Certification in Software Testing
Since software testing is still not taught in great detail like other aspects of Software Development, viz. programming, user interface designing, installation and customer handling, in colleges and schools, there is a dearth of good formal courses and because of this, certifications from qualified institutions come handy. In this story, I am going to talk about CSTE which is by far the most popular and sort of the standard certification in software testing field. Infact about couple of years back, this was the defacto certification which any software tester or a software quality engineer would flaunt. Your truly is also a CSTE certified tester. A new certification is fast gaining ground and is called ISTQB.
What is CSTE ?
Its ‘Certified Software Tester’ and a certification which is awarded by QAI, one of the most reputed and old organization in the field of software quality and software testing. CSTE used to be called ‘Certified Software Test Engineer’ but they ran into trouble when someone questioned the validity of title having the word ‘Engineer’. Since its essentially a certificate, it was a little inappropriate to use ‘Engineer’ so they dropped this word but the acronym was preserved.
Who manages this ?
QAI manages this program and you can do most of the things through the following website : http://www.softwarecertifications.org . The non-online part of manging the test centre, taking exam and other stuff is managed by local chapters of QAI in respective countries. In India QAI operates out of Delhi and they manage this. Who can qualify ? Anyone but typically someone who has been in trade, preferably has spent some time testing real life software and sort of understands CBOK (Common Body of Knowledge) What is CBOK ? CBOK is the collection of all the testing concepts, testing techniques and everything which a tester needs to know. QAI also publishes a book which has this and its called CBOK. It used to be of $ 100 when I did this in 2003, not too sure of current price. But you can get that info from the above link.
Why should one do it ?
Well, its a kind of formal certification and there are organization which acknowledge this and either reward you for this, e.g. Adobe India reimburses all expenses if you do this successfully so it comes for free for folks here or as a valuable certificate at the time of hiring.
Where do I go to find out more ?
http://www.softwarecertifications.org/
http://www.qaiasia.com/Contact_us/frameset.htm
1013-14A, Ansal Towers, 38 Nehru Place,
New Delhi – 110019, India
Phone: +91- 11- 26219792, 26220580
Fax: +91- 11- 26218974
Email Id: customer_relations@qaiasia.com
Website: www.qaiasia.com
Should I do it ?
Yes, why not.
How do I prepare ?
Simple. Buy/arrange CBOK and read it well, really well. No need to read any other book, at all. If you can’t get hold of CBOK then at least try to get the list of content so that you can read about them in other books. But CBOK is enough. Also, Join some of the yahoogroups and googlegroups on this topic.
I would write about another certification called ISTQB in few days from now so keep watching this space.