Understand the idea behind CSQA

The Certified Software Quality Analyst (CSQA) certification is undoubtedly one of the best certifications available in the IT profession. But the level of awareness about CSQA is very limited among the Software community compared to many other software certifications. Probably this may be due to the low awareness and myths about Quality Assurance.

Here I would like to say something about CSQA examination.

According to the CBOK, this examination is actually designed to test the ability of a professional understanding both the principles and practices of good quality management. The bookish knowledge from the CBOK will only help in understanding the vocabulary, concepts & principles of quality. According to many CSQA certified professionals, most of the Objective papers of CSQA examination are from the basic concepts & principles of CBOK. Where as the practice of these principles are tested in the Subjective Papers.

For example, there may be objective questions related to Deming's Principles. Coming to the Subjective papers, the question can be asked as (infact it is a recent question):

Deming Stresses in "Drive out fear". As a QA Manager how will you
drive out fear. Explain briefly.

This is how the candidate's ability to face real world challenges are tested.

So, my sincere advise to all the CSQA aspirants is to go for the certification in a planned manner so that by the exam time, you have adequate real world exposure to QA practices. Some may be worrying if doing the certification is difficult after the new CBOK is introduced. This is purely a myth. