Enrolled in BBST Foundations

It’s official. I’m enrolled in the BBST Foundations course for November through AST.

I joined AST (Association for Software Testing) with the end-goal to enroll in the BBST (Black Box Software Testing) Foundations course. I’ve read about the classes, seen a number of experts whom I trust recommend them and also heard good things from my post on SQA StackExchange. BBST.info which is home to Cem Kaner and Rebecca Fiedler (the creators of the material) BBST consulting practice say this:

Too many testing courses emphasize a superficial knowledge of basic ideas. This makes things easy for novices and reassures some practitioners that they understand the field. However, it’s not deep enough to help students apply what they learn to their day-to-day work.

The BBST series will attempt to foster a deeper level of learning by giving students more opportunities to practice, discuss, and evaluate what they are learning. The specific learning objectives will vary from course to course (each course will describe its own learning objectives).

The Black Box Software Testing course information is all freely available online at TestingEducation.org but it seems like I’d get more information going through the class with people in a more collaborative environment. More importantly it’s taught by teachers who have been trained by Cem Kaner and Rebecca Fiedler themselves.

There are several levels to the BBST coursework including:

• Foundations
• Bug Advocacy
• Test Design
• and eventually… Instructor