Course Overview
The ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL) v4.0 course is your gateway to advancing your software testing career. This fully accredited programme provides a solid foundation in software testing principles, preparing you for the globally recognised ISTQB CTFL certification.
Tailored for professionals in the UK and beyond, it covers best practices aligned with modern methodologies, including Waterfall, Agile, DevOps, and Continuous Delivery.
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Course Highlights
- Duration: 3-day intensive training. (9am – 5pm)
- Format: Available in Virtual, Classroom and E-learning
- Online Pre-Course: Approximately four to five hours to complete
- Exam Simulator: Our simulator is designed to prepare you for success in the CTFL exam
- Content: Covers the latest ISTQB syllabus, exam preparation, and revision.
- Accreditation: Fully accredited by UKITB on behalf of ISTQB
- SFIAplus Level: Rated at level 3 by the BCS.
E-Learning Course
Our e-learning ISTQB Software Testing course includes:
- 12 months access to accredited online materials
- ISTQB® CTFL v4.0 exam (valid for 12 months)
- Exam simulator for practice
Why Choose ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL) v4.0 Certification?
- Globally recognised qualification: Achieve the ISTQB CTFL certification, a benchmark in software testing excellence.
- Career Advancement: Enhance your prospects in the UK and international markets.
- Comprehensive Curriculum: Gain in-depth knowledge of software testing concepts and terminology.
- Versatile Application: Apply learned skills across multiple software development approaches.
Who Should Attend This Course?
This ISTQB Certification course is ideal for:
- Software testers and test analysts
- Test engineers and consultants
- Test leads and managers
- User acceptance testers
- Software developers
- Project and quality managers
- IT directors and management consultants
About ISTQB and the Certified Tester Scheme
ISTQB® (International Software Testing Qualifications Board) established the globally recognized Certified Tester scheme to:
- Provide internationally acknowledged professional qualifications
- Enable software companies to hire and train certified testers
- Facilitate global understanding and comparison of testing skills
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Entry Requirements
Important note regarding pre-course
There is mandatory online pre-course work that must be undertaken prior to attending this course. It is expected that it will take approximately four to five hours to complete. You will be sent full instructions with a link to the online pre course three weeks prior to course commencement.
On arrival at the course candidates should have read the provided Syllabus in preparation for the course. The course is intensive and those delegates who have prepared achieve a higher exam success rate.
CTFL Exam
To qualify as an internationally recognised Certified Foundation Level Tester and be issued with an ISTQB® Foundation Level Certificate, delegates must successfully pass the exam:
- The examination consists of a one-hour exam with 40 multiple choice questions.
- It will be a ‘closed book’ examination i.e. no notes or books will be allowed into the examination room.
- Duration of 60 minutes (or 75 minutes for candidates taking examinations that are not in their native language)
- The pass mark is 65% (26 out of 40).
Learning Objectives
The Business Outcomes expected of a candidate who has achieved the new Foundation Level certification are as follows:
- Understand what testing is and why it is beneficial
- Understand fundamental concepts of software testing
- Identify the test approach and activities to be implemented depending on the context of testing
- Assess and improve the quality of documentation
- Increase the effectiveness and efficiency of testing
- Align the test process with the software development lifecycle
- Understand test management principles
- Write and communicate clear and understandable defect reports
- Understand the factors that influence the priorities and efforts related to testing
- Work as part of a cross-functional team
- Know risks and benefits related to test automation
- Identify essential skills required for testing
- Understand the impact of risk on testing
- Effectively report on test progress and quality
ISTQB Foundation Level Syllabus
- Fundamentals of Testing
- Testing Throughout the Software Development Lifecycle
- Static Testing
- Test Analysis and Design
- Managing the Test Activities
- Test Tools
E-Learning – Key Points
- Fundamentals of testing
- Test activites, testware and roles
- Essential skills and good practices
- Testing in context of software development lifecycles
- Test levels, test types and maintenance testing
- Static testing basics
- Feedback and review process
- Test techniques overview
- Black box testing
- White box testing
- Experienced based testing
- Collaboration-based test approaches
- Test planning
- Risk Management
- Test monitoring, control and completion
- Configuration and defect management
- Test tools
- Exam hints and tips
Next steps/Follow on courses
The Certified Tester Foundation Level certification is the prerequisite to the other modules within the Certified Tester Scheme.
