Latest News....

TSG & IMC UK (our partner in the exciting new Virtual Learning Environment, Learntesting) have been shortlisted for the Institute of IT Training prestigious award, 2010, in the 'Learning Technologies' category. Click here for the Institute's press release.

TSG continues to support the IT industry worldwide in its contributions to conferences, working parties, publications and standards development:

• Mike Smith, TSG Managing Director co-authored with Neil Thompson of TiSCL a paper on Keystone Entities, and Neil presented the paper at the ICST conference in Oslo in May 2008. Mike also had an article “Putting the Analysis in Test Analysis” in the Testing Experience journal. Mike continues to work on qualifications development with both the ISTQB and with the UK Testing Board
• Stuart Reid, Chief Technology Officer at TSG, continues his work with the development of the new ISO standards in software testing. This is a truly international standard and Stuart’s travels for the international standard have taken him to Berlin, Moscow, and soon to Seoul. Stuart is speaking about this important work at the London BCS SIGiST in June 2008 and is leading a workshop on the standard at EuroSTAR08 in November 2008, The Hague. Also at EuroSTAR, Stuart is co-presenting a tutorial on Non-functional Testing, with Julian Harty of Google. Stuart is also chair of the UK SIGiST. Meetings this year in London are in March, June, September and December with details on the SIGiST website
• Isabel Evans presented two tutorials and a track at STAREast in May on risk, team work and developing the profession. In September she will be presenting at in-house conferences for our colleagues at Ericsson in Sweden and Improve QS in the Netherlands.  At EuroSTAR08 in November 2008, Isabel is leading a manifesto workshop for a route map to the future of the profession, and is working with Dorothy Graham of Grove Consultants to facilitate a manifesto workshop for “A message to the future”. Later the same month, Isabel will be at Malmo in Sweden, at the Øredev Development Conference speaking on “The Blind Men and the Quality Elephant.

CAP/HMRC recognise the significant contribution made by TSG in helping the NTC programmes develop its risk based assurance and acceptance strategy.

Capgemini’s NTC Programme Manager, Darren Cheese says, “TSG were able to supply some of the acknowledged thought leaders and practical consultants in the field of software testing at a critical time in the NTC programme. Their help has not only had a considerable direct impact in helping achieve our goals of better productivity, better predictability and fewer live errors, but their impact has been felt much wider across the whole account. I was particularly pleased at the collaborative way in which TSG consultants worked together with Capgemini consultants and key HMRC staff to develop a solution tailored specifically for this particular environment.  I am certain that their on-going support will lead to even further improvements over the coming years which will assist Capgemini and HMRC to continue to meet their goals.” Following a successful pilot on NTC, the approach is being rolled out across the HMRC account with full support from HMRC and Capgemini executive management.
Click here for the full case study.

February 2008

TSG's schedule of new software testing courses is published for:

• ISEB Intermediate
• ISEB Practitioner Test Analysis
• ISEB Practitioner Test Management
• ISEB/ISTQB Foundation
• ISTQB Advanced Test Analysis
• ISTQB Advanced Test Manager.

Click any of the courses above to go the schedule, where an overview of each course and syllabus can be downloaded.

September 2007

tsg's position with regard to continued provision of ISEB/ISTQB training courses:
tsg recognises the importance of adhering to and teaching an international standard in a market that is rapidly becoming ever more global. However, we also recognise the need to continue supporting those organisations that have adopted the ISEB framework. For these reasons, tsg intends to look at accommodating all needs by:

• Continuing to offer the current ISEB Practitioner course until the end of 2007 (with any exam revision and re-sits up to the March 2008 exam)
• Build new courses in line with the ISTQB Advanced Syllabus during 2007 with a programme to pilot the courses and sample exams early in 2008 
• Offer a schedule of ISTQB Advanced Syllabus courses and exams accredited and provided by ISEB from the beginning of 2008
• Look at providing the new ISEB Practitioner course in similar timeframes 

For those organisations that may be undecided about which particular syllabus to follow, it is important to note that ISEB:

• Will be hosting, managing and marking the examinations from both boards from 2008 onwards
• Have stated that the ISTQB Advanced qualification will be recognised and contribute to their overall Diploma, although the precise level of equivalence has yet to be confirmed

August 2007  - Update from ISEB Testing Training Providers' User Group
about changes to the Practitioner Certificate

Over recent months, there has been confusion about changes to the ISEB Practitioner Certificate and how this relates to the International ISTQB scheme - now globally adopted at Foundation Level.

The ISEB Training Providers' User Group has published the following statement:  

The current ISEB Practitioner exam will be phased out at the end of 2007, with the final (re-sit) exam in March 2008. There are two options for future qualifications, based on different Syllabuses. Both will be available through ISEB New ISTQB Advanced Level qualification Three exams, all multiple choice with a certificate for each, and an additional ‘Full Advanced Level testing Professional’ certificate awarded on gaining all 3     One 100+ page Syllabus, covering the 3 qualifications, currently called Advanced Level Test Manager Advanced Level Test Analysis Advanced Level Technical Test Analysis New ISEB Qualification   Intermediate Certification in Software Testing, (26 page Syllabus) 1-hour 25 question scenario-based multiple-choice exam. A certificate is awarded, and this is a pre-requisite for the other two certificates Practitioner Certificate in Software Test Management (16-page Syllabus)   2-hour essay exam, choosing 4 half-hour questions out of 6 Practitioner certificate in Software Test Analysis (15-page Syllabus) 2-hour essay exam choosing 4 half-hour questions out of 6 The two schemes are quite different and it has not been possible to merge them   We recommend supporting the ISTQB Syllabus for the following reasons: ISTQB is the international standard for the software testing qualifications, and was developed by an international team of testing experts The ISTQB Syllabus aligns with the ISTQB Foundation Syllabus adopted by ISEB, all ISTQB Boards (33 to date) and supporting examination boards The ISTQB Syllabus, through Learning Objectives and detailed description. Makes it clear what should be taught and what will be examined ISEB will support the ISTQB Syllabus, so accreditation and exams will be provided using their known expertise and reputation for high quality qualifications Our international clients prefer an international qualification ISTQB recognise existing ISEB Practitioner Certificates as equivalent to the full Advanced Level Testing professional certificate