Explanation / Rationale

i. Is true. The SDLC has an influence on the test process
ii. Is false. The number of defects detected in previous projects may have some influence, but this is not as significant as i, iii and iv
iii. Is true. The identified product risks are one of the most important factors influencing the test process
iv. Is true. Regulatory requirements are important factors influencing the test process
v. Is false. The test environment has no significant influence on the test process

Thus:
a) Is not correct
b) Is correct
c) Is not correct
d) Is not correct

Explanation / Rationale

a) Is not correct. Although it is true that the tester can implement and execute detailed test cases based on the checklist, it does not explain how this would result in increased coverage
b) Is not correct. Checklist items should not be automated. But even if they are, the automated test scripts always execute the tests in the same way, which usually does not result in increased coverage
c) Is not correct. It is true that each checklist item should be tested separately and independently. But this impacts the test execution order and does not impact the achieved coverage, and so does not result in increased coverage
d) Is correct. If the checklists are high-level, some variability in the actual testing is likely to occur, resulting in potentially greater coverage but less repeatability. If two testers follow a checklist of high-level items, each of them may use different test data, test steps, etc. This way, one tester will probably cover some areas not covered by the other tester and this will result in increased coverage

Explanation / Rationale

There are five columns in the decision table. Each test case covers one of them.

TC1 and TC2 both cover Rule 4
TC3 and TC4 both cover Rule 2
TC5 covers Rule 5

So, these five test cases cover three out of five columns, achieving a coverage of (3/5)*100% = 60%. Therefore, option b) is the CORRECT option.
Thus:
a) Is not correct
b) Is correct
c) Is not correct
d) Is not correct

Explanation / Rationale

Because TC1 and TC3 failed in Execution 1 (i.e., test (1) and test (3)), test (4) and test (6) are confirmation tests.
Because TC2 and TC3 failed in Execution 2 (i.e., tests (5) and (6)), test (8) and test (9) are also confirmation tests.
TC2 passed in Execution 1 (i.e., test (2)), so test (5) is a regression test.
TC1 passed in the Execution 2 (i.e., test (4)), so test (7) is also a regression test.
Thus:
a) Is not correct
b) Is correct
c) Is not correct
d) Is not correct

Explanation / Rationale

a) Is not correct. Risk management consists of risk analysis and risk control. Neither of these activities supports the reassembly of the files that made up the release, because these activities deal with risks, not with configuration items
b) Is not correct. Test monitoring is concerned with gathering information about testing. This information is used to assess test progress and to measure whether the test exit criteria or the test tasks associated with the exit criteria are satisfied, such as meeting the targets for coverage of product risks, requirements, or other acceptance criteria. Test control uses the information from test monitoring to provide, in the form of control directives, guidance and the necessary corrective actions to achieve the most effective and efficient testing. None of these activities deal with the management of configuration items
c) Is not correct. The whole-team approach builds on the tester’s skill to work effectively in a team context and to contribute positively to the team goals. So, it focuses on team-related issues, not on configuration items
d) Is correct. Configuration management provides a discipline for identifying, controlling, and tracking work products. Configuration management keeps a record of changed configuration items when a new baseline is created. Using configuration management, it is possible to revert to a previous baseline in order to reproduce previous test results

Explanation / Rationale

a) Is correct. The client is in a different location and time zone, so it may be difficult to communicate face-to-face
b) Is not correct. Dashboards are usually available to any user at any time, so the difference in time zones will not be as much of a hindrance to communication as verbal, face-to-face communication
c) Is not correct. Although the time difference between Europe and America is several hours, and this may cause some inconvenience, it's certainly not as great as with communicating face-to-face
d) Is not correct. Video conferencing tools are a convenient means of communication. Although communication between Europe and America during working hours usually requires one party to connect in the very early or very late hours, this is not as much of an inconvenience as verbal, face-to-face communication

