CTFL-AT: Certified Tester Foundation Level Agile Tester

Planning Poker is a consensus-based card-estimation technique. A high estimate often means that a story is not well understood or should be broken into smaller stories. When estimates differ, the team discusses them and repeats rounds until agreement is reached or predefined rules limit the number of rounds. Including each backlog item’s risk level before the session is advisable because risk affects the estimation context.

Effective retrospective inputs describe observable, actionable issues in the team’s work process. Personal, subjective criticism of an individual does not identify a process to improve and can undermine the psychological safety needed for constructive discussion.

Typical Agile-tester activities include implementing and maintaining the test strategy, measuring and reporting coverage, and coaching other team members on relevant testing practices. Business requirements are owned by business stakeholders or product roles, while test-driven development tests are normally written and executed by developers as part of development.

The whole-team approach creates synergy by enabling the combined skills of business representatives, testers, and developers to be used for the project’s benefit. It also promotes shared responsibility for quality and close collaboration. ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level Syllabus v4.0.1

Exploratory testing is performed in time-boxed sessions guided by test charters, with test design and execution occurring together. The tester applies heuristics, creativity, intuition, and skill during execution; session-based exploratory testing commonly uses sessions of 60 to 120 minutes.