Course overview
The ISTQB Certified Tester Advanced Level Technical Test Analyst course extends the broad understanding of testing acquired at Foundation Level to enable the role of Technical Test Analyst to be performed.
This 3-day accredited course designed for experienced testers aiming to specialise in technical aspects of software testing. This course supports those working towards the ISTQB Technical Test Analyst certification and provides the skills needed to evaluate system architecture, apply white-box testing techniques, and implement effective test automation strategies.
Delegates will learn how to design structured tests, assess code coverage, and apply non-functional testing methods such as performance, security, and maintainability testing. Aligned with the latest ISTQB syllabus, this technical test analyst training equips professionals to contribute effectively to Agile, DevOps, and CI/CD teams.
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Course highlights
- Duration: 3-day intensive training (9am – 5pm)
- Format: available in virtual or e-learning formats
- Content: aligned with the latest ISTQB Advanced Level syllabus; covers white-box testing, test automation, performance and security testing, code-based coverage, and technical reviews
- Exam preparation: includes structured revision, mock questions, and scenario-based exercises
- Accreditation: fully accredited by UKITB on behalf of ISTQB
- SFIAplus level: Rated at Level 5 by BCS
- Assessment: 45 multiple-choice questions in 120 minutes (150 minutes for non-native English speakers); 65% pass mark required
Why you should attend
- Gain globally recognised certification as an ISTQB Technical Test Analyst
- Learn directly from ISTQB-accredited trainers with industry experience
- Master white-box, structural, and non-functional testing techniques
- Build confidence in automation and performance testing
- Increase your value as a technical tester in Agile or DevOps teams
- Improve your ability to collaborate with developers and architects
Who should attend
- Software testers preparing for the ISTQB Advanced Technical Test Analyst certification
- Technical testers, test engineers, and QA professionals working in Agile or DevOps environments
- Testers with 18+ months experience looking to specialise in automation, performance, or white-box testing
- Anyone who holds an ISTQB Foundation Certificate and wants to advance their career in technical testing
About ISTQB and the certified tester scheme
Founded in 2002, ISTQB (International Software Testing Qualifications Board) is a not-for-profit association comprising 66 national boards (including the UKITB) to provide worldwide coverage
ISTQB has defined the Advanced certification as part of their ‘Certified Tester’ scheme that, with over 240,000 certifications, has become the de facto world-wide standard for software testing qualifications.
The ‘Certified Tester’ scheme:
- Provides a set of professional qualifications widely-recognised by employers, customers and peers;
- Enables software suppliers to hire and train certified testers and thereby gain commercial advantage over their competitors by advertising their tester recruitment and development policies; and
- Enables comparison of testing skills across different countries, testers to move across country borders more easily, and multi-national/international projects to have a common understanding of testing issues.
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Entry requirements
The entry requirements for the Certified Tester Advanced Level Technical Test Analyst qualification are that the candidate must hold the ISTQB Foundation certificate and it is also suggested that candidates have a minimum of 2 years testing experience.
Note that it is recommended that you attend an accredited training course run by an accredited training provider, as the overall exam pass rates are notably higher for candidates attending such courses.
Exam
To receive Advanced Level certification in the module “Technical Test Analyst”, candidates must hold a valid Certified Tester Foundation Level certificate:
- 40 multiple choice questions, which contain a list of possible answers
- Duration of 90 minutes (or 113 minutes for candidates taking examinations that are not in their native language)
- A candidate must score at least 65% to pass (26/40)
- Exam is included in the price
Next steps
The Advanced Level establishes a platform from which further skills and knowledge may be acquired at the Expert Level. Holders of the Advanced Technical Test Analyst qualification will be eligible to continue with other Advanced exams as well as progressing to Expert level qualifications, such as Test Automation and Security Testing. More details to follow when available.