Explanation / Rationale

a) Is not correct. The fact that the requirement about the system’s performance comes directly from the client and that the performance is important from the business point of view (i.e., high priority) does not make these tests functional, because they do not check “what” the system does, but “how” (i.e., how fast the orders are processed)
b) Is correct. This is an example of performance testing, a type of non-functional testing
c) Is not correct. From the scenario we do not know if interacting with the user interface is a part of the test conditions. But even if we did, the main test objective of these tests is to check the performance, not the usability
d) Is not correct. We do not need to know the internal structure of the code to perform the performance testing. One can execute performance efficiency tests without structural knowledge

Explanation / Rationale

a) Is not correct. ‘The capability of generating test cases without access to the test basis’ is not possible. The generation of test cases by either testers or tools requires access to the test basis
b) Is not correct. ‘The achievement of increased coverage through more objective assessment’ is not a direct benefit of test automation. Test automation will provide more objective assessment of coverage, however that objective assessment will not increase the coverage. Only by using the results of the coverage to write further test cases can the coverage possibly be increased
c) Is not correct. ‘The increase in test execution times available with higher processing power’ is a contradictory statement as higher processing power would normally reduce execution times, and increased execution times are not a benefit as the testing would take longer
d) Is correct. The prevention of human errors through greater consistency and repeatability is a benefit of test automation as test automation cannot suffer from human errors. For instance, it means that tests are consistently derived from requirements, test data is created in a systematic manner, and tests are executed by a tool in the same order with the same frequency

Explanation / Rationale

a) Is not correct. This is the task of the review leader
b) Is correct. This is the task of the management in a formal review
c) Is not correct. This is the task of the moderator
d) Is not correct. This is the task of the scribe

Explanation / Rationale

Considering:

• The test basis for acceptance testing is the user’s business needs (1D)
• Communication between components is tested during component integration testing (2B)
• Failures in logic can be found during component testing (3A)
• Business rules are the test basis for system testing (4C)

Thus:
a) Is correct
b) Is not correct
c) Is not correct
d) Is not correct

Explanation / Rationale

Exploratory testing is useful when there are few or inadequate specifications or there is significant time pressure on the testing. Exploratory testing is also useful to complement other more formal test techniques. Exploratory testing will be more effective if the tester is experienced, has domain knowledge and has a high degree of essential skills, like analytical skills, curiosity and creativeness.

Thus:
a) Is correct. Exploratory testing is useful when there are few or inadequate specifications or there is significant time pressure on the testing
b) Is not correct. Exploratory testing is not a black-box test technique
c) Is not correct. Exploratory testing is useful when the specifications are poorly written
d) Is not correct. Programming skills have nothing to do with exploratory testing in principle
e) Is correct. Exploratory testing will be more effective if the tester is experienced, has domain knowledge and has a high degree of essential skills, like analytical skills, curiosity and creativeness

Explanation / Rationale

a) Is not correct. Feedback can improve the test process, but if one only wants to improve future projects, the feedback does not need to come early or frequently
b) Is not correct. Feedback is not used to prioritize requirements
c) Is not correct. The quality of changes can be measured in multiple ways
d) Is correct. Early and frequent feedback allows for the early communication of potential quality problems

Explanation / Rationale

a) Is not correct. Quality should be the responsibility of everyone working on the project and not the sole responsibility of the test team
b) Is not correct. First, it is not a benefit if an external test team does not meet delivery deadlines, and second, there is no reason to believe that external test teams will feel they do not have to meet strict delivery deadlines
c) Is not correct. It is bad practice for the test team to work in complete isolation, and we would expect an external test team to be concerned with changing project requirements and communicating well with developers
d) Is correct. Specifications are never perfect, meaning that assumptions will have to be made by the developer. An independent tester is useful in that they can challenge and verify the assumptions and subsequent interpretation made by the developer

Explanation / Rationale

a) Is correct. This is done by the testers
b) Is not correct. The product backlog is built and maintained by the product owner
c) Is not correct. This is done by the development team
d) Is not correct. This is a managerial role
e) Is correct. This is done by the testers

