Free Practice Questions for ISTQB CTAL-TTA Exam

In this scenario, the small supermarket chain faces two primary risks due to hosting both the data warehousing software and the product inventory application on the same server:

Resource Conflicts: Co-existence of both applications on the same server may introduce resource conflicts, potentially impacting the functionality of the product inventory application.

Data Loss/Corruption: In the event of loss or corruption of product inventory data during transfer to the warehouse, it may not be possible to restore from backup in the required timeframe, resulting in lost business.

Appropriate Non-Functional Test Types:

Reliability Testing (Option C):

Reliability testing ensures that the system performs consistently and accurately over time, even under load. This will help in identifying potential issues related to data loss or corruption and ensure that backup and restore processes work as expected within the required timeframe.

Stress Testing (Option C):

Stress testing evaluates the system's behavior under extreme conditions, such as peak loads. This will help in identifying resource conflicts and the system's ability to handle concurrent operations of both the data warehousing software and the product inventory application without performance degradation.

Explanation of Incorrect Options:

A. Compatibility Testing and Reliability Testing:

Compatibility testing is not directly relevant to the identified risks. Reliability testing is correct, but it needs to be paired with stress testing to address resource conflicts effectively.

B. Load Testing and Portability Testing:

Load testing alone does not cover the extreme conditions needed to identify resource conflicts. Portability testing is not relevant to the identified risks.

D. Maintainability Testing and Load Testing:

Maintainability testing is not directly relevant to the immediate operational risks. Load testing is part of the solution but needs to be paired with stress testing.

References:

The ISTQB CTAL-TTA syllabus covers various non-functional testing types and their relevance to different risk scenarios. Reliability and stress testing are crucial in this context to ensure the system can handle concurrent applications and maintain data integrity under load.

Sources:

ISTQB-CTAL-TTA Syllabus

General knowledge on non-functional testing types and their applications.

Fault seeding and fault injection tools are used intentionally to introduce defects into a system or software to test the robustness of the test suite. This method helps in validating the effectiveness of the test processes and configurations by ensuring that the tests are capable of detecting and isolating inserted faults. It is a technique used to measure the quality of testing rather than debugging or performance compliance, which relates directly to the fundamental purpose of enhancing test coverage and the detection capability of the test suite .

According to the INVEST criteria, the Testable and Small criteria have not been satisfied for the user story provided. Option B is correct.

INVEST Criteria: The INVEST model stipulates that user stories should be Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, and Testable.

Analysis of the User Story: The scope of the user story and its acceptance criteria suggests it is too broad (thus not 'Small') and the details provided, especially regarding response times and system notifications, imply potential challenges in effectively testing the story (thus possibly not 'Testable') without further refinement or breaking down the story into smaller, more manageable pieces.

The size and complexity of the requirements indicate that the story might be better classified as an epic, needing decomposition into smaller, more specific user stories that can be more feasibly addressed within agile iterations .

Maintainability metrics typically used with static analysis include measures that reflect the complexity and understandability of the code, such as Number of Lines of Code (LOC), Number of Function Calls, and Comment Frequency. These metrics help in assessing how easily the software can be understood, modified, and maintained. Mean Time Between Failures (MTBF), on the other hand, is a reliability metric. It measures the time elapsed between inherent failures of a system during operation. MTBF is used to predict the system's reliability and is not directly related to the maintainability of the code. Reliability metrics like MTBF would be used in the testing phase to measure the operational reliability of the system rather than during static analysis for maintainability assessment.

The keyword-driven input table in Option B covers all the necessary scenarios: creating groups, adding members (including handling errors for non-existing members), removing members, and deleting groups only when empty.

This aligns with the functionalities specified in the enhancement description for the social media application.

References:

The ISTQB CTAL-TTA syllabus covers the importance of comprehensive test coverage in keyword-driven testing.

General knowledge on test case design and keyword-driven testing practices.

Given the stakeholder information provided:

Reliability is important because the system, while not business-critical, still needs a good MTBF to be successful in the market. This is directly mentioned in the stakeholder information.

Portability is essential as the system is expected to run in multiple hardware environments and various network environments, with changes anticipated in the operational environments.

Security is not highlighted as a concern, and performance efficiency, while generally important, is less critical as the system is not used intensively and is not time-critical. Therefore, reliability and portability are the most relevant non-functional quality characteristics to test in this scenario.

Considering the functionalities described for the Health Insurance Calculation system, the keywords would represent the main actions that can be performed in the system. 'Enter_Client' would be a keyword for entering new client information, which is a primary feature of the system as described. 'Select_Client' would be used to retrieve information for an existing client using the client’s ID number, which is another main functionality. Other options such as 'Remove_Client', 'Print_Premium', and 'Exclude_Client' are not explicitly mentioned in the provided system functionalities, therefore, 'Enter_Client' and 'Select_Client' are the most likely keywords for automation.

Analysis:

When performance efficiency is a critical requirement, the involvement of the Technical Test Analyst (TTA) is crucial from the early stages of the project to ensure performance goals are met.

Key Activity:

A. Designing an operational profile that does not exceed hardware, software, and network bandwidth test environment budgets:

This activity involves creating a realistic operational profile that reflects how the system will be used in production. It ensures that performance testing is aligned with actual usage patterns and resource constraints. By doing this early, TTAs can identify potential performance issues and make necessary adjustments before development progresses too far.

Explanation of Incorrect Options:

B. Participating in code reviews that focus on database and component interactions as well as error handling:

While useful, this is more relevant to ensuring code quality and correctness rather than the first step in addressing performance efficiency.

C. Assisting the developers in determining CPU utilization for critical components during component testing:

This is a more detailed activity that follows the establishment of the operational profile and overall performance requirements.

D. Implementing the performance tool's load test scripts for execution in a production-like environment during system test:

This occurs later in the testing process, after the operational profile has been designed and the initial performance considerations have been addressed.

References:

The ISTQB CTAL-TTA syllabus highlights the importance of designing operational profiles and understanding resource constraints as initial steps in performance testing.

Sources:

ISTQB-CTAL-TTA Syllabus

General knowledge on performance testing practices.

The fault attack described involves forcing all possible incoming errors from software/operating system interfaces. The type of failure being sought is one where the application does not handle erroneous or unexpected input correctly, which can lead to crashes or other unintended behavior. Thus, an application crash when unsupported characters are pasted into an input field is a typical failure that this kind of fault attack would aim to uncover.

The characteristics listed in the question point towards the need to manage synchronization between processes and make efficient use of limited hardware resources, such as microcontrollers and timeslots. Additionally, the complexity and concurrency of tasks highlight the importance of the software's performance over time. Time-behaviour testing is the most appropriate non-functional test type to perform in this scenario as it focuses on evaluating the timing aspects of the system, such as response times, processing times, and throughput rates. It ensures that the system meets its time-related requirements, which is critical for systems reliant on synchronization and limited by hardware performance constraints.