Holders of the Certified Tester Advanced Level Agile Technical Tester qualification may also wish to consider the other Advanced Level qualifications, Test Manager, Agile Technical Tester, Test Analyst, Test Automation Engineer and Security Tester
Course Objectives
After successfully completing the course and passing the exam, delegates should be able to demonstrate the following business-based outcomes:
- Recognize and classify the typical risks associated with the performance, security, reliability, portability and maintainability of software systems;
- Provide technical elements to the planning, design and execution of tests for mitigating performance, security, reliability, portability and maintainability risks;
- Select and apply appropriate white-box test techniques to ensure that tests provide an adequate level of confidence, based on design coverage;
- Effectively participate in reviews with developers and software architects applying knowledge of typical defects in the code and architecture;
- Improve the quality characteristics of code and architecture by making use of different analysis techniques;
- Outline the costs and benefits to be expected from introducing particular types of test automation.
- Select appropriate tools to automate technical testing tasks;
- Understand the technical issues and concepts in applying test automation.
In addition, after successfully completing the course and passing the exam, thew newly qualified ISTQB Advanced Technical Test Analyst s should be able to use and put into practice the following learning objectives:
- Summarize the generic risk factors that the Technical Test Analyst typically needs to consider.
- Summarize the activities of the Technical Test Analyst within a risk-based approach for testing activities.
- Design test cases for a given test object by applying statement testing to achieve a defined level of coverage.
- Design test cases for a given test object by applying the Decision test technique to achieve a defined level of coverage.
- Design test cases for a given test object by applying the modified condition/decision test technique to achieve full modified condition/decision coverage (MC/DC).
- Design test cases for a given test object by applying the multiple condition test technique to achieve a defined level of coverage.
- Understand the applicability of API testing and the kinds of defects it finds.
- Select an appropriate white-box test technique according to a given project situation.
- Use control flow analysis to detect if code has any control flow anomalies and to measure cyclomatic complexity.
- Use data flow analysis to detect if code has any data flow anomalies.
- Propose ways to improve the maintainability of code by applying static analysis.
- Apply dynamic analysis to achieve a specified goal.
- For a particular scenario, analyze the non-functional requirements and write the respective sections of the test plan.
- Given a particular product risk, define the particular non-functional test type(s) which are most appropriate.
- Understand and explain the stages in an application’s software development lifecycle where non-functional testing should typically be applied.
- For a given scenario, define the types of defects you would expect to find by using the different non-functional test types.
- Explain the reasons for including security testing in a test approach.
- Explain the principal aspects to be considered in planning and specifying security tests.
- Explain the reasons for including reliability testing in a test approach.
- Explain the principal aspects to be considered in planning and specifying reliability tests.
- Explain the reasons for including performance testing in a test approach.
- Explain the principal aspects to be considered in planning and specifying performance testing.
- Explain the reasons for including maintainability testing in a test approach.
- Explain the reasons for including portability testing in a test approach.
- Explain the reasons for including co-existence testing in a test approach.
- Explain why review preparation is important for the Technical Test Analyst.
- Analyze an architectural design and identify problems according to a checklist provided in the syllabus.
- Analyze a section of code or pseudo-code and identify problems according to a checklist provided in the syllabus.
- Summarize the activities that the Technical Test Analyst performs when setting up a test automation project.
- Summarize the differences between data-driven and keyword-driven automation.
- Summarize common technical issues that cause automation projects to fail to achieve the planned return on investment.
- Construct keywords based on a given business process.
- Summarize the purpose of tools for fault seeding and fault injection.
- Summarize the main characteristics and implementation issues for performance testing tools.
- Explain the general purpose of tools used for web-based testing.
- Explain how tools support the practice of model-based testing.
- Outline the purpose of tools used to support component testing and the build process.
- Outline the purpose of tools used to support mobile application testing.
Syllabus – key points
Pictorially, the syllabus concentrates on the key aspects of technical testing that are important to be understood and practiced by the Advanced Technical Tester.
Disha Upadhyay| Software Tester| OBB –
John is really a good trainer I could have asked for this course in particular. He did take time to explain things from the slide rather than just flying through them. Huge course but covered very nicely in 3 days.
Hui Chok| Test Analyst| Natural Resources Wales –
John is excellent and extremely helpful. 🙂
Umesh Keshwala| Test Analyst| Worldpay –
Course was very intense but John delivered it professionally and really helped when I was confused about
Charlotte Moss| Senior Automation Test Engineer| Leidos –
Very interesting course – good content on slides, trainer was very knowledgeable to offer extra detail verbally as we went through the course presentation. Trainer also delivered course content very coherently and clearly.
