ISTQB Certified Tester Test Automation Strategy

This accredited two-day course is designed for experienced testing professionals who want to move beyond automation implementation and develop the strategic skills needed to introduce, scale and improve test automation across an organisation. You'll learn how to evaluate investment decisions, manage automation risks, align automation with delivery models and measure business value. The qualification supports career progression into senior testing, quality leadership and test architecture roles.

Develop the knowledge required to design and implement an effective test automation strategy. You'll explore how organisations evaluate automation investments, deploy automation successfully and continuously improve testing capability across multiple projects and delivery teams.

Building a test automation strategy

Learn how to develop a structured test automation strategy that aligns with organisational goals and delivery priorities. You'll explore how to define objectives, identify suitable automation opportunities, assess investment criteria and establish the foundations for a scalable approach that supports consistent implementation across multiple projects.

Planning automation across projects

Examine how test automation can be successfully integrated across different test levels and software development lifecycle models, including Agile, traditional and DevOps environments. You'll learn how deployment strategies, governance and planning help organisations introduce automation in a controlled, sustainable way while supporting continuous testing practices.

Managing resources and risk

Explore the practical considerations involved in implementing and maintaining a successful automation programme. You'll cover roles and responsibilities, tool selection, licensing models, infrastructure dependencies, implementation risks and the factors that influence the long-term cost, viability and effectiveness of test automation.

Measuring business value

Understand how to evaluate the effectiveness of test automation using meaningful metrics, reporting and investment analysis. You'll learn how to demonstrate the value automation delivers to projects and organisations, support informed decision-making, and identify opportunities to continuously improve automation practices and maximise return on investment.

The CT-TAS syllabus covers the following topics, as defined by the official ISTQB curriculum. 

• Introduction and objectives for test automation strategy
• Success factors of a test automation strategy

• Test automation resources
• Costs and risks of implementing a test automation solution
• Roles and responsibilities within test automation

• Preparing for test automation
• Integration across test levels
• Strategic considerations in different software development lifecycle models
• Application and viability of test automation

• Organisational deployment and release strategies for test automation
• The automation solution planning
• Test automation deployment strategies
• Dependencies within the test environment

• Test automation impact analysis
• Investment in setting up and maintaining test automation
• Test automation metrics
• The value of test automation on the project and organisation level
• Decisions made from test reports

• Implementation and improvement strategies for testing automation
• Transitioning activities from manual testing to continuous testing
• Test automation strategy across the organisation

Candidates must hold the ISTQB Certified Tester Foundation Level (CTFL) v4.0 certification (or an earlier Foundation Level equivalent) and have practical software testing experience.

The certification exam consists of 40 multiple-choice questions completed in 60 minutes. A passing score of 32 out of 49 marks is required. The exam is delivered via remote proctor.