ISTQB® releases Certified Tester Advanced Level Agile Test Leadership at Scale - 2nd Increment - v0.4 (CTAL-ATLaS)

ISTQB® has released the 2nd increment of the Advanced Level (CTAL) Agile Test Leadership at Scale (ATLaS) version 0.4. This is the second of the six increments planned in the CTAL-ATLaS certification. CTAL-ATLaS is an “Agile” module within the ISTQB® Certified Tester Scheme and an in-demand next step after the ISTQB® Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL) and ISTQB® Certified Tester Foundation Level Agile Tester (CTFL-AT).

The release consists of the first (Quality Assistance) and second (Improve Quality and Flow in a Value-Driven Organization) chapters of the ISTQB® Advanced Level Agile Test Leadership at Scale syllabus (v0.4), body of knowledge (v0.4) and sample exam questions and answers (v0.4).

Because of the incremental model the Release Notes will not be available until the very end of development of the complete ATLaS product.

This is the first time that ISTQB® has developed and released a certification incrementally. According to Agile principles, iterations ensure better quality through early feedback and continuous improvement.

When will the complete CTAL-ATLaS certification be ready?

We are planning to have it available by Q4 2022 (current estimation).

More information can be found in the CTAL-ATLaS FAQ section.

Product Owner of the CTAL-ATLaS v0.4 Mette Bruhn-Pedersen, said:

"With the modern demand for business agility there is an even greater need for accelerated quality. This is not achievable if all responsibility for quality remains in individual teams or specific roles such as testers. Therefore, test management becomes quality management and organizations need to adopt lean principles across the organization as well as within delivery teams. This changes the role of quality assurance and test professionals to be closer to agile test leadership and to fostering a quality culture and mindset.

The ISTQB® is offering a new certification on Advanced level to help people build the competencies needed to effectively contribute to such demanding business environments. The certification is called Agile Test Leadership at Scale (ATLaS) and the second chapter is now available for download on ISTQB®’s website.

In this second chapter you will learn the need to Improve Quality and Flow in a Value-Driven Organization. The certification looks at what Value Stream Mapping is and the skills that you need to support this. It supports implementing Value Stream Mapping as a key tool to improving process flow and therefore product or service quality. It explores the analysis of value streams from a quality and testing perspective. This chapter covers basic visualization techniques, typical steps in value stream mapping, and how to identify non-value adding activities in the form of the 8 different types of waste.

Implementing these techniques in your organization brings value by:

• Identifying and removing waste
• Improving the efficiency of your value driven processes
• Aligning cross functional teams on business objectives and customer satisfaction

By releasing the second chapter the ISTQB® continues the agile approach to certification adopted in the first chapter (see link to chapter 1 news). We will continue to release each chapter as it is developed so that member boards can disseminate this to their customers to gain interest; for training providers to start building courseware and so that exam providers can build exams. We also want to gain early feedback directly from our customers to help us tailor this certification to market demands.

This is a new way of releasing for the ISTQB®, using an iterative method building assets up until the final full launch when all materials, including exams will be ready. You will also see a new look syllabus format which focuses on the learnings you will gain, supported by a Body of Knowledge giving you rich examples and walking you through each learning objective in detail.

The Agile Test Leadership at Scale qualification is aimed at people who work in an organization which is pursuing agility at scale or business agility and already have a basic understanding of agile and agile testing. The ISTQB® Foundation Level certificate and Foundation Level Agile Tester certificate are pre-requisites for taking the Advanced Level Agile Test Leadership at Scale certification exam."

ISTQB® President Olivier Denoo added:

"The ISTQB® is proud to release the next chapter of our new Advanced Level certification, Agile Test Leadership at Scale.

While Agile methods are spreading fast and becoming the new norm in software development and testing, the time has come to scale up and focus on a new dimension: Agility at Scale.

More than just isolated projects, organizations are facing challenges to align Agility across their whole business. Many different approaches have already been adopted by industry such as SAFe® and Spotify.

Complementing our core Foundation and Agile Tester certifications, the Advanced Level Agile Test Leadership at Scale qualification is approach-and-methods-agnostic. It is aimed at people who work in an organization which is pursuing agility at scale or business agility. In this first chapter you will learn the need to foster a value-driven quality mindset and culture.

It is also important to notice that for the first time, an ISTQB® certification is being released in several parts. Not only is this a great opportunity for our dedicated team to "walk the talk", but also a new approach to better streamline the efforts within our ecosystem. By publishing the certification in increments member boards, training providers and exam providers have the opportunity to iteratively localize materials, design courseware, and create exam questions so everyone is ready when the full certification is launched.

I hope that you will immediately start using these materials as part of the career development programs in your organizations to accelerate your business agility transformations.

I wish you all happy reading. Stay tuned and take care..."

Chair of ISTQB® Marketing Working Group Sebastian Małyska, noted:

"All of us would like to interact with a quality driven organization as a team member or stakeholder or as a customer. On the way there we need to learn how to identify and eliminate the waste. The 2nd chapter would definitely help you gain those skills and knowledge."

Thank you to all who have supported the update including Michael Pilaeten (Working Group Chair); Mette Bruhn-Pedersen (Product Owner); Jean-Luc Cossi, Richard Green, Michael Heller, Leanne Howard, Ebbe Munk, Francisca Cano Ortiz, Samuel Ouko, Tal Pe’er, Murian Song, Marcelo Chanez, Ilia Kulakov, Peter Jetter and Salinda Wickramasinghe (Authors) and Loyde Mitchell and many other from long reviewer list (incl. into syllabus), Exam & Marketing Work Groups.