FTI launches new program for Testing Professionals

02 June 2008

Faculty Training Institute has announced the release of its new Diploma in System Quality Assurance and Testing. The 5-month part-time programme is similar in format to its highly successful and market-leading programmes for Business Analysts, Project Managers, Systems Analysts and Technical Writers. The programme will debut in July in Cape Town, with plans to launch in the Gauteng region in early 2009.

"We are very pleased to be able to add this course to our portfolio.” says Steve Erlank, MD of FTI. "There is a global trend towards viewing system quality assurance and testing as a job best done by professionals, and we have designed this programme to be a comprehensive grounding in quality and testing theory and practice for experienced practitioners looking to becoming testing professionals. "

The new programme is primarily aimed at the Test Analyst, although anyone involved in testing and quality assurance or software-based business systems will benefit from the programme, which combines theory and practical work in a series of part-time seminars and lab sessions over a 5 month period.

"In practice, many different testing roles exist. But the philosophy and overall structure of a testing professional can be summed up in the crucial role of the Test Analyst, who is able to plan, design and execute an extensive and holistic requirements-oriented systems testing effort. "says Essack Mohamed, architect of the new programme. "Currently, in many companies, testing is not yet viewed as a professional role in its own right. Instead, testing effort is relegated to individuals, like business analysts, users and developers, as a by-product of their normal activities, and is conducted after software is already constructed. Given the complex nature of modern computer-based business systems, this can never yield reliable, stable systems.”

"System quality can only be embedded when every individual in a project is accountable for the quality of the work they do and the artefacts they produce, whether these are documents, designs, databases or software components. But this will still yield poor quality solutions if the quality effort is not planned and managed across the life cycle, and if the quality of work done is not tightly linked to proper requirements analysis. Increasingly, this responsibility falls to the of the competent and professional Test Analyst, who not only understands the requirements process, but is also able to design a multi-faceted, comprehensive testing programme that ensures that these requirements are delivered at the end of the project.”

Globally, the Test Analyst is emerging as a senior role which should be filled by experienced and skilled practitioners, and like many professionals, requires multi-skilled individuals, who have the personality, motivation and analytical ability to cope with the complex demands of the job. In addition, they need to have a broad knowledge of quality processes and quality frameworks, and the competence to apply a range or tried and testing quality techniques, increasingly within an automated testing environment.

As with its other FTI programmes, the Diploma in System Quality Assurance and Testing is methodology- and product-agnostic. FTI’s approach, common across all its Diploma programmes, is to first develop individuals who have a deep understanding of the knowledge domain and their role in it, and only then equip them with the product or methodology training specific to their organisations

”There is a tendency in South Africa to reduce training to minimum levels, often done in short interventions of 2-3 days." says Erlank. "This approach is fine for developing simple skills or for focused learning. It can also be effective in, say, enabling an already skilled practitioner to learn a new product, technique, notation or methodology. But it is an extremely ineffective way of developing people with the capacity to do complex work, using a variety of embedded skills, in an integrated way. "

The philosophy has been an effective one for FTI. After nearly 2 decades in the training business, it has enabled the company to grow its client base to more than 150 companies across South Africa, and to have graduated more than 4000 delegates from their various Diploma programmes in Systems Analysis, Business Analysis, Project Management and Technical Writing.