Explanation / Rationale

Branch testing is a white-box test technique in which the coverage items are branches. A branch is a transfer of control between two nodes in the control flow graph, which shows the possible sequences in which source code statements are executed in the test object. Each transfer of control can be either unconditional (i.e., straight-line code) or conditional (i.e., a decision outcome). Coverage is measured as the number of branches exercised by the test cases divided by the total number of branches, and is expressed as a percentage.
Thus:
a) Is not correct. A decision outcome is a conditional branch. For branch testing, X counts not only conditional, but also unconditional branches
b) Is not correct. Branch coverage counts not only conditional, but also unconditional branches
c) Is correct. Branch coverage is measured as the number of branches exercised by the test cases divided by the total number of branches, and is expressed as a percentage
d) Is not correct. Both X and Y count only conditional branches and do not take into account the unconditional branches

Explanation / Rationale

a) Is not correct. Coverage is always defined as the percentage of the covered elements. Therefore, it cannot exceed 100%
b) Is correct. If the statements executed by T1 and T2 were disjoint, the coverage of the test suite {T1, T2} would be 105%, which is impossible (see answer a). Therefore, at least 5% of executable statements must have been executed by both T1 and T2
c) Is not correct. Statement coverage does not tell us anything about the number of non-executable statements in the code
d) Is not correct. Even if a test suite achieves full statement coverage, this does not imply achieving full branch coverage

Explanation / Rationale
a) Is not correct. Retrospectives are used to capture lessons learned and to improve the development and testing process, not to document the acceptance criteria
b) Is correct. This is the standard way to document acceptance criteria
c) Is not correct. Verbal communication does not allow to physically document the acceptance criteria as part of a user story (”card” aspect in the 3C’s model)
d) Is not correct. Acceptance criteria are related to a user story, not a test plan. Also, acceptance criteria are the conditions that have to be fulfilled to decide if the user story is complete. Risks are not such conditions

Explanation / Rationale

a) Is not correct. Early review is an example of the shift left approach
b) Is not correct. TDD is an example of the shift left approach
c) Is not correct. Early non-functional testing is an example of the shift left approach
d) Is correct. Test scripts should be subject to configuration management, so it makes no sense to create the test scripts before this process is set up

Explanation / Rationale

Consider:

i. It is a Project risk
ii. It is a Product risk
iii. It is a Product risk
iv. It is a Project risk
v. It is a Product risk

Thus:
a) Is correct
b) Is not correct
c) Is not correct
d) Is not correct

Explanation / Rationale

a) Is correct. The ‘tests wear out’ principle is concerned with the idea that repeating identical tests on unaltered code is unlikely to uncover novel defects and therefore, modifying tests may be essential. By using high-level test conditions to generate new tests each time, the tests will not be identical and should not ‘wear out’
b) Is not correct. The ‘absence-of-defects fallacy’ principle is concerned with ensuring that users’ needs are fulfilled even if lots of testing is done and no defects are found (i.e., validation is also necessary). The use of high-level test conditions to generate test cases and execute tests does not directly address this concern
c) Is not correct. The ‘early testing saves time and money’ principle is concerned with fixing defects early on to prevent the occurrence of subsequent defects in derived work products, thereby reducing costs and the likelihood of failures. This is typically addressed by starting testing (both static and dynamic) as early as possible, but this is not addressed by using high-level test conditions to generate test cases and execute tests
d) Is not correct. The ‘Defects cluster together’ principle is concerned with the distribution of defects in a system, which typically follows a Pareto distribution. The use of high-level test conditions to generate test cases and execute tests does not address this concern, which is typically addressed by risk-based testing

Explanation / Rationale

a) Is correct. The primary benefit of independence in testing is that testers are more likely to identify different types of failures and defects compared to developers, due to their varied backgrounds, technical viewpoints, and potential biases, including cognitive bias. However, the main disadvantage of independence in testing is that testers may become isolated from the development team, leading to communication problems, a lack of collaboration, and potentially an adversarial relationship, with testers being blamed for delays and bottlenecks in the release process
b) Is not correct. A developer’s familiarity with the code does not mean that they rarely find defects in it, instead this familiarity means they can efficiently find many defects in their own code. And, rather than developers and testers having a shared background, developers having a different background to testers is normally cited as the reason that testers and developers find different kinds of defects
c) Is not correct. Testing can be conducted at different levels of independence, ranging from no independence for the author to very high independence for testers from outside the organization. In most projects, multiple levels of independence are utilized, with developers performing component and component integration testing, the test team performing system and system integration testing, and business representatives performing acceptance testing. So, testers can be in the developer’s team and do not need to come from outside the organization. Knowledge of the application domain will change from case-to-case and is not dependent on the level of independence
d) Is not correct. Testing can be conducted at different levels of independence, ranging from no independence for the author to very high independence for testers from outside the organization, with testers from outside the developer’s team generally more independent than testers from within the team. However, there is more reason to believe that testers from outside the team are likely to be more isolated from the developers and so are more likely to be blamed for delays in product release

