If you ask me what I have taken home from the ISTQB course then I will tell you “I brought back my future”. If the course is good for something, then for making people like me curious about this world of bugs.

It’s a bit like reading the bible to understand Christianity without being religious.

The main reason is as some have mentioned before me: it gave me a job. Yes, I agree, it is ridiculus that it is such a big requirement when hiring testers. I did not learn one single usefull thing during the whole 4 day course. No, that is a lie. I learned that it is not always smart to order vegitarian food for a whole course. The variations were minor. Stomped tofu in four different shapes does not count as four different dishes.

But some good came out of it in the end. I am now in a much better position to lobby for a better way to test software than I were as unemployed.

Anna

[James’ Reply: I don’t think you needed to be certified to get work as a tester. People told me I needed to have a high school diploma to get work in the computing industry. They also were wrong. There are all kinds of things employers think they want, but if you show them your portfolio of accomplishments (an honest kind of self-certification) some of them will prefer you– the independent achiever– over others. I’m doing my best to fight the bullies, it would help me more if more good testers wore a “Conscientiously Uncertified” badge.]

[James’ Reply: The certification people are stoning you, not me. I’m trying to free you from their spell. The training classes provided by their organizations are implicitly and explicitly couched in terms that seek to deny the opportunity to work to other testers (by willfully creating conditions that convince gullible employers that they should only hire “certified” testers). I also seek to deny opportunities for people I consider dangerously incompetent, but I play by the rules– I don’t claim to have a privileged status in the testing world. The quality of my ideas are judged in the marketplace without me saying that I speak for the whole testing industry.

Besides, I don’t believe you would think so highly of the training you received from them if you had a broader experience of the training available. The online BBST course– which is FREE through the Association for Software Testing– is a much richer and more challenging class than anything else out there.]

http://shrinik.blogspot.com/2008/04/software-testing-certification-to-be-or.html

James, in the Indian context, there are some deep rooted problems that feed to certification mania and people find it difficult to come out of the web.

1. New/upcoming testers who are in first year of their career in software (just out of college) are first brain washed with process and technology gyan then are literally poisoned into getting some business domain learning and finally lay them to rest by making them to take certification. So a new tester does not learn about testing at all in initial formative years. No wonder people in India even now consider testing is low level job.

The point here is - How does a new tester know and escape the trap of certification? At one side is the market demand - companies prefer certified candidates (that is the only way they pick the ones they wanted vs those they don’t) and other side acronyms like CSTE, ISTQB looks cool on resume and gets them interview calls. What can we do for this? (one way I suggested is accept the challenge “test anything, anywhere, under any circumstances and perform as good as any one else of comparable experience and skill”. I am sure no hiring manager (worth his salt) will reject a non certified tester who claims and demonstrates the real time testing skills “On Demand”

So, alternative to certification is Ability and guts to claim and demonstrate “On Demand” testing skills - how many can do that?

2. Look at management side especially in IT services sector - the managers and people here do what customer wants …(that is the business they are in). If a customer wants to hire only “ISTQB” certified testers - companies here just go on certification frenzy.

IT/IT outsourcing is a bigger market in testing today. These people shape “craft of testing” of tomorrow. If IT people in US and Europe insist on working with only certified testers away in india or any other “low cost” (and skill ???) location - IT services companies will provide those certified testers. You get what you ask for…. That is another dimension of the problem.

Other day a tester from a tier 3 company asks me innocently “What to do, if I don’t get certified, my job is gone to some who is certified. My resume would not get picked up by the recruiter if it does not have acronyms like CSTE, ISTQB what shall I do?”

So if you look from testers and test managers standpoint (especially in the Indian context) certifications have become “necessary evil” — people just take them. The pity is that very few grow over or think beyond what they read (memorized) as part of certification study …

Shrini

[James’ Reply: It’s up to people like you and me to dismantle the trap, and oppose the people who created it. I hold responsible the consultants who should know better, such as Rex Black, Vipul Kocher, and Dot Graham. I’ve spoken to them many times about this. They don’t like me very much, for the same reason Japanese whalers don’t like Greenpeace.]

While Rex and I don’t agree on every aspect of how to do testing, we have found enough middle ground between us that we have worked successfully together on several projects that were a good fit for me.

[James’ Reply: Thanks, Danny.]

OK, I see a connection listed here at ASTQB’s site, but I’m still confused because it appears that BCS and ISTQB are offering different certifications.

So I’m curious then, has Danny gone over to the “dark side?” He posted that he’s teaching coursed now through ASTQB.

[James’ Reply: I don’t know why he’s doing that, but many consultants feel they can’t fight barbarians and try to join them, instead. Others are true believers. I haven’t spoken with Danny about his arrangement with ASTQB, but when I see him next, I will definitely tease him about going to the dark side.]