Course Overview
The ISTQB Advanced Test Automation Engineer Certificate Course runs over three-full days course, where it explains the tasks of a test automation engineer (TAE) in designing, developing, and maintaining test automation solutions.
The course includes exercises and practice exams to highlight key aspects of the syllabus and to help participants understand and practice the concepts and methods presented. The exam is held a few days after the course, thereby allowing good time for revision. It is accredited by the UKITB on behalf of ISTQB and is rated a level 5 in SFIS Plus The ISTQB Advanced Test Automation Engineer is principally aimed at test practitioners who have achieved an advanced point in their careers in software testing and are expecting to be actively involved in the technical aspects of software testing, including test automation, non-functional testing, white-box testing, and who want to increase their knowledge and skills beyond the levels covered by the Foundation and Intermediate qualifications. This includes people in roles such as testers, test analysts, test engineers, test consultants, test managers, user acceptance testers and software developers. This Advanced Level qualification is also appropriate for anyone who wants a deeper understanding of software testing, such as project managers, quality managers, software development managers, business analysts and management consultants. 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:Who will benefit?
About ISTQB and the ‘Certified Tester’ Scheme
Alexander Hendrick | Test Analyst | IBM –
Solid course and a good intro to test automation. Cheers John
Dean Porter | System Test Engineer | Deloitte –
I found the course straight forward and very informative – The only improvement feedback I have is around the presentation slides.
The mind map is extremely useful, however 3 days of viewing slides showing only various snippets of it felt extremely repetitive and I found it hard concentrating as every slide looked extremely similar. This also made it difficult understanding what section we where learning and what level of a particular topic we were in.
Chelsea Houston | Software Engineer – Test Analyst (Apprentice) | Capgemini –
Very good detail, lots of information. The trainer was easy to understand and get along with. Information was as expected, high level of information and detail, all relevant to the course. Regular breaks throughout the day helped a lot with comfort and retaining information. Excited for the next course I’m already booked onto.
Luke Rogers | Functional Test Engineer | IBM –
really enjoyed the course and learning all the aspects of test automation
Sean Wilson | Test Automation Lead | TrakCel –
Excellent speaker/instructor. Thank you Rosie!
Very easy to follow and the analogies that were given were really helpful.
Paul Johnson | Embedded software engineer | Frazer- nash consultancy –
Course really interesting and helped build a foundation to some of the things that I’ve been doing in my career.
Enjoy the use of mind maps to break the slybus and trainer very helpful
Romey Poonia | Systems Test Engineer | ULTRA –
Good course. The trainer Rosie Sheldon was excellent, I liked how she engaged with everyone and their testing experiences as well as bringing her own personal experiences as examples.
Luan Dinh | Test Analyst | Natwest Markets –
John was an excellent trainer. The virtual class was very engaging and very thorough. John was great at explaining even the dry topics precisely and has been very helpful in getting points across and clearing any confusion I had with certain areas/topics.
Doug Monk | System Test Engineer | N/A –
Very well presented
Mitesh Shrimanker | Test Automation Analyst | NSK Europe Ltd –
Good examples with detailed explanation, made many concepts clear.
Due to only one sample paper, maybe a additional revision session could have been planned for more confidence and more practise.
Andrew Webster | Senior Test Analyst | NHS –
A good trainer and well-organised course
Jonathan Ellis | Test Engineer | Close Brothers –
It was a great course, very detailed by presented in an engaging way. The course is intense with the amount of topics required for the exam.
Josh Jennings | V&V Engineer | Northrop Grumman –
Excellent, really well presented, John is very thorough and knowledgeable
Isaac King | Software Tester | IBM –
I loved the teaching methods, very interactive and good fun to complete. Easy to work in a small group and things were very well taught. I feel like I learnt a lot from this course and have a lot of information I can use later on in my career
Daniel Wyatt|Software Tester|Jaama Limited –
Well paced and Rosie’s presentation style made it easy to follow and understand the complex subject matter.
Nicholas Nowosielski | Test Engineer | Capgemini –
Well structured content, combining theory, examples and practice. Enough breaks throughout the day to not burn out and instructor helped answer questions helpfully.
Matthew East | Software tester | –
Well structured and progressed at a good pace.
Matthew East | Software tester | –
Well structured and progressed at a good pace.
Prajwal Shrestha | Test Analyst | Infomentum –
Great trainer, was very helpful and knowledgeable but the course is very rushed, would be best to have one more day to cover all the topics
Dan Jones | Test Engineer | Capgemini UK –
Really well presented given the circumstances of having to carry out distance learning. John is an extremely knowledgeable trainer and took the time to ensure all attendees understood the material being presented.
Victoria Harding | Test Analyst | Capgemini –
John was very knowledgeable and comprehensive – a good mix of theory and practice exam questions – breaks were well timed and felt comfortable to ask questions if necessary. Course covered a wide range of test automation factors throughout the testing lifecycle.
Victoria Holmes | Senior UAT Analyst |Link Group –
Very well articulated for the different levels of experience of the course attendees. Understanding provided when incorrect answers given, weren’t left feeling silly. Considering it is hard to stay focused when the course is online, she did well to keep us engaged. It was well structured with small regular breaks.
Ankita Singh | Assistant Manager |KPMG –
Trainer is having good understanding of automation testing processes. She delivered the course very well and discussed the queries well too.
Bob Metcalfe | Quality Engineer |Lloyds Banking Group –
John was an excellent trainer, clearly walking us through the syllabus in an easy to understand way, with plenty of opportunities to undertake practical application of learning through past exam papers and scenarios. He frequently validated that everyone on the course was clear before we moved onto the next section and provided some helpful tips on how to revise and prepare for the exam.
Jennifer Kwan | Quality Engineer |Lloyds Banking Group through outside company –
Excellent trainer, able to explain things well, any questions were answered well as well. Great examples as well that helped highlight and explain things in a manner that was understandable.
ALAN BISHOP | QUALITY ENGINEER |LLOYDS BANKING GROUP –
Although a lot to cover and take in over three days, it was broken down nicely and covered and gone through clearly by the tutor. Tutor great at answering questions and explaining areas until it was understood.
Karen Wareing | Quality Engineer |Lloyds –
I found the course very interesting and learnt a lot. It was paced well and John always made sure that everyone understood before moving onto the next part of the course. He went through the exam questions in detail explaining which answer was correct and why and why the other answers were not the best answer. I thought it would be difficult to concentrate with it been a virtual course WFH but I actually preferred it. It was a shame that we couldn’t print off the mind maps as I would have preferred to have been able to make notes on them to use for revision. It would have been good to be advised that some of the documents we were sent prior to the course weren’t able to be printed off as I thought it was an issue with my printer and wasted time trying to sort it out.
Conor Wilson | QE |Lloyds –
Good material, however purely virtual learning is challenging, the past papers helped the most
Linda Perry | Quality Engineer |Lloyds Banking Group –
Intense but very well presented with good explanations and examples along the way
David McGechie | Quality Engineer |LBG –
tough going in a virtual classroom collaboration and contribution from all parties was reduced. content & delivery was great and at a pace that was good for me
Claire Meikleham | Quality Engineer |LBG –
A lot of theory so it is a tough few days. Particularly enjoyed the exam type questions and the discussions around why the other options were not the correct answer. Felt this was very beneficial to my understanding.
Linda Perry|Quality Engineer|Lloyds Banking Group –
Intense but very well presented with good explanations and examples along the way
David McGechie | |Quality Engineer|LBG –
tough going in a virtual classroom collaboration and contribution from all parties was reduced. content & delivery was great and at a pace that was good for me
Claire Meikleham|Quality Engineer|LBG –
A lot of theory so it is a tough few days. Particularly enjoyed the exam type questions and the discussions around why the other options were not the correct answer. Felt this was very beneficial to my understanding.
Bob Metcalfe|Quality Engineer|Lloyds Banking Group –
John was an excellent trainer, clearly walking us through the syllabus in an easy to understand way, with plenty of opportunities to undertake practical application of learning through past exam papers and scenarios. He frequently validated that everyone on the course was clear before we moved onto the next section and provided some helpful tips on how to revise and prepare for the exam.
Jennifer Kwan|Quality Engineer|Lloyds Banking Group through outside company –
Excellent trainer, able to explain things well, any questions were answered well as well. Great examples as well that helped highlight and explain things in a manner that was understandable.
ALAN BISHOP|QUALITY ENGINEER|LLOYDS BANKING GROUP –
Although a lot to cover and take in over three days, it was broken down nicely and covered and gone through clearly by the tutor. Tutor great at answering questions and explaining areas until it was understood.
Karen Wareing|Quality Engineer|Lloyds –
I found the course very interesting and learnt a lot. It was paced well and John always made sure that everyone understood before moving onto the next part of the course. He went through the exam questions in detail explaining which answer was correct and why and why the other answers were not the best answer. I thought it would be difficult to concentrate with it been a virtual course WFH but I actually preferred it. It was a shame that we couldn’t print off the mind maps as I would have preferred to have been able to make notes on them to use for revision. It would have been good to be advised that some of the documents we were sent prior to the course weren’t able to be printed off as I thought it was an issue with my printer and wasted time trying to sort it out.
Judy Yu|Quality engineer|Lloyds –
Excellent
Conor Wilson|QE|Lloyds –
Good material, however purely virtual learning is challenging, the past papers helped the most
Samantha McKee|Assistant Test Manager|KPMG –
Was really good information and helped me place a lot of words to things I have been doing currently. The instructor was very helpful and he has ensured I am prepared for the exam and next steps.
Lewis Ridings|IT Test Specialist|IBM –
The course was very informative and introduced the area of test automation very well. It was tailored very much towards Software Testing as expected given it is part of the ITSQB syllabus, however a lot of the concepts were explained very well in relation to all areas of testing, be it infrastructure, cloud etc. and very well related to agile methodologies. John was an excellent teacher, he is very personable and friendly and manages to keep the content interesting despite it being a lot of information in a short period of time. His teaching method worked well for a virtual offering, where adaptations to teach content through a web function worked as well as a classroom offering.
Richard Goodwin|Senior Software Testing Engineer|Renishaw –
Good pace of course and content. Knowledgeable and good examples used. Trainer installed confidence in my ability to potentially pass the exam
Alex Reynolds ||QE Engineer ||Lloyds –
The course was really good, John really knew his stuff and made it accessible and was able to pepper it with personal experience. This really brought the material to life.
I personally loved the Mind Maps and see these as an invaluable resource. Although it would have been great to be able to print these out to allow attendees to annotate with their own notes.
I also would have preferred more opportunities to work with those on the course in group sessions. However the GoTo Meeting system being used was unable to support break out rooms. I feel this would really have helped discussions and learning, although John did a great job of facilitating conversations with the attendees.
Naomi Endersby|Test Specialist|IBM –
Course was good but hard work. John’s writing left a bit to be desired – couldn’t read it sometimes but otherwise excellent. Could do with more tangible examples as concepts and theory are difficult to visualise.
PRIYA B|TEST ENGINEER| –
Complete coverage of the topics in course explained in an excellent way.
Robert Villars|Test Manager|LLoyds Banking Group –
Very helpful tips as well as a thorough review of the content of the course. Far more thorough than other courses I have been on. Great explanations.
Saleh Alamer|Testing Engineer|Advanced Electronics Company –
Excellent
Johanna Booth|Quality Engineer|Lloyds Banking Group –
Course was delivered in a way which was always interesting and upbeat (important given that we did it online)
The course itself is challenging and intense but could ask questions and go over things at any time.
Ahsan Mumtaz | Senior Engineer | Clarksons –
It was good, however, I would expect more practical scenarios of the real world instead of just going through the theory. However, it covers the certification exam, syllabus. But I feel it should cover real world scenario
Jodie Cain|Apprentice Software Tester|Bullet Digital Solutions –
This was a resit of a course taken in 2019however due to lockdown I was unable to sit the exam. The course has been re written and delivered through a series of mind maps and this format is much clearer and I found it easier to understand the concepts. I enjoyed the course this time around and feel much more confident about taking the exam.
George Selway|Software Tester Apprentice|Sedgemoor District Council –
Good course in general however I found many of the examples/scenarios had too much ambiguity to allow facilitate a confident answer. One feels you have to come up with an answer which is always based on individual assumptions. Concerned that some of the exam questions have similar issues.
Dale Bennett|Tes tEngineer|AVEVA –
Very good and informative, thank you
Ahsan Mumtaz|Senior Test Engineer|Clarksons –
It was good, however, I would expect more practical scenarios of the real world instead of just going through the theory. However, it covers the certification exam, syllabus. But I feel it should cover real world scenario
Anonymous –
The trainer was very helpful, very caring, presents and explains the course thoroughly.
An overall enjoyable and worthwhile course.
Anonymous –
The course is technical yet very interesting.
Anonymous –
The content was what I expected. The scenarios discussed in groups were really good to break up the content, and I found it really useful to have practice exam questions as we went along. I personally do not learn by brainstorming diagrams so I would have preferred standard powerpoint slides. I remember the foundation course (which I also did through tsg) being a little bit more interactive than this one. The short breaks every hour were perfect. Rosie was very friendly and enthusiastic and went through the content at a good pace. I found Rosie’s analogies helped me to understand the concepts and will help me remember them too! Thank you Rosie.
Anonymous –
Overall good course with quality contents. I like the mindmaps used in the course presentation. Good trainer and she explained explained the concepts with real time examples very well.
Anonymous –
Rosie is a good instructor. She was very concise and cleared the doubts I had. Also, the material was very good.
Anonymous –
The Mind Maps was a bit too much to follow through, it will require a lot of revisiting to stick.
The acronyms are easily confusing, the use of a mix of full name and acronyms will have helped
Anonymous –
Really great course, Rosie comes across as a very friendly and knowledgeable tutor, she is very understanding and patient throughout the course.
Anonymous –
The trainer was very helpful, very caring, presents and explains the course thoroughly.
An overall enjoyable and worthwhile course.
Anonymous –
The course is technical yet very interesting.
Anonymous –
The content was what I expected. The scenarios discussed in groups were really good to break up the content, and I found it really useful to have practice exam questions as we went along. I personally do not learn by brainstorming diagrams so I would have preferred standard powerpoint slides. I remember the foundation course (which I also did through tsg) being a little bit more interactive than this one. The short breaks every hour were perfect. Rosie was very friendly and enthusiastic and went through the content at a good pace. I found Rosie’s analogies helped me to understand the concepts and will help me remember them too! Thank you Rosie.
Anonymous –
Overall good course with quality contents. I like the mindmaps used in the course presentation. Good trainer and she explained explained the concepts with real time examples very well.
Anonymous –
Rosie is a good instructor. She was very concise and cleared the doubts I had. Also, the material was very good.
Anonymous –
The Mind Maps was a bit too much to follow through, it will require a lot of revisiting to stick.
The acronyms are easily confusing, the use of a mix of full name and acronyms will have helped
Anonymous –
Really great course, Rosie comes across as a very friendly and knowledgeable tutor, she is very understanding and patient throughout the course.
Øyvind | Woll | AFRY X Norway Digital Quality –
Very good progressive and easy to follow. Also a good balance in reflection time and interesting discussions while question answering in group sessions.
Nick Vandenbroeck | Test Automation Engineer | VDAB for Vlaanderen connect. –
It’s a lot to take in, but that’s not the fault of the instructor or the makers of the course material. John knows his stuff and goes the “extra mile” to help us understand better. Very well done.
DIPESH | TEST ENGINEER | –
JOHN HAS AN EXTENSIVE KNOWLEDGE AND EXPLAINED THE COURSE WELL. I WOULD RECOMMEND TO ADD MORE REAL TIME EXAMPLES TO MATCH THE CONTENT FOR BETTER UNDERSTANDING HOWEVER I UNDERSTAND THAT THE COURSE CONTENT IS EXENSTIVE.
Anas Patel | QA Associate | Veratrak –
Great course – but would be beneficial if this course advertised as more of a qualified test engineer. Not really
VICKY BARBOUR | TEST ANALYST | BARBOUR SOLUTIONS LTD –
COURSE WAS GOOD – JOHN EXCELLENT TUTOR & COMMUNICATOR
I AM RETURNING TO TESTING & THIS COURSE HAS BUILT MY CONFIDENCE
A LOT OF INFORMATION TO TAKE IN BUT REGULAR BREAKS
GOOD DOCUMENTS
Caleb Hill | Junior Developer in Test | Bud –
Overall good course, good instructor that made sure to check if topics were understood before moving on. A lot of the information I was already aware of, though it was helpful to have them confirmed.
This could be an issue with online courses in general, but the class size might have been a bit too large which might has discouraged people from engaging in discussion – I know I can be guilty of doing this when there are several people in a call.
Tia Jacob | QA Analyst | Bud Systems –
The course was very useful.
John’s pacing was great.
Mindmaps really helpful – thank you!
A possible improvement for future courses would be to provide a copy of the slide deck in exactly the order as it was delivered as it’s a good memory jogger, compared to having separate supplementary information.
George Stephens | Software Test Engineer | IBM –
Course content was clear and concise. John delivered the course very well. Group was rather large and I felt certain topics were covered more in depth than others due to different experiances within the groups. I would prefer to be in a smaller learning session as this would allow more of a tailored approach as I felt at certain points it was hard to concentrate due to already knowing some content in the course. John was very accomodating and friendly, I would like to be trained by him again.
Alexander Hendrick | Test Analyst Apprentice | IBM –
The course was quite intensive and there was a lot to take in. John did well managing all the material and making sure that the group kept up with the pace of the learning. Overall it was a good course but I do feel that maybe some of the material could be covered in the foundation just to reduce the learning load in this course.
Ethan Percival | Software Engineer (Automation) | Capgemini –
Its been interesting and informative
Borislava Vasileva | Systems Tester | Exasoft Group –
The lectures where very well delivered, the trainer had plenty of experience in delivering the course and advising on exam practices which showed. It was very helpful translating the syllabus into understandable examples and the mind maps are great revision material.
Janis Edgars Tamsons | Test automation engineer | SIA MeaWllet Latvia –
It was great, except for the part it got chnaged to online only last minute, and we could not get a refund on any of the flights/hotel
Malcolm Armstrong | Automation Test Engineer | Capital International Group –
Very informative, the syllabus itself was quite abstract however John was very good at applying real world scenarios to the more abstract sections.
Sam Earnshaw | Test Lead | Capgemini –
Great course, well executed and very informative. I have been able to take everything in effectively and hope to pass the exam next week.
Ali Guler | Software Test Engineer | IBM –
I wasn’t able to relate or be interested with the topics as there was quite a lot of theory and not much actual engaging work, but John Young was a wonderful teacher and was very knowledgeable.
Sonia Parveen | Automation Test Analyst | Capgemini UK –
Fantastic trainer. Answered all the questions using real world examples to be able to relate to. Was fun to have the course with him
Jubin Joy | Test Engineer | Home Office –
Good lecture. covered lots of topics. Sometimes the information was overwhelming. The exercises helped to understand the subject. elimination process to the question answer seems much effective.
Heather Daniels | Head of Testing and Environments | University of the West of England –
A lot of information to take in all at once (which is not unexpected of any ISTQB foundation course). I found the second day quite full so would suggest that maybe the 2nd day syllabus is carried into the 3rd day. Reason for suggesting this is that the 3rd day is pretty straight forward. Due to being an online course, we may have also benefitted if Zoom was set up to go into break out rooms (like you can in MS teams) so we could have more collaborative discussions within groups.
Iulia Olaru | Test Engineer Apprentice | IBM –
The course was excellent, although it’s a lot of theory to take in, John made the course interesting and interactive as always.
Mike Taylor | Senior QA Test Engineer | Chorus Intelligence –
The course was well structured and John explained everything really clearly and well.
The training material was really helpful and I particularly liked the mind maps for visualising the information
Samuel Green | Software Tester Apprentice | IBM –
John is a great instructor who guides you through the material in a way which encourages understanding of the course rather than just learning by heart.
I also enjoyed the mind map layout
Hayley Hinds | Software Test Manager and Assurance | Capgemini –
John was able to articulate the subjects in a relatable way making it easier to learn. He ensured we had regular breaks and the scenarios and questions really helped with the understanding of the material.
Charles Lister | Software Test Apprentice | IBm –
I thought that while the course was packed full of content it was divided up into manageable sections that allowed for me to properly digest the content. The delivery was excellent and the practice questions provided worked well to test my understanding.
Divyen Thakkar| Senior Test Analyst| Transport For London –
Excellent course and was very insightful. Learned lot of new techniques for automation and also learned some new tools. Trainer was very helpful and covered every thing with correct pace. Hands on part was very exciting.
Robert Ross| Software Test Engineer Apprentice| IBM –
I found the course content to be very detailed and in-depth. John did a great job of teaching this course – I believe this is the third time that I’ve met John over the past year and each time he has done a very good job of teaching the course content. I hope to see John again in another course.
Dana Korang-Awua| Test Engineer | Home Office –
Really informative and John took his time to explain thing sin depth. The mind maps also help a lot
Patrick Wilson| Performance Test Engineer| IBM –
As always, very good! Course was well presented, thorough and with plenty of real world examples to make the content more relatable. Would recommend to anyone!
Anonymous –
All the concepts were explained in detail and in an understandable way. Real life examples and analogies were helpful in understanding the subject. Regular breaks were good to take a breath. I have nothing bad to say. I have learnt a lot during the course.