Tom Prescott| Senior Software Test Analyst| ESG Global –
I’m not someone who typically enjoys classroom type courses, as I like to read through documentation, however John was incredibly effective at explaining each of the learning objectives in detail, but also in terms that everyone could understand, also taking the time where required to recap over particular points where myself or others had any issues.
I felt the course was very well paced, considering how much course content there is, it at no point felt like we were steam-rolling through anything and again, John was keen to ensure everyone understood the material before moving on.
I’d definitely recommend any course that John is holding and will definitely consider using tsg for future courses as a result.
Thanks for everything John, hope I pass!
Alex Donnelly| Senior Digital Test Analyst| Greene King –
Genuinely excellent – well delivered and well understood. John was happy to be questioned and able to quickly, concisely answer.
Only two improvement points I could pick up on wuld be:
1. Use of animations (GIFs) in slides – these were often distracting with no value (WCAG2.0 – SC2.2.2)
2. Minor spelling mistakes for non-technical words. Doesn’t affect course content or learning objectives, but does interfere with ‘immersion’.
Honestly though, that’s nit-picking. Delivered a great course by a great trainer – I’d request TSG (and specifically John) for my next ISTQB exam!
Joanne Wright| Test Analyst|ElectraLink –
Rosie is an excellent trainer. The course is a good pace and does not give information overload. Questions / scenarios throughout are also helpful.
Peter Richards | Test Analyst | whg –
The course was really interesting and I feel like I’ve learned a lot. Rosie was very knowledgeable. I did struggle a bit with the regular exercises, as a lot of it was new to me and there were only 2 of us on the course, so nowhere to hide, but I realise it’s probably the best way of reinforcing what we were learning. Really pleased with the level of supporting documentation that’s been provided. Fingers crossed I can pass the exam!
Mazvita Karonga | Test Lead | Department for Work and Pensions –
The course is quite intense but I found that on my second round, as I had failed initially, was better explained. I felt like I was able to understand the terminologies a bit better. I also felt like John Young took the time to explain everything in layman’s terms rather than going through the slides. his notes that he wrote on the slides did help to make the sessions more enjoyable.
Jen Gennard | IT Tester | The West Brom –
The trainer was very good and made sure all delegates understood what he was saying. As there was a couple of areas I had never covered, he spent some time with me to ensure that I was happy to continue and could do the practice questions with my new understanding
Nicola Bowman|QA Technical Lead|Calastone Ltd –
I found the course to be very helpful and informative. John explained all aspects very well. _x000D_
The only comment I have was to do with the lack of cameras and seeing the other participants. I felt there was a lot of silence which may not have occurred if cameras were switched on
Alessandra Barreca|Test Analyst|Euroclear –
First time I took an online training. Amazing experience. Great application used for the training and Rosie was really good and made us understand all the concepts easily.
Dorothy Langley | Software QA Analyst | –
It was invaluable to be able to retake the course for free, having failed the first attempt, and I feel much more confident about my retake. _x000D_
Having spoken with my manager about course materials, they were disappointed that hard copies are not provided as standard, as they are valuable reference documents that can be used after the course & exam to refresh on what was learnt. All previous courses with other providers that I, and colleagues, have been on have included a hard copy of course materials. They said this would influence there choice of course provider in the future. _x000D_
During the course, I asked for the difference between combinations and permutations to be explained, which instead caused a lot of confusion. Having checked the syllabus and googled what permutations are, they are never mentioned within the syllabus, so am not sure why they are mentioned in the course for Pairwise. Perhaps this can be considered for future courses._x000D_
Overall, the course was very useful and John was friendly and professional._x000D_
Thank you!
Mukhtar Zamarad | Qa Engineer | Calastone –
Great course, very informative. John used real life examples in order to explain information to us in a clear way. Would suggest this course to my colleagues.
Courtney Cooke | Test Analyst | Natwest –
John was very engaging, knowledgeable, and friendly. His class was great and I really enjoyed it.
Kathryn Hubbard | Test Manager | ESG Global –
Right level of pace and level of detail to understand the content
Josh Docherty | Senior QA Automation Engineer |WPA –
Good use of technology. Knowledgeable instructor.