Certified Agile Tester - simply CAT !

In my 7 years of Professional Career, I have taken HP, ISTQB ,IBM certifications and cleared all of them in the first attempt! Which is not a difficult task :)  provided you  rely on the course material and work out on the sample questions that they provide you during training. mostly if you are good at picking right choices and luck favors you that day, you clear these exams easily.

I went to Certified Agile Tester Program with similar mindset. However, to my surprise this course was totally different!

Firstly, its a 5 day training program. you read it right! all five days of your course starting from Day1 to Day 5 (which is a test day) you need to devote your complete time to the course. Take this test if and only if you are willing &  have time for this kind of technical certification. For this you might need help and support from your Manager and family ( specially avoid calls during the sessions).

Trainer: We were lucky to have trainer who was very experienced Agile Practitioner, Coach & Agile Guru!

Venue: Red fox Hotels, Hyderabad.

Timings: 9AM to 6 PM

Details of the Program:

Everyday: Daily Scrum and Soft Skills Assessment

Day 1: History and Terminology: Agile Manifesto, Principles and Methods

Day 2: Planning, Requirements, Estimation and Strategy

Day 3: Developer Context, Testing and Retrospectives

Day 4: Test Driven Development, Test Automation and Non-Functional

Day 5: Practical Assessment and Written Exam

Most interesting part of Day1 is the Practical Session with LEGO blocks. This particular exercise alone gives you a good insight into the course.

Throughout the training your soft skills are assessed by the Trainer and don't forget the fact that it carries 10  out of 100 marks of the assessment. So, my advice is to stay Attentive, Interactive and Active during the training sessions , the main concept of agile team is to be collaborative and teamwork. 

you get marks for that!

Exam Pattern:

Concept of Three Phases: 

Agile Projects strongly rely on the individuals – their knowledge, their ability to interact constantly with the team as well as the discipline to produce working software in agreed time frames. Therefore, the examination to become a Certified Agile Tester is separated into three different parts:
- A soft skills assessment on capacity for teamwork
- An open questions exam to demonstrate profound theoretical knowledge
- A practical section where the examinee’s testing skills are put to the test.
Whereas the soft skills will be assessed throughout the five training days, the written as well as the practical examination will take place on the last of the five days.
Students that have passed the training will contribute to agile projects by understanding the principles behind the agile approach to software development and appreciating the challenges and difficulties associated with the non-testing activities performed in an agile team.

Exam Fees:

The price for the Certified Agile Tester exam is the same worldwide. It costs 400 € (or the equivalent in the local currency). It consists of three parts:

- A soft skills assessment on capacity for teamwork
- An exam, which requires free answering - no multiple choice questions
- A practical section where the examinee’s testing skills are put to the test.

The 5th training day is allocated to the exam.


Re-Examination

The price for the re-examination is the same as the regular exam 400 €. If you re-sit only one part of the exam (practical or written part) the price is 250 €.

Best thing about this Certification is unlike other online-based certifications or let me put it this way 'Dump'based certifications this one is very different. we don't have to byheart anything, Just understand, analyse kind of user stories that come in both Practical and Theoritical exam that makes your life easy as well as hard. Hard because, you can't predict what you really get in the final exam!


My Advice: 

• Stay Focused. Attentive and go with Agile Mindset.

• Ask Questions (Very  Important ), Don't shy because you are new to agile. well most of the folks who take this training will be new to Agile and it hurts later if you dont ask Questions!!

• Team Work  -  Know your team, make friends and always address as 'Team'

One last important thing is make sure you are capable of writing for 6 hours (Practical exam + Theoretical Essay type exam). 

there is a possibility that your hand will hurt/ache very much during the exam, so make sure you practice enough during the 4 day course. Reason for mentioning this specifically is as this was the only challenge that I faced through out this course.

 I am still waiting for my results and hope i get through this certification! wish me Good Luck.

Remember one thing Agile is all about Mindset!

My Team, with the President of Indian Testing Board - Vipul Kocher! ( in red shirt)

All the folks who cleared  ISTQB exam would definitely know about Mr.Vipul :)

Day 1 - Lego Exercise - Class Room Activity

Task Board

 Team Picture:

You can shoot any questions/comments below.  Happy to Help!

For more information visit: http://www.agile-tester.org/