ISTQB Chapter 5 Practice Questions: Managing Test Activities
Chapter 5 is 9 of the 40 questions, the second-largest block, and it carries three K3 objectives - estimation, prioritization and preparing a defect report. Risk is the spine of the chapter, and risk questions turn up in other chapters too.
Every question in this drill comes from chapter 5, Managing Test Activities, which is 9 of the 40 questions on the real exam.
What chapter 5 covers
The syllabus sections this drill draws from.
- 5.1 Test planning - purpose and content, tester's contribution, entry and exit criteria, estimation (K3), prioritization (K3), test pyramid, testing quadrants
- 5.2 Risk management - risk definition, product and project risk, risk-based testing
- 5.3 Test monitoring, test control and test completion - metrics, purpose and content of reports
- 5.4 Configuration management
- 5.5 Defect management - preparing a defect report (K3)
Most wrong answers here are the neighbouring concept. See the 2 concepts this drill separates before you start, or work the drill first and use them to check your misses.
Start the drill
Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL v4.0)
Practising Chapter 5 only: every question in this set matches that filter. There is no clock - a drill is shorter than a real paper and covers one topic, so timing it would tell you nothing. Work at your own pace and submit when you are ready; you get a full answer review when you finish.
- Questions
- 0
- Time limit
- None
- Pass mark
- 65%
- Cost
- Free
No timer on a drill - take as long as you need.
How this level is examined
Risk-based testing is the concept to get right first. Risk level is a function of likelihood and impact, and the exam will test that you can reason about it rather than just define it - given a set of risks, which should be tested first, or what effect a change in likelihood has. Product risk and project risk are separated, and the exam builds distractors by offering one when it asked for the other.
The estimation techniques (metrics-based and expert-based, including the three-point estimation formula and wideband Delphi) are examined at K3, so expect arithmetic. Prioritization is also K3: you are given a set of test cases with dependencies or risk levels and asked to produce an execution order.
Defect reports are worth studying as a checklist of required elements rather than as prose. A defect report question typically shows you a report and asks what is missing or what would most improve it - and the answer is nearly always the element that would stop a developer reproducing or triaging the problem. The rest of the chapter covers test monitoring and control, the metrics used, test reporting, and configuration management.
Concepts this drill separates
Separate these and the distractors stop working, because there is nothing plausible left for a wrong answer to be built from.
Project Risk versus Product Risk
A project risk threatens the delivery of the project; a product risk threatens the quality of the thing delivered.
How to tell them apart: Ask what suffers if the risk occurs. A late supplier or an absent tester is a project risk. Software that miscalculates or leaks data is a product risk.
Entry Criteria versus Exit Criteria
Entry criteria are the preconditions for sensibly starting an activity; exit criteria are what must be achieved before it can be declared complete.
How to tell them apart: Read the direction of the gate. Readiness, environments and available test data are entry criteria. Coverage achieved and defects outstanding are exit criteria.
Worked examples
These 5 come with the answer and the reasoning already shown, so you can see what this kind of question looks like before you start. They are drawn from the questions-and-answers page and are deliberately held out of the drill above, so the drill still tells you something you did not already know.
1. Which module should be prioritized for additional testing based on defect density analysis?
K3Module KLOC Defects Found Authentication 12 30 Search 8 28 Reporting 25 20 Notification 10 12 - A.Search
- B.Authentication
- C.Reporting
- D.Notification
Correct answer: A
Defect density is defects divided by size, which allows modules of different sizes to be compared fairly. Authentication is 30/12 = 2.5, Search is 28/8 = 3.5, Reporting is 20/25 = 0.8 and Notification is 12/10 = 1.2 defects per KLOC. Search has the highest density, so it is the strongest candidate for additional testing.
2. Based on the execution results shown below, what is the test execution progress percentage?
K3Passed Failed Blocked Not Run 58 12 10 20 - A.80%
- B.70%
- C.90%
- D.100%
Correct answer: A
Execution progress measures how much of the suite has been run, regardless of outcome. Passed, Failed and Blocked are all executed: 58 + 12 + 10 = 80 out of 100 tests, so progress is 80%, with the 20 Not Run tests still outstanding.
3. Using three-point estimation with an optimistic estimate of 4 days, a most likely estimate of 10 days and a pessimistic estimate of 22 days, what is the estimated effort?
K3- A.11 days
- B.12 days
- C.10 days
- D.22 days
Correct answer: A
Three-point estimation is (optimistic + 4 x most likely + pessimistic) / 6, so (4 + 40 + 22) / 6 = 11 days.
4. A team accepts that a low-priority defect will ship, records the decision and informs stakeholders. Which risk control option is this?
K2- A.Contingency planning
- B.Risk transfer
- C.Risk acceptance
- D.Risk mitigation
Correct answer: C
Accepting a risk means acknowledging it and choosing to proceed without further action, which is a legitimate risk control option when the risk level is low.
5. Which report is produced at the end of a test level or project, rather than during execution?
K1- A.A test plan
- B.A test progress report
- C.A defect report
- D.A test completion report
Correct answer: D
A test completion report summarises a completed test activity, level or project, whereas a test progress report is produced periodically during execution.
Other drills
By cognitive level
- ISTQB K3 Practice Questions
- ISTQB K2 Practice Questions
- ISTQB K1 Practice Questions
- What K1, K2 and K3 mean - how the levels map to the exam
By syllabus chapter
- Chapter 1: Fundamentals of Testing - 8 of 40 on the exam
- Chapter 2: Testing Throughout the SDLC - 6 of 40 on the exam
- Chapter 3: Static Testing - 4 of 40 on the exam
- Chapter 4: Test Analysis and Design - 11 of 40 on the exam
- Chapter 6: Test Tools - 2 of 40 on the exam
Level and chapter combined
- ISTQB K3 Practice: Chapter 4 Test Design Techniques - the densest block of applied marks on the paper
Full-length papers
- ISTQB Practice Test 1 - 40 questions with answers
- ISTQB Practice Test 2 - 40 questions with answers
- ISTQB Practice Test 3 - 40 questions with answers
- Timed mock exam simulator - a fresh random draw each time