The International Software Testing Qualifications Board is a non-profit certification body for quality assurance professionals, software testers and developers. The Board is made up of honorary expert committees. The aim of the committees is to develop standardized training plans and certifications for professional software testing.
Guiding principle of the ISTQB®:
Software has spread into practically all areas of life, resulting in an ever-increasing dependence on software. IT-supported systems must therefore function flawlessly and reliably despite increasing complexity.
Software and IT systems must therefore be systematically tested.
Commercial and technical environment
Components, subsystems and end products
Development documents
The testing tasks are complex and require a good understanding of the respective test objects as well as a comprehensive understanding and confident mastery of suitable testing techniques. Appropriate knowledge and techniques are taught as part of the ISTQB® Certified Tester training.
By the end of 2023, the ISTQB® had approved over 1,200,000 exams worldwide and issued more than 914,000 certificates in over 130 countries.
The ISTQB® is represented by local boards in the member countries. In Germany, this is the Germans Testing Board (GTB). The GTB is an honorary association of experts in the field of "testing software and systems". Its members are recognized testing experts from industry, consulting and training companies, academia and other organizations or associations. The GTB experts localize the curricula and accredit the training providers.
Multi-level training and certification concept ISTQB® Certified Tester:
The international software experts have defined standardized training content for training courses as curricula.
The training courses run by accredited companies are completed with an examination by the iSQI and confirmed by a certificate.
The Certified Tester is currently divided into three levels:
Foundation Level, which is the same for all testers and covers the basics of software testing
Advanced Level, consisting of three independent parts
Expert Level, with two independent parts
The training content is also divided into three subject areas:
Agile, graded into Foundation Extension and Advanced Level specifically for Agile development
Core, includes the standards and basics of all testing activities in three levels
Specialist, includes test specializations and is divided into four Foundation Levels and two Advanced Levels
Curricula and syllabi:
The accredited training courses are all based on the ISTQB® syllabi and can be viewed online. Oose refers to the German syllabi of the German Testing Boards (as far as available in German)