Weakness

A weakness is a flaw or deficiency in a system, process, or control that may contribute to failures, defects, or security vulnerabilities.

ISTQB Official Glossary Definition

“A defect that may lead to undesirable security behavior.”

(Definition reproduced from the ISTQB Glossary. Copyright belongs to ISTQB.)

View the complete ISTQB Glossary

What is Weakness?

Weaknesses increase risk but do not necessarily result in failures unless they are triggered or exploited.

General deficiency: May affect quality or security.

Potential risk: Can lead to defects or vulnerabilities.

Improvement opportunity: Weaknesses should be addressed proactively.

Real World Example

A regulated product team is preparing a release where Weakness appears in reviews, test design conversations, or defect triage rather than as an isolated glossary word.

The risk is that the team treats Weakness as interchangeable with nearby ISTQB terms. That makes test scope blurry and can lead to weak evidence for the release decision.

The tester anchors the discussion in the official definition, asks where the concept appears in the product, and designs examples that show the difference between Weakness and similar ideas.

The page becomes useful in practice because Weakness is connected to a specific testing decision, not memorized as a detached definition.

Practice Questions

Question 1

Which statement BEST describes Weakness in the context of ISTQB terminology?

Question 2

A tester needs to explain Weakness to a non‑technical stakeholder. Which approach is MOST appropriate?

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