The “Core” stream modules are valid for any technology/ methodology/ application domain and build on the Foundation Level:
- Advanced Test Manager
- Advanced Test Analyst
- Advanced Technical Test Analyst
The “Agile” stream focuses on testing practices specifically for the Agile methodology:
- Advanced Agile Technical Tester
The “Specialist” stream provides a deep dive into areas which may be based on quality characteristics, specific test approaches and test activities, or which cluster testing know-how for certain industry domains:
- Acceptance Testing
- AI Testing
- Mobile Application Testing
- Model-Based Tester
- Security Tester
- Test Automation Engineer
Lorraine O Flaherty | Executive Officer Revenue Commissioners | Revenue Commissioners –
Angelina was very helpful. She broke the course into easily understood pieces. She gave great examples of reasoning on approaching exam questions and she made time for questions and never made anyone feel rushed.
Roxanne sweeney | | –
Angelina made the course so interactive and interesting. She is clearly super knowledgeable and her delivery is excellent. I find zoom training can be very boring and she did a great job of making it engaging.
Harry Dawes | QA Test Analyst | Caseware –
It was very informative and John was very approachable with any questions.
Rogerio Soares | QA engineer | Zego –
It was a great learning experience from Angelina
Jack Gilman | Software Developer | capgemini –
Really enjoyable and engaging course from Angelina. Made it interesting and had some fun conversations aside. Well put together slides and great access to resources.
Adrian Gautrey | QA Lead | Trust Payments –
It was a fun course that even with my experience I was able to learn some new techniques
Nathan Johnson | QA Analyst Apprentice | 9xb –
Great course, lectures were well thought out with plenty of detail. John was really patient and extremely knowledgable, willing to answer questions in great detail. I feel very prepared for the exam!
Judith Neugebauer | Quality Assurance | stillalive studios –
The course provided a lot of information even about the upcoming exam.
Megha Rolly | Business Solutions Programmer | Euroclear –
Thorough and helpful discussion of the syllabus, John went through it logically and it was easy to follow. Doing the questions during the course was really beneficial as well.
kyle.gilham –
John was very good. I felt he could have asked closed questions of individuals to check understanding rather than ‘are we all ok?’ or ‘do we all understand?’ though. I found that despite it being a Foundation course, I was the minority in the group of those who were not already working as testers/similar and this severely impacted on my ability to relate to the content and grasp the concepts at the rate the course seemingly expected. The syllabus also seemed place little emphasis on laying a general, introductory-level foundation of the various types of testing, etc and instead spent a disproportionate amount of time focusing on reporting techniques that appeared hugely theoretical, somewhat antiquated and likely to only be utilised by those few in very large corporates.
Paul Incles|Service Operations Analyst|Rail Delivery Group –
Great Tutor, Well paced. Many thanks
Lauren Brender|Test Automation Trainee|Caseware UK Ltd –
Excellently well put together course, and Rosie was a wonderful trainer, answering any and all questions, and came well prepared with the information to help us succeed
William Pawsey|Business Testing Coordinator|Cambridge Asessment –
The course was useful on information and data with opportunities to apply what was being taught at regular intervals. Struggled to stay engaged due to the number of slides/information being presented, this may be exacerbated due to the course being remote.
Orla Maher|BA|DAFM –
A lot of material to cover in just 3 days, sample exams appear extremely difficult compared to the course material
Stephen Martin|EO – IMT Development Specialist|Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine –
I found the course very interesting and informative. The material was very well presented by the trainer, and the regular exercises and homework activities helped._x000D_
It is also useful to learn the common vernacular of the testing profession, even if it does not entirely match what I am familiar with in my work place.
Ryan Hill|Tester|Merit Software –
Considering the dense volume of course material I think Rosie did a fantastic job covering the important aspects of the syllabus, I have no problems with her communication and teaching. The course is very dense due to the broad nature of the knowledge it’s trying to provide. Myself coming from an environment where the bulk of these practices are not widely used it’s certainly been a steep learning curve;but very valuable.
Avril Smith|Executive Officer|Department of Agriculture –
Course was very in-depth and informative. _x000D_
The summary slides are very beneficial for recapping on what has been discussed previously._x000D_
A good amount of coursework was included and sufficient time was spent explaining the rationale behind the correct answers.
Harpreet Sunner|Software Engineer|Capgemini –
Excellent presented and very well explaining throughout the 3 days of training. Contained a lot of detail within testing.
Samuel Green|Software Tester|IBM –
I thought the instructor was great at explaining concepts in detail without causing information overload. The platform allowed for quick note taking and John used lots of live diagrams and notes to really bring the topics alive._x000D_
There was also a good mix of exercises vs discussion
Samuel Green|Software Tester|IBM –
I thought the instructor was great at explaining concepts in detail without causing information overload._x000D_
There was enough information to break ratio too, I never felt too overwhelmed but learnt a lot._x000D_
There was also a good mix of exercises vs discussion