How to build education platform for ISTQB exam preparation.

Intro

Our company has 6 years of experience in the education specifically in the field of software testing, including preparation for the ISTQB certification. With extensive experience of teaching in groups, we are faced with the fact that one of the biggest problem is lack of time. It is very difficult to find time to practice, which will be convenient for all group members. So we came to the idea that education should be mobile. It is really difficult task in the case of teaching programming and easy in the case of ISTQB course.

That is why 4 months ago, we decided to create a mobile application QIB - ISTQB Interactive Course for the ISTQB training and preparation for an exam. At that time, I was already an accredited trainer. To be accredited you need to develop a training program and approve it in the local board. That is Germany Board in our case.

Problems

In the process of teaching the course, I faced with the three most prominent issues:

1. The structure of the course for some people is difficult and vast

2. 'Sample papers' include questions from all topics

3. Many people prefer to learn during commuting to and from work, but there are no good applications which can answer the question "Why is this particular answer correct?"

Features

Therefore, when developing an application following functionalities were thought of:

- Comfortable structure for more productive education and information searching.

- A lot of tables, graphs, diagrams and practical examples.

- More than 700 up-to-date tests after every chapter with explanations of correct answers for more efficient studying.

- Final ISTQB Exam emulator with recommendations for further study, tips and tricks.

- A lot of useful information for all those who are in any way involved in software testing: testers, managers, developers, product owners etc.

At the same time we have not forgotten about the design, as it is important for the user to feel comfortable working with the application and their eyes do not get tired from a long reading.

Pricing

The next question, we were forced to think about was the cost. The average cost of a training course is $100, the books are between $30 and $150. However we wanted to make the app available, so we set the price lower. We also decided that people should not buy pig in a poke. That`s why you can read first three chapters and only then make the decision to purchase it or no.

As a result, we get an interactive book that is not only suitable for those who want to pass the exam, but also for once who would like to prepare for an interview, read more about the international practices of quality management or just quickly refresher their knowledge.

Prior to the application release, we used our employees, who have not been certified yet, for beta testing and asked them to prepare for exam using QIB exclusively. The result was great as all of them have passed the exam with a very high score.

Expert Feedback

After release we received very good feedback from one of the European coaches of the ISTQB course, who confirmed that our work that has been done is not in vain:

"This app is really useful if you would like to be well prepared to pass ISTQB Foundation exam. Simple, clear, structured and easy to use.All questions well organized, tool has great structure, and in addition to that, you will get explanation for every item in the question. It has theoretical and practical, up-to-date, questions.I would highly recommend use this tool for everybody who is going to take ISTQB Foundation exam. This tool will be useful for student and for trainers as well."

Oleksandr Larkin, ISTQB Test Manager/Trainer/Software testing consultant

Conclusion

We hope, that using this application QA, DEVs, CEOs DIRECTORs, ANALYSTs and other IT experts from all world will correctly understand each other, have practice knowledge about BEST PRACTICES of software testing and can easy get ISTQB certification or prepare for the interview.

In the meantime, we have plans to develop iOS app version and add new functionality based on users` feedbacks and recommendations.

Become Certified with QIB - ISTQB Interactive Course!

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