Explanation / Rationale

a) Is correct. Test automation can provide measures that are too complicated for humans to derive, such as white-box test coverage measures for all but the most trivial code
b) Is not correct. By using test tools the responsibility for the testing is NOT shared with the tool vendor as the vendor is not involved in the testing, and it is the tester’s responsibility. The only possible responsibility that could be assigned to the tool vendor is if the tool fails to work as expected and provides incorrect test results
c) Is not correct. Testers still need to perform critical thinking when analyzing anomalies in the test results to determine their likely cause
d) Is not correct. Neither testers nor tools can generate test cases simply from an analysis of the program code as the code is the implementation and provides no information on the expected results, which will need to come from another part of the test basis, such as the design specification

Explanation / Rationale

a) Is not correct. Test execution and coverage tools facilitate the automated execution of test cases and the measurement of the coverage achieved by running those test cases. However, these tools do not help with the organization of defects and configuration management
b) Is not correct. Test design and implementation tools facilitate the generation of test cases, test data and test procedures, but they do not help with the organization of defects and configuration management
c) Is not correct. Defect management tools are used to manage defects but are not testing tools and are not used to organize test cases or configuration management
d) Is correct. Test management tools increase the test process efficiency by facilitating the management of the software development lifecycle (SDLC), requirements, tests, defects, and configuration management

Explanation / Rationale

a) Is not correct. DevOps enhances testing in several ways, such as by providing fast feedback on code quality, automated regression testing that minimizes regression risk, and promoting a shift-left approach with high-quality code submission and component tests. This is largely provided through continuous integration, where the developers submit component (unit) tests with their new code, which must pass for the code to be admitted to the build. Therefore, developers do need to complete component testin
b) Is correct. DevOps enhances testing in several ways, such as by providing fast feedback on code quality, automated regression testing that minimizes regression risk, and promoting a shift-left approach with high-quality code submission and component tests
c) Is not correct. DevOps enhances testing in several ways, such as by providing fast feedback on code quality, automated regression testing that minimizes regression risk, and promoting a shift-left approach with high-quality code submission and component tests. Testers do not attempt to treat developers and operations equally by spending more time on release testing, although a shift-right approach to testing (testing in production) may well be used
d) Is not correct. Automated processes like continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) in DevOps facilitate stable test environments and reduce the need for manual testing, however, there is a risk of overlooking the importance of manual testing, especially from a user's perspective

Explanation / Rationale

a) Is not correct. Testers should review work products as soon as drafts are available to enable early testing as part of a shift-left approach. If they waited until the next development phase, then unnecessary development (and test) work could be started on unreviewed, flawed work products
b) Is correct. Testers should review work products as soon as drafts are available to enable early testing as part of a shift-left approach
c) Is not correct. Testers typically review work products that form the test basis as part of test analysis, not before test analysis and design
d) Is not correct. Testers should review work products as soon as drafts are available to enable early testing as part of a shift-left approach. Waiting until they are published means that any defects that could be found by tester review will be in the published document

Explanation / Rationale

a) Is correct. Defect management is no less expensive. Finding and fixing defects later in SDLC is more costly
b) Is not correct. This is a benefit of static testing
c) Is not correct. This is a benefit of static testing
d) Is not correct. This is a benefit of static testing

