ISTQB® Foundation Syllabus v4.0 is a major update based on the Foundation Level syllabus (v3.1.1) and the Agile Tester 2014 syllabus. For this reason, there are no detailed release notes per chapter and section.
However, a summary of principal changes is provided below. Additionally, in a separate Release Notes document, ISTQB® provides traceability between the learning objectives (LO) in the version 3.1.1 of the Foundation Level Syllabus, 2014 version of the Agile Tester Syllabus, and the learning objectives in the new Foundation Level v4.0 Syllabus, showing which LOs have been added, updated, or removed.
At the time the syllabus was written (2022-2023) more than one million people in more than 100 countries have taken the Foundation Level exam, and more than 800,000 are certified testers worldwide. With the expectation that all of them have read the Foundation Syllabus to be able to pass the exam, this makes the Foundation Syllabus likely to be the most read software testing document ever! This major update is made in respect of this heritage and to improve the views of hundreds of thousands more people on the level of quality that ISTQB® delivers to the global testing community.
In this version all LOs have been edited to make them atomic, and to create one-to-one traceability between LOs and syllabus sections, thus not having content without also having a LO. The goal is to make this version easier to read, understand, learn, and translate, focusing on increasing practical usefulness and the balance between knowledge and skills.
This major release has made the following changes:
- Size reduction of the overall syllabus. Syllabus is not a textbook, but a document that serves to outline the basic elements of an introductory course on software testing, including what topics should be covered and on what level. Therefore, in particular:
- In most cases examples are excluded from the text. It is a task of a training provider to provide the examples, as well as the exercises, during the training
- The “Syllabus writing checklist” was followed, which suggests the maximum text size for LOs at each K-level (K1 = max. 10 lines, K2 = max. 15 lines, K3 = max. 25 lines)
- Reduction of the number of LOs compared to the Foundation v3.1.1 and Agile v2014 syllabi
- 14 K1 LOs compared with 21 LOs in FL v3.1.1 (15) and AT 2014 (6)
- 42 K2 LOs compared with 53 LOs in FL v3.1.1 (40) and AT 2014 (13)
- 8 K3 LOs compared with 15 LOs in FL v3.1.1 (7) and AT 2014 (8)
- More extensive references to classic and/or respected books and articles on software testing and related topics are provided
- Major changes in chapter 1 (Fundamentals of Testing)
- Section on testing skills expanded and improved
- Section on the whole team approach (K1) added
- Section on the independence of testing moved to Chapter 1 from Chapter 5
- Major changes in chapter 2 (Testing Throughout the SDLCs)
- Sections 2.1.1 and 2.1.2 rewritten and improved, the corresponding LOs are modified
- More focus on practices like: test-first approach (K1), shift-left (K2), retrospectives (K2) New section on testing in the context of DevOps (K2)
- Integration testing level split into two separate test levels: component integration testing and system integration testing
- Major changes in chapter 3 (Static Testing)
- Section on review techniques, together with the K3 LO (apply a review technique) removed
- • Major changes in chapter 4 (Test Analysis and Design)
- Use case testing removed (but still present in the Advanced Test Analyst syllabus)
- More focus on collaboration-based approach to testing: new K3 LO about using ATDD to derive test cases and two new K2 LOs about user stories and acceptance criteria
- Decision testing and coverage replaced with branch testing and coverage (first, branch coverage is more commonly used in practice; second, different standards define the decision differently, as opposed to “branch”; third, this solves a subtle, but serious flaw from the old FL2018 which claims that „100% decision coverage implies 100% statement coverage” – this sentence is not true in case of programs with no decisions)
- Section on the value of white-box testing improved
- Major changes in chapter 5 (Managing the Test Activities)
- Section on test strategies/approaches removed
- New K3 LO on estimation techniques for estimating the test effort
- More focus on the well-known Agile-related concepts and tools in test management: iteration and release planning (K1), test pyramid (K1), and testing quadrants (K2)
- Section on risk management better structured by describing four main activities: risk identification, risk assessment, risk mitigation and risk monitoring
- Major changes in chapter 6 (Test Tools)
- Content on some test automation issues reduced as being too advanced for the foundation level – section on tools selection, performing pilot projects and introducing tools into organization removed
