multi-use tool and assess the impact on the test organization

  • Create a plan for rolling out a new multi-use tool considering all phases of the tool lifecycle

Handling Ethical Issues

  • Evaluate a given set of behaviors under a given set of circumstances to identify possible ethical issues


05.Project Management Essentials


Project Management Tasks

  • For a given project, estimate the test effort using at least two of the prescribed estimation methods

  • Use historical data from similar projects to create a model for estimating the number of defects that will be discovered, resolved, and delivered on the current project

  • During the project, evaluate current conditions as part of test control to manage, track, and adjust the test effort over time, including identifying any deviations from the plan and proposing effective measures to resolve those deviations

  • Evaluate the impact of project-wide changes (e.g., in scope, budget, goals, or schedule); identify the effect of those changes on the test estimate

  • Using historical information from past projects and priorities communicated by project stakeholders, determine the appropriate trade-offs between quality, schedule, budget, and features available on a project

  • Define the role of the Test Manager in the change management process

Project Risk Management

  • Conduct a risk assessment workshop to identify project risks that could affect the testing effort and implement appropriate controls and reporting mechanisms for these tests related project risks

Quality Management

  • Define how testing fits into an organization’s overall quality management program


06.Test Project Evaluation and Reporting


Tracking Information

  • For a given level of testing determine the most effective metrics to be used to control the project

Evaluating and Using Information

  • Internal Reporting - Create an effective test results report set for a given project for internal use

Sharing Information

  • External Reporting - Create an accurate, comprehensible and audience-appropriate test status dashboard

  • Given a specific project and project team, determine the proper level and media for providing weekly test reports

Test Results Reporting and Interpretation

  • Given a particular lifecycle, project, and product, design appropriate test results reporting processes and dashboards, including metrics, taking into account the information needs and level of sophistication of the various stakeholders

  • Analyze a given test situation during any part of the test process, including appropriate qualitative interpretation, based on a given test dashboard and set of metrics

Statistical Quality Control Techniques

  • Explain why a Test Manager would need to understand basic quality control techniques


07.Testing Considerations for Domain and Project Factors


Test Management Considerations for Lifecycle Models

  • Evaluate and report advantages and disadvantages associated with each lifecycle model in given situations

  • Describe the concepts usually found in agile projects which may influence the testing approach

Managing Partial Lifecycle Projects

  • Compare the various partial project types, discussing the differences between these projects and pure development projects

Release Considerations

  • Analyze the business context with respect to deployment, installation, release management, and/or product roadmap and determine the influence on testing


08.Evaluating Effectiveness and Efficiency


Effectiveness, Efficiency and Satisfaction Metrics for the Test Process

  • Explain the purpose of tracking effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction metrics and give examples that would apply to a test project

Effectiveness, Efficiency and Satisfaction Metrics for the Test Policy Objectives

  • For a given test policy, define, evaluate, and report effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction metrics

Project Retrospectives

  • For a given completed project, manage a project retrospective, analyze data gathered during the project retrospective, and formulate plans for improvement


Test Management (CTEL-TM) Certification Questions


01. Which one of the following is an efficiency metric for the test process?


a) The average number of days from defect discovery and reporting to the ultimate resolution of the defect report

b) The number of defects detected by testing divided by the sum of the number of defects detected by testing and the number of defects subsequently detected by users

c) The person hours of test design and implementation effort divided by the number of test basis elements covered by the tests cases produced

d) The total amount of effort expended on a project, including all activities in the fundamental test process


02. Consider the following metrics:

i. The percentage of test cases for a given product which have been automated

ii. The percentage of test effort saved for a given product due to test automation

iii. The percentage of defects detected by a product test team during system testing

iv. The number of people working on the test automation team

v. The total number of years of experience for all the people working on the test automation team

vi. The average cost to develop, execute, and maintain each automated test case

Remember that good metrics map to specific objectives and motivate correct behavior by the people involved in the process being measured. Which one of the following statements is true?


a) ii and iv are good metrics to show the efficiency with which the test automation team helps the Enterprise Test Group reduce risk.

b) iv and v are good metrics of test automation team effectiveness within the Enterprise Test Group.

c) iii is a good metric for the test automation team’s effectiveness at producing defect-finding test harnesses.

d) i is a good metric for the ability of the test automation team to supply useful information to Enterprise Test Group stakeholders.


03. Which of the following is true regarding the Test Manager’s role in change management?

(Choose two)


a) The Test Manager should be involved in impact analysis even when the proposed change is not expected to affect the schedule.

b) The Test Manager should require documentation for any change proposed for an agile project.

c) The Test Manager should not attend impact analysis sessions as it will tend to discourage others from speaking and participating.

d) The Test Manager’s role in change management is not restricted to the testing aspects of the project.

e) The Test Manager is responsible for the change management process.


