Practice Test Questions from ISTQB.org (3)

No (This is a good indication of team velocity, but does not provide information on the quality of the product.)

Does this statement adequately denote product quality at the end of iteration 6 of a new system release consisting of 8 iterations? Yes or no? All story cards in scope for each iteration, up to the current iteration, have been marked as "Done", but with some technical debt being incurred.

No (This may be an indicator of quality, but it assumes that sufficient testing has been conducted to identify all possible defects. Also, it does not identify if the system is considered to be "working software" at this point.)

Does this statement adequately denote product quality at the end of iteration 6 of a new system release consisting of 8 iterations? Yes or no? No severity 1 or 2 defects were detected during system testing of iteration 6, which allowed the teams to move into iteration 7.

No (This is a good indication of team velocity, but does not provide information on the quality of the product.)

Does this statement adequately denote product quality at the end of iteration 6 of a new system release consisting of 8 iterations? Yes or no? The agile team has been successfully tracking to estimates, with limited variance showing on the burndown charts for all iterations to date.

Yes (Positive customer feedback and working software are key indicators to product quality)

Does this statement adequately denote product quality at the end of iteration 6 of a new system release consisting of 8 iterations? Yes or no? The results of a customer beta test on the iteration 6 software release indicate that the system works correctly and that it has improved productivity.

True (Agile teams can employ various forms of acceptance testing.)

Is the following statement about agile projects true or false? A selection of users may perform beta testing on the product after the completion of a series of iterations.

False (Developers and testers work collaboratively to develop and test a feature.)

Is the following statement about agile projects true or false? Developers should rely on testers to create the automated regression tests.

False (Many agile project teams still have independent test teams with test managers)

Is the following statement about agile projects true or false? Test managers do not exist in organizations doing agile development.

True (This is one of the hallmarks of agile projects.)

Is the following statement about agile projects true or false? Testers should work closely with developers while retaining an objective outlook.

False (Testing is still a specialized role in agile, when done properly)

Is the following statement about agile projects true or false? There is no difference between what testers and developers do on agile projects.

False (Independent testers CAN find more defects than developers, but this is dependent on the level of testing being performed and also the expertise of the independent tester)

Is the following statement about independent testing on agile projects true or false? Independent testers will find more defects than developers regardless of test level.

True (This is an option which preserves a level of independence where there are separate test and development teams, and testers are assigned on-demand at the end of a sprint)

Is the following statement about independent testing on agile projects true or false? Independent testing can be introduced at the end of a sprint.

True (This option is satisfied when there are some specialized testers working on non-sprint or long term activities.)

Is the following statement about independent testing on agile projects true or false? The independent test team can be part of another team.

True (This can happen when testers and developers work closely together.)

Is the following statement about independent testing on agile projects true or false? There can be a risk of losing test independence for organizations introducing agile.

True (Test automation at all levels occurs in many agile teams. As the developers focus on automating tests on unit level testers should focus on automating tests on integration, system, and acceptance level. In traditional projects it is not as common to have the same focus on automation. Sometimes automation is done once the system testing is completed in order to work with a stable system or just to automate regression tests for maintenance purposes after the system is deployed to production.)

Is the following test activity typically done during agile projects, and is not as common on traditional projects? True or False: Testers are heavily involved in the creation of automated test cases which are then used to verify the implementation of the requirements.

False (Tester-developer collaboration is a good practice in all lifecycles.)

Is the following test activity typically done during agile projects, and is not as common on traditional projects? True or False: Testers collaborate with developers to better understand what needs to be tested.

False (Exploratory testing is likely to take place in any software development practice)

Is the following test activity typically done during agile projects, and is not as common on traditional projects? True or False: Testers perform exploratory testing in order to find important defects quickly.

False (Agile testing promotes lightweight documentation.)

Is the following test activity typically done during agile projects, and is not as common on traditional projects? True or False: Testers write detailed test plans so all team members can understand what will be tested during each iteration.

task board

While the agile _____ _______ does show progress, this information is then used in the burndown chart. The _____ _______ showing the progress of the user stories and tasks, does not have anything to do with estimates.

False (This is expected during iteration planning)

Would a tester do the following activity during release planning? True or False: Estimate testing tasks generated by new features planned for this iteration

False (This is expected during iteration planning)

Would a tester do the following activity during release planning? True or False: Help break down user stories into smaller and more detailed tasks.

False (This is expected during iteration planning)

Would a tester do the following activity during release planning? True or False: Produce a list of acceptance tests for user stories

True (This is expected during release planning.)

Would a tester do the following activity during release planning? True or False: Support the clarification of the user stories and ensure that they are testable

False (Agile projects require different levels of testing, such as unit, system, and acceptance testing.)

Is this a good reason for why testers need to understand and develop test automation scripts a necessary skill on agile projects? True or False: Agile projects rely on unit testing rather than on systems testing. Since unit tests cannot be executed manually, all tests have to be automated tests.

False (Testing should be done throughout each iteration, not only at the end. )

Is this a good reason for why testers need to understand and develop test automation scripts a necessary skill on agile projects? True or False: Iterations or sprints are of fixed length. The team has to guarantee that all tests can be completely executed at the last day of each iteration/sprint. In practice, that can only be realized by automated tests.

False (Agile projects embrace and expect change, however this does not mean it happens daily)

Is this a good reason for why testers need to understand and develop test automation scripts a necessary skill on agile projects? True or False: Requirements change daily and have to be regression tested. This rapid change requires automated tests because manual testing is too slow.

True (Test first and continuous integration require tests to be automated and to provide feedback on build, as part of automated build process.)

Is this a good reason for why testers need to understand and develop test automation scripts a necessary skill on agile projects? True or False: Test-First and Continuous Integration Practice require that the regression test suite is executed whenever changed code is checked-in. In practice that can only be realized by automated tests.

True (This is true, the earlier the agile team gets feedback on quality, the better.)

Is this a good reason for why testers need to understand and develop test automation scripts a necessary skill on agile projects? True or False: The tests should generate feedback on product quality as early as possible. So all acceptance tests should be executed in each iteration, ideally as modifications are made. In practice that can only be realized by automated tests.

Yes (This is true because agile expects and manages change and each iteration will require more and more regression testing. If automation was not used, then the team's velocity would be reduced. )

Is this a reason why automation is essential within agile projects? Yes or No: So that teams maintain or increase their velocity

No (Automation will help avoid regression in the product due to the high number of changes. But it will not guarantee that defects have not been introduced. )

Is this a reason why automation is essential within agile projects? Yes or No: To eliminate regression in the product due to high code churn

Yes (Automation tools are linked to continuous integration tools that will execute and will highlight instantaneously if the new code breaks the build.)

Is this a reason why automation is essential within agile projects? Yes or No: To ensure that code changes do not break the software build

No (This is not a reason to introduce automation on a project.)

Is this a reason why automation is essential within agile projects? Yes or No: To prevent the test team from becoming bored with manual, repetitive tasks

No (We cannot retest/rerun all the test cases from a previous iteration. There are many test cases produced, with most being through manual exploratory testing, and it would not be feasible to automate everything. )

Is this a reason why automation is essential within agile projects? Yes or No: To retest all test cases from previous iterations

Yes (This activity is typical for an agile tester.)

Is this a task that is typically expected of a tester on an agile project? Yes or No: automate and maintain tests

No (This task is a collaborative effort for the whole team)

Is this a task that is typically expected of a tester on an agile project? Yes or No: decide on user acceptance

Yes (This activity is expected of the agile tester)

Is this a task that is typically expected of a tester on an agile project? Yes or No: design, create and execute appropriate tests

No (Pair programming is typically done using two developers; testers are not expected to improve program logic although could review code for testability or maintainability.)

Is this a task that is typically expected of a tester on an agile project? Yes or No: improve program logic by pair programming

No (In agile, defects are communicated regularly with stakeholders)

Is this a task that is typically expected of a tester on an agile project? Yes or No: schedule defect reports for analysis

False (The user story is written collaboratively by the developers, testers, and business representatives.)

Is this an appropriate explanation of a 'user story'? True of False: An artifact documented by business representatives to help developers and testers understand the system requirements.

False (The tester participates in the creation of the user story.)

Is this an appropriate explanation of a 'user story'? True of False: An artifact that the tester must review and sign off before testing can begin.

False (The user story should include both functional and non-functional requirements.)

Is this an appropriate explanation of a 'user story'? True of False: An artifact used to detail only the functional requirements of the system.

True (In an Agile environment, user stories are written to capture requirements from the perspectives of developers, testers, and business representatives. The collaborative authorship of the user story can use techniques such as brainstorming and mind mapping.)

Is this an appropriate explanation of a 'user story'? True of False: An artifact written collaboratively by developers, testers, and business representatives to capture requirements.

True (These three perspectives (tester, developer and business representative) are important to define when a feature is done.)

Should this activity occur in an agile project? True or False: Collaboration between tester, developer, and business stakeholders to define acceptance criteria.

False (Features should be verified in the same iteration in which they are developed.)

Should this activity occur in an agile project? True or False: Functional verification testing of user stories developed in the previous iteration.

False (Test level entry and exit criteria are more closely associated with traditional lifecycles)

Should this activity occur in an agile project? True or False: Strict enforcement of system test level entry and exit criteria.

defect tracking

The _______ ________ tool can show progress of defect reports and can be used to establish the quality level of the product. It does not relate to the team's progress against estimates.

Burndown charts

What tool (or technique) is best at showing a team's progress against estimates?

automation logs

What tool (or technique) shows tests that have passed and failed and is not linked to any form of estimates?