Explanation / Rationale

Test cases TC1, TC2, TC3 and TC4 cover, respectively, rules R2, R3, R7 and R6 in the decision table.
a) Is correct. The conditions “66-year-old”, “unregistered” and “no experience” match rule R4, which is not covered by the existing test cases, so after adding this test case, the decision table coverage will increase
b) Is not correct. The conditions “55-year-old”, “unregistered” and “2 years of experience” match rule R2, already covered by TC1. So adding this test case will not increase the coverage
c) Is not correct. The conditions “19-year-old”, “registered” and “5 years of experience” match rule R6, already covered by TC4. So adding this test case will not increase the coverage
d) Is not correct. The existing test cases cover only 4 out of 7 columns of the decision table. The coverage can be increased by adding test cases that cover yet uncovered columns, that is, R1, R4 and R5

Explanation / Rationale

a) Is correct. Each test level has specific and distinct test objectives as a different form of test object (e.g., single component, complete system) is tested at each test level and overlapping test objectives would lead to unnecessary duplication
b) Is not correct. Test analysis and design for a given test level should start during the corresponding development phase to facilitate early testing (e.g., acceptance test analysis and design should begin during requirements analysis). Test implementation will generally start later, and test execution will start during the test level
c) Is not correct. Test design for a given test level should start during the corresponding development phase to facilitate early testing, however test design (e.g., test case generation) needs to be based on an agreed test basis, not an early draft, otherwise significant test effort may be wasted on creating test cases for a design that later changes
d) Is not correct. Quality control applies to all development activities, meaning that every software development activity has a corresponding test activity. However, the same symmetry does not apply to dynamic and static testing. There are some static testing activities (e.g., static analysis) for which there is no obvious corresponding dynamic testing activity

Explanation / Rationale

a) Is not correct. It is more often used in behavior-driven development (BDD)
b) Is not correct. It is the description of test-driven development (TDD)
c) Is correct. In acceptance test-driven development (ATDD) tests are written from acceptance criteria as part of the design process
d) Is not correct. It is used in BDD

Explanation / Rationale

a) Is not correct. A member without a missed deadline can get a discount and a gift T-Shirt after 15 bicycle rentals
b) Is not correct. A member without a missed deadline can get a discount but no gift T-Shirt until they rented a bicycle 15 times
c) Is not correct. Non-members cannot get a discount, even if they did not miss a deadline yet
d) Is correct. No discount as a non-member that has also missed a deadline, but only members can receive a gift T-Shirt. Hence, the action is not correct

Explanation / Rationale

Using the three-point estimation technique, the final estimate (E) is calculated as:

E = (a + 4*m + b) / 6,

where a is the most optimistic estimate, m is the most likely estimate, and b is the most pessimistic estimate.

Thus:
a) Is correct. In this case, the estimate for executing a single test case is:

E = (1h + 4*3h + 8h) / 6 = 3.5 hours

So, the total time needed for the tester to execute 4 test cases is:

3.5h * 4 = 14 hours

b) Is not correct
c) Is not correct
d) Is not correct

Explanation / Rationale

Considering each of the listed test activities and their output testware:

A. Test analysis - prioritized test conditions (4) (e.g., acceptance criteria), and defect reports for defects identified in the test basis
B. Test design - prioritized test cases, test charters, coverage items (1), test data requirements, and test environment requirements
C. Test implementation - test procedures, automated test scripts, test suites, test data, test execution schedule (3), and test environment elements such as stubs, drivers, simulators, and service virtualizations
D. Test completion - test completion report, documented lessons learned, action items for improvement, and change requests (2) (as product backlog items)

Thus:
a) Is correct. The correct match is: 1B, 2D, 3C, 4A
b) Is not correct
c) Is not correct
d) Is not correct

Explanation / Rationale

Considering each of the listed tool categories:

i. Collaboration tools – facilitate communication. Communication does not include the facilitation of test execution
ii. DevOps tools - support the DevOps delivery pipeline, workflow tracking, automated build process(es) and CI/CD. The delivery pipeline and CI/CD both include the facilitation of test execution, such as component testing for CI
iii. Management tools – increase the test process efficiency by facilitating management of the SDLC, requirements, tests, defects and configuration. The management of these items does not include the facilitation of test execution
iv. Non-functional testing tools – allow the tester to perform non-functional testing that is difficult or impossible to perform manually. Non-functional testing can include both static testing and dynamic testing, including test execution
v. Test design and implementation tools – facilitate generation of test cases, test data and test procedures. The generation of this testware does not include the facilitation of test execution