04. Which one of the following is LEAST likely to be involved in the review of requirements specifications?


a) Business Analyst

b) Customer

c) User

d) Project Manager


05. Which two of the following are LEAST likely to be examples of important relationships created by a Test Manager (TM)?


a) The Project TM builds a rapport with the Program TM to ensure that he is clear on his responsibilities and that the Program TM is kept informed of his team’s progress.

b) The TM develops a friendship with the client Product Manager to persuade her to reduce the severity rating on incidents to allow test completion to be achieved.

c) The Project TM entrusts the developer from his organization who is embedded within the offshore team to build a relationship with the offshore TM.

d) The Security TM creates a bond with the security analyst who, although not a manager, is the person everyone goes to for technical information in the security area.

e) The Project TM forms exclusive relationships with the managers of the two test teams he manages, to prevent being overloaded by communication with individual team members.

f) The TM builds a relationship with the offshore test lead who is responsible for automating the regression tests for the next release.


06. Which one of the following BEST matches the following scenarios with the most effective means of communication?

i. Brainstorming to identify risks to the test project and item under test

ii. Informing offshore testers regarding updates to incident status

iii. Reporting the weekly test status to interested stakeholders

iv. Informing the Project Manager of the suspension of testing due to test environment failure

v. Communicating dates for the internal test conferences for the next year

vi. Reporting an incident to a specific developer


a) email – iii; post to intranet – iv; group meeting – vi; face-toface – ii.

b) email – ii; post to intranet – vi; group meeting – iv; face-toface –v.

c) email –iv; post to intranet –vi; group meeting – v; face-toface – i.

d) email –v; post to intranet – iii; group meeting – i; face-toface – iv.


07. You have been asked to create a presentation regarding the role of quality management in your organization. Which of the following points should be included in your presentation to ensure that the audience understands the scope and importance of quality management?

(Choose three)


a) Quality management requires software quality assurance activities to be integrated into the project lifecycle.

b) Quality assurance and testing should not be merged into one team so that the focus of quality assurance is not confused with the scheduling aspects of testing.

c) Quality management practices must be assessed by an external audit team to ensure compliance.

d) Unit test documentation is a deliverable that is part of quality management.

e) Quality management excludes activities to deliver projects within budget.

f) The test plan is the basis for forming quality policies for an organization.

g) Tracking metrics is an important aspect of quality management.


08. Analyze the scenario to determine the appropriate level of testing required of the onsite test team in relation to the third party freight schedule planning system provided by FS_Planner. Which three of the options will most likely be chosen?


a) Regression testing at component level

b) Regression testing at integration level

c) User acceptance testing

d) Manual regression testing at system level

e) System integration testing

f) Automated system regression tests

g) Hardware software integration testing


09. Which one of the following is a characteristic normally associated with agile projects?


a) The testers are integrated into the project from the initiation of the project.

b) The development specifications corresponding to the delivered functionality are as complete (i.e., they won’t be added to later) as they would be in the V-model.

c) The testers focus primarily on integration testing.

d) When the schedule is compressed, testing planned for later iterations will be reduced or eliminated.


10. Consider the following options:

i. The Shewhart cycle enables the Test Manager to implement improvement across the complete test process in one effort

ii. Using the PDCA (plan-do-check-action) cycle enables the Test Manager to check whether a process change improves the test process before implementing the change across the complete process

iii. Fish-bone diagrams help the Test Manager determine the root causes of a problem by adding increasingly detailed causes and then improving the process by working on resolving the causes

iv. Shewhart charts are used to show whether a process is under control or not by looking for unusual variations of indicators (e.g., a week with an unusually high number of new defects).

v. Scatter diagrams are used to analyze root causes by plotting a graph of causes and effects

Which one of the following statements correctly identifies basic quality control techniques that a Test Manager must understand and be able to implement in order to improve the test process?


a) Options i, iii and iv are correct.

b) Options ii, iii and iv are correct.

c) All the options are correct.

d) Options ii, iv and v are correct.


Answers:


Question: 01 : Answer: c

Question: 02 : Answer: a

Question: 03 : Answer: a, d

Question: 04 : Answer: d

Question: 05 : Answer: b, e

Question: 06 : Answer: d

Question: 07 : Answer: a, d, g

Question: 08 : Answer: c, e, f

Question: 09 : Answer: a

Question: 10 : Answer: b


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