Course Overview
The ISTQB Advanced Test Manager course extends the broad understanding of testing acquired at Foundation Level to enable the role of Test Manager to be performed.
This five-day tutor-led course includes lectures, exercises and practical work, as well as exam preparation. The examination is held a couple of days after the course, thereby allowing some additional revision time. It is fully accredited by UKITB on behalf of ISTQB and has been rated SFIAplus level 5 by the BCS. The ISTQB Test Manager Advanced Level 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 management of any aspect of software testing, and who want to increase their test management 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. The ISTQB Test Manager 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: Being a test manager these days of ever expanding and changing technology is a big deal and responsible job, and the syllabus recognises this by calling for 5-days of intensive training and a 3-hour exam. This qualification is a must for the upwardly mobile. Senior Trainer Rosie Sheldon talks you through a lesson on ‘The Value of Business Testing’Who is it for?
About ISTQB and the ‘Certified Tester’ Scheme
The Value of Business Testing
Anonymous –
I think the course is quite out of date as to how testing works now and hasn’t moved with the times, there has been a huge shift to more agile ways of working and this course seems to be more focussed at waterfall.
The content jumped around a lot, i would have liked to have seen more example exam questions. The trainer did have to much interest in analysing answers to questions and there was a lot of of reading of slides. I prefer to do more short quiz’s and then analysing the results and where you could have improved or how you could have answered differently. I think the questions i have seen seem deliberately difficult and ambiguous so more ‘training’ of the way the questions are posed and answered would have been very beneficial.
I not sure how much use this course will be for me in my day job due to it being quite out dated and maybe that was my misunderstanding of the syllabus
Anonymous –
Karen is very personable but i found a lot of the course was read from the slides and the day reader notes without much more additional content – language is confusing at times and there is a lot of content to revise
Anonymous –
Enjoyed the course and the trainer was very. good.
Anonymous –
Very engaging way to go through the content needed for the exam and very good real world examples from the trainer that helped me link the theory to my day job.
Breaks were very clear and I found it useful that the time the course was to resume was kept on the screen.
John’s use of Whiteboard was exceptional, always clear and efficient and kept me focused on the subjects, far better than my past experience of courses with trainers writing on a physical whiteboard one can struggle to see depending on where they are sat.
My only suggestion for improvement is around the example questions not having clear correct answers, however I took John’s point that they are very good at making you think about how to answer.
Loved the De-briefs and interest in John to hear from everyone.
Although I appreciate the content is based on the ISTQB syllabus and not John or TSG Training, it was confusing at times having to go back to how the 2011 Foundation syllabus classified things rather than the modern 2018 version I completed. Massively overdue being renewed. John did his best to make the differences as clear as possible.
Anonymous –
Very informative and John was engaged and clear thoughout the course. Materials were very helpful and detailed. This is my 2nd time on a course with John hosting and the standard was just as high in the previous course (754)
Anonymous –
I was less focus to the exam which allow me to have a step back and a better overview on what may help me in my projects. John was really efficient and a really good trainer, he focused on major points extracting the main principles and adding his own experience at each chapter. This training is not easy to follow and he succeed to make it interesting and participative. I end up having a good guideline and ideas on how I may influence my hierarchy and put in place some risks and reports that will highly benefit to my projects.
Anonymous –
Very well structured, John had a plethora of metaphors and examples to match course content. There was a nice balance between challenging theory and its application and easier subject matter and its understanding. I did like the ambiguous TGS questions for homework as they stimulated good debate and also made you feel better if you wern’t always correct with your answers.
Anonymous –
The course was a great experience and flew by very quickly. John was very informative and explained everything in a really knowledgeable and endearing way.
Anonymous –
John was very thorough kind and polite.
broke all the sections down so all could understand, good pacing.
really enjoyed the course, thank you.
Anonymous –
Some difficult content, some fairly straight forward. John did a brilliant job facilitating the course. He explained everything clearly, opened the floor for questions, and gave us regular breaks.
Anonymous –
This was possibly the first ISTQB course that I have taken (having also completed Foundation and Test Analyst courses previously with another provider) that I have thoroughly enjoyed. John was extremely knowledgable, fair and a great trainer.
Anonymous –
Excellent course, well delivered and very informative.
Anonymous –
It was very well laid out in terms of the material and the pacing.
Anonymous –
The course was well organised and delivered in an easy to comprehend way. The questions and discussion about the topics made connecting with the content easier (which would otherwise have been very dry).
Anonymous –
The course was very well explained by John. Mostly I liked the way he explained every point in the exercises – why should we have chosen the correct ones and why not the others.
Anonymous –
Very clearly presented, content well spaced out. All questions posed to trainer clearly responded to and ensured that the candidate was happy they understood the answer.
Anonymous –
Course is short and descriptive. Easy to understand.
Anonymous –
Long course but excellent trainer, explained very well.
Anonymous –
The course was clear and concise – well delivered by the trainer with ample supporting material.
Anonymous –
It was great lots of discussion points but would wish more analysis of more ISTQB questions and exam practice with Mock exams
Anonymous –
Some difficult content, some fairly straight forward. John did a brilliant job facilitating the course. He explained everything clearly, opened the floor for questions, and gave us regular breaks.
Anonymous –
This was possibly the first ISTQB course that I have taken (having also completed Foundation and Test Analyst courses previously with another provider) that I have thoroughly enjoyed. John was extremely knowledgable, fair and a great trainer.
Anonymous –
Excellent course, well delivered and very informative.
Anonymous –
The trainer had abundant knowledge on testing and was able to articulate which helped to understand concepts better.
Anonymous –
I found the course to be very interesting and content filled. John was keen to explain the subject matter thoroughly and was very proactive in getting us (admittedly a quiet group) to engage and speak up.
Anonymous –
The trainer had abundant knowledge on testing and was able to articulate which helped to understand concepts better.
Anonymous –
I found the course to be very interesting and content filled. John was keen to explain the subject matter thoroughly and was very proactive in getting us (admittedly a quiet group) to engage and speak up.
Anonymous –
The course was clear and concise – well delivered by the trainer with ample supporting material.
Anonymous –
It was great lots of discussion points but would wish more analysis of more ISTQB questions and exam practice with Mock exams
Anonymous –
The course was clear and concise – well delivered by the trainer with ample supporting material.
Anonymous –
It was great lots of discussion points but would wish more analysis of more ISTQB questions and exam practice with Mock exams
Marc Darrie | Managing Consultant | Sogeti / Capgemini –
Great! very engaging, warm and friendly right from the beginning until the end.
Rachel Firth | Test & Quality Manager | Think Learning –
The course is pretty intense and covers a lot, but Angelina delivers the content in an engaging way. She relates the content back to entertaining real world examples whilst managing to focus on what is in the syllabus and what will get you through the exam.
Mmayen Wami | ERP Test Lead | Capgemini –
Course was very interesting and well taught, great trainer, very patient and listened, gave us all a chance to speak, very intuitive. Angelina is very knowledgeable in the course with vast experience.
Mathew Thomas Helliwell | Senior Software Tester | Riskonnect –
Course was delivered at a comfortable speed. Very informative. The trainer was really helpful
Gursharan Kaur | Test Manager | KPMG UK –
Well organised course content and delivery.
The lessons focused on theoretical coverage and also on practice questions relevant to each day’s content which I found very helpful and constructive.
Homework was thought through for each day and that was a very effective method for me to revise.
Rhiannon Jones | Test automation engineer | Abel & Cole –
Rosie taught the course well, and she had a lot of knowledge on the subject. There was a good mix of theory and practical. Also, a good number of breaks!
Matthew Thompson | Senior Consultant | Deloitte –
Delivery of the course content has been excellent. John is a very knowledgeable and experienced trainer well-versed with the subject matter and had excellent pace of delivery, so nothing ever felt like too much to absorb, or too little to be useful.
The course content itself is useful despite being written to a 10-year-old syllabus.
The only recommendation I would make for the content going forward is to revisit the supporting questions which are issued as extra-curricular tasks, or “Homework” – we were told a LOT of those questions were not really indicative of things we would be asked in an exam, so while they were useful for generating discussion and backing up the theory, it makes the theory difficult to apply to an exam-like scenario.
Overall the course has been very enjoyable and I have learned information that will definitely be useful in my career, which is after all the point of training! I am not a fan of breakout rooms or getting into small groups to work on exercises, so the fact we didn’t do that and worked through things all together was REALLY good.
I would definitely recommend other senior testers and test managers take this course.
Syed Naqvi | Quality Engineer | LBG –
Rosie was excellent throughout. She made things very clear, kept us relatively well engaged and used well placed checkpoints to facilitate our learning really well. Her approach was well structured yet casual.
Rosie was also pretty attentive to our opinions and feedback, and you could sense she was interested in learning about us and our professional roles so had a keen attitude throughout.
When challenged, Rosie was very helpful and informative, with her focus then shifting to ensuring the person who was confused/didn’t agree with her viewpoint/syllabus getting some sort of closure – All in the interest of being as supportive as possible.
Maybe include some fun ice breakers to get energy levels up if possible in between long periods of talking through the material. I often did feel like I was lost in the midst of slides but this is a minor point.
It would be good to have an upgrade to the presentation of the slides. They do look a bit outdated! 🙂 More visually attractive, use of more eye catching pictures/models. Things to spruce up the reading material which, being fair was very good, so just another minor point. There’s lots of resources out there which highlight the effectiveness and psychology behind this.
It’s a shame that the exam will not reflect the academic approach Rosie had towards the syllabus! It’s become very apparent that the exam will be out to catch us out and be quite unforgiving. Ignore the mini rant!
Rishi Davda | Test Manager | BJSS –
Very good course great walk through of the content. good conversation on where we got things wrong overall great course
Colin Poots | Test Manager | Deloitte MCS –
John was really engaging, was open to questions, very supportive to our learning. I was really impressed by John’s attitude and his ability to keep 8 people engaged throughout the course.
Renjini Gopalakrishnan Unnithan | DEV Engineer | ING –
John is really sincere and dedicated and happy to explain the details until you get it , highly satisfied
Robin Dickson | Test & Delivery Manager | RAC Motoring Services –
Good Course material structured really well with good discussion points to bring the theory to light. It has helped me re assure me that I know a fair amount of theory but has helped me bring that to practice.
Lizzy Hamilton | Test Manager | Capita Resourcing –
John is a very knowledgeable trainer, full of different examples to help illustrate the point and bring it to life/make it relatable. He is also very patient at working through answers to scenarios, and is very thorough in making sure everyone understands the solution and the logic which leads you to that answer.
Rosy Nti | Senior Test Analyst | CAP GEMINI –
his was my first on-line course which i found refreshing. It was better than i anticipated. John was very through in the way he explained things and various examples and really life scenarios he shared with the class made things much clearer for me.
I really enjoyed his class and look forward to my next course, hopefully with him.
Sukhjinder Manak | Lead Test Analyst | CDS –
The course was very well managed and ran. I got all the information via email on how to join and the material, as I was attending the course remotely. Rosie walked us through each area and checked if we had questions. She also took feedback from the delegates on questions which weren’t clear or had mistakes to improve the pack for future training courses.
I have gained a good understanding of the material from attending the course.
Ramone Lawrence | | –
Material was broken down well, in particular the format and pace of the course was good. Trainer very knowledgeable.
Nicholas Nowosielski | Test Engineer | Capgemini –
Very detailed and educational course covering a wide range of topics centered around being a test manager. The course knowledge has been very helpful and I look forward to trying to apply the lessons in a practical manner at my office.
The trainer Rose has been very helpful in teaching the course and clear in explaining concepts. In addition they provided good anecdotes and example to to help with understanding the content while applying it to the real world.
Ken Wong | Test Analyst | FIS –
Angelina was great at delivering the content of the course, applying the real world experiences into each context.
David Walshe | Test Lead | Ordnance Survey –
Solid course, covered the materials effectively with a good pragmatic view on what was useful for ‘real life’ and what was more about the test.
Trainer was engaging, fun and provided numerous helpful anecdotes to contextualize the materials.
Kate Mottershead | Test Team Lead | IDBS –
The content is long and slightly behind in times now (post-COVID). But Angelina did a very good job at keep everyone engaged and giving good advice, an impressive feat in a remote setting. 5/5.
Ernest Obuobi | Manager Datacentre & Testing | Standard bank/Stanbic Bank –
Excellent training
Sarbjeet Pandha| Test Analyst|LGT VESTRA –
Remote virtual course. Very enjoyable and lots of interaction with everyone.
Balaji Srinivas`| Test Manager|TMHCC –
`the course gave me good insights to Test Management. Lot of valuable information and some good insights towards Test Management
lee westwell| test and quality assurance specialist|Vodafone –
great content and helpful towards the exam. recommended
Jack Luke| Test Manager|Cubic Transportation Systems –
I really enjoyed the training. Even though it was online, the lecturer John, was a brilliant teacher. The course is very detailed, and explained well with a solid balance of theory and sample questions. As a group we went over the answers together and i found it very informative. The documentation and slides are excellent. Looking forward to putting the processes I learned in practice.
Rita Gracio | Business Tester | Siemens –
Really helpful explaining and depicting everything with examples and schemes, allowing us to take screenshots, it was very good.
Nino Dias | Senior Business Tester | Siemens –
Even though the training was online, John was able to capture the audience very well, explaining with detail all the subjects and always finding examples for each situation.
Also in the questions and exercices every choice was discussed about the correct or not correct answers and sharing some hints how to deal with them.
John was always friendly and available to discuss any topic. I would be happy to have him in a next training some day.
Sofia Penim | Test Manager | Siemens –
Really good! Doing a remote course is not that easy but John was always there trying to keep people on the same page, applying for interactions and making everything really dynamic. Really appreciated!
Mark Whitby | Head of Development and Testing | InHealth Intelligence –
Really superb course, Rosie’s style of presenting was perfect for me. The course material was really well produced, it was easy to understand and covered the syllabus well. As a result I was able to prepare for the exam and pass it successfully, and there is so much I have been able to take from the course with a view to implementing in my day to day role as a test manager.
Gavin Ware | Test Analyst | Hollingdale Consultancy Services –
The course was informative and the trainer was very good at explaining concepts by way of examples. Some very dry chapters were enhanced by the trainer’s approach to tesaching.
Chris Howell|Senior QA Manager|Zynga –
The course and the associated materials were good. The written accompaniment to the slides were definitely welcome. The traceability between the course content and the syllabus learning objectives were also good and allowed quick lookup of weak areas.
I thought the TSG written training questions were average. Some included scenarios and answers which conflicted with real-life project experience and I found it difficult to focus solely on the syllabus reasoning. There was example about developers preparing for a review by translating some technical documents into Chinese, which would never happen. There was another answer about using defect number metrics to track the effectiveness of testing – even when it’s commonly known that more or less bugs can’t alone tell you whether testing is effective. Learning is easier when clearer examples are provided instead of fuzzy answers which are open to subjectivity.
Mark Whitby|Head of Development and Testing|InHealth Intelligence –
Really superb course, Rosie’s style of presenting was perfect for me. The course material was really well produced, it was easy to understand and covered the syllabus well. As a result I was able to prepare for the exam and pass it successfully, and there is so much I have been able to take from the course with a view to implementing in my day to day role as a test manager.
Andrew Francis | Test Analyst | Worldpay –
I attended this course to progress in my career. The course met my objectives, Our tutor John Young was excellent
Michael Myatt | Senior Test Engineer | Mass –
I attended this course to grow my testing skills. John taught the lesson in a very useful way to encourage a better understanding.
Mounika Hanumandla | Automation Test Engineer –
I attended this course to obtain my certification in advanced Test Analyst, the course and tutor was excellent
Will Blakeney|Software Tester|HMRC –
Although I have concerns about an offline course it went well. Also, I like the course materials, it helps me a lot to pass for the exam.
saritha muddam|Senior Test Engineer|British Library –
Really good! Doing a remote course is not that easy but John was always there trying to keep people on the same page, applying for interactions and making everything really dynamic. Really appreciated!
Nathan Elmi|Test Consultant|NEST –
Even though the training was online, John was able to capture the audience very well, explaining with detail all the subjects and always finding examples for each situation.
Also in the questions and exercices every choice was discussed about the correct or not correct answers and sharing some hints how to deal with them.
John was always friendly and available to discuss any topic. I would be happy to have him in a next training some day.
Naphrali Yates | Mizuho | Test Analyst –
I attended this course to progress in my career, the environment was conducive to my learning and the course met my objectives well. The course tutor John Young was excellent.
Anonymous –
Very well structured, John had a plethora of metaphors and examples to match course content. There was a nice balance between challenging theory and its application and easier subject matter and its understanding. I did like the ambiguous TGS questions for homework as they stimulated good debate and also made you feel better if you wern’t always correct with your answers.
Anonymous –
The course was a great experience and flew by very quickly. John was very informative and explained everything in a really knowledgeable and endearing way.
Anonymous –
John was very thorough kind and polite.
broke all the sections down so all could understand, good pacing.
really enjoyed the course, thank you.
Anonymous –
It was very well laid out in terms of the material and the pacing.
Anonymous –
The course was well organised and delivered in an easy to comprehend way. The questions and discussion about the topics made connecting with the content easier (which would otherwise have been very dry).
Anonymous –
The course was very well explained by John. Mostly I liked the way he explained every point in the exercises – why should we have chosen the correct ones and why not the others.
Anonymous –
Very clearly presented, content well spaced out. All questions posed to trainer clearly responded to and ensured that the candidate was happy they understood the answer.
Anonymous –
Course is short and descriptive. Easy to understand.
Anonymous –
Long course but excellent trainer, explained very well.
Anonymous –
Sample questions in the “day reader” packs would be more helpful if they were closer to the real exam (and refined further to help show clearer answer(s) with better reasoning for the “right” answers).
The breaks were split really well.
The exam-preparation assets’ review at the end of day 5 was really helpful.
It was very helpful to include the 2011 Foundation syllabus in the “Course Material”, and to have it pointed out to us that the ATM syllabus is based on that (rather than the more up to date 2018 Foundation syllabus).
More variation on the “does that make sense?” phrasing could perhaps help with better participation for remotely attended courses.
There was a good mixture of using slides, sample questions, whiteboard, annotations, etc. which really brought the content to life.
Anonymous –
This course really taught me many things and I will check and would like to apply in my project. John was excellent in explaining the things across all the topics and especially in solving the questions. It gives me a clear picture how to analyse the question and answer it. Once again thanks for your time & support.
Thanks,
Vamshi
Anonymous –
Sample questions in the “day reader” packs would be more helpful if they were closer to the real exam (and refined further to help show clearer answer(s) with better reasoning for the “right” answers).
The breaks were split really well.
The exam-preparation assets’ review at the end of day 5 was really helpful.
It was very helpful to include the 2011 Foundation syllabus in the “Course Material”, and to have it pointed out to us that the ATM syllabus is based on that (rather than the more up to date 2018 Foundation syllabus).
More variation on the “does that make sense?” phrasing could perhaps help with better participation for remotely attended courses.
There was a good mixture of using slides, sample questions, whiteboard, annotations, etc. which really brought the content to life.
Anonymous –
This course really taught me many things and I will check and would like to apply in my project. John was excellent in explaining the things across all the topics and especially in solving the questions. It gives me a clear picture how to analyse the question and answer it. Once again thanks for your time & support.
Thanks,
Vamshi
Jermaine Amani | Principal Test Consultant | Sogeti –
Great Course – Tons of Information, broken down into easy to consume bite sized chunks.
Great Instructor too!
| Assistant Test Manager | –
Great course which looks at knowledge you may already have from experience but in more detail, John has a very engaging way of explaining things which benefits everyone’s learning style.
Sourabh Ashley Massey | Software Quality Manager | Derivco Sports –
Very detailed but nicely paced. Kept us engaged so didn’t loose focus midst the sessions
Gomathy Govindaswamy | Test Lead | WTC –
It was quiet intensive to start with and a lot to take on.