Thus:
a) Is not correct
b) Is correct. Both DevOps tools (ii) and Non-functional testing tools (iv) facilitate test execution
c) Is not correct
d) Is not correct

Explanation / Rationale

a) Is not correct. Acceptance criteria are the conditions used to decide whether the user story is ready. They cannot show work progress
b) Is not correct. Defect reports inform about the defects. They do not show work progress
c) Is not correct. Test completion report can be created after the iteration is finished, so it will not show the progress continuously within an iteration
d) Is correct. Burndown charts are a graphical representation of work left to do versus time remaining. They are updated daily, so they can continuously show the work progress

Explanation / Rationale

a) Is correct. The number of defects found is related to the test object quality
b) Is not correct. This is the measure of the test efficiency not the test object quality
c) Is not correct. The number of test cases executed does not tell us anything about the quality; test results might do
d) Is correct. defect density is related to the test object quality
e) Is not correct. Time to repair is a process metric. It does not tell us anything about the product quality

Explanation / Rationale

a) Is correct. This test covers two acceptance criteria: one about editing the document and one about saving changes
b) Is not correct. Acceptance criteria cover the editor activities, not the content owner activities
c) Is not correct. Scheduling the edited content for publication may be a nice feature, but it is not covered by the acceptance criteria
d) Is not correct. Acceptance criteria state about reassigning from an editor to the content owner, not to another editor

Explanation / Rationale

Considering the attributes:

• Specified for walkthroughs, technical reviews, and inspections; thus, the reviews being performed cannot be informal reviews
• The purpose of evaluating quality is one of the most important objectives of a walkthrough
• This is not allowed for inspections and is typically not done in technical reviews. A moderator is needed in walkthroughs and is allowed for informal reviews
• All types of reviews can include individual preparation (even informal reviews)
• All types of reviews can produce a review report, although informal reviews do not require documentation

Thus:
a) Is not correct
b) Is correct
c) Is not correct
d) Is not correct

Explanation / Rationale

a) Is correct. Performing only black-box testing does not provide a measure of actual code coverage. White-box coverage measures provide an objective measurement of coverage and provide the necessary information to allow additional tests to be generated to increase this coverage, and subsequently increase confidence in the code
b) Is not correct. This statement is correct, but it has nothing to do with black-box testing
c) Is not correct. In general there are no subsumes relationships between white-box and black-box techniques
d) Is not correct. White-box techniques are used to design tests based on the test object itself, while black-box techniques are used to design tests based on the specification. Therefore, there is no relation between coverage items derived from these two types of techniques

Explanation / Rationale

a) Is not correct. Strong communication skills, active listening, and teamwork abilities enable a tester to interact effectively with all stakeholders, however a deep knowledge of a variety of computer games that allowed them to get on well with one developer is not an example of a generic skill useful to testers
b) Is correct. Domain knowledge that can be used to understand and communicate with end-users and business representatives is one of the generic skills required by testers. A tester with experience as a pilot would make them better able to appreciate the acceptance criteria for the helicopter control system
c) Is not correct. Although programming skills could be considered as technical knowledge which can increase efficiency when utilizing some test tools, it is unlikely that these skills would improve their communication with business analysts
d) Is not correct. Although thoroughness, attention to detail, curiosity, and a methodical approach to identifying hard-to-find defects are all useful generic skills for testers, it is doubtful they would be generating test cases prior to starting exploratory testing. This is because one of the main tenets of exploratory testing is that the test cases are generated during the testing, not scripted in advance

Explanation / Rationale

“test” and “error” transitions cannot occur in one test case.
Neither can both “done” transitions.
This means we need at least three test cases to achieve transition coverage. For example:

TC1: test, done
TC2: run, error, done
TC3: run, pause, resume, pause, done

Thus:
a) Is not correct
b) Is not correct
c) Is not correct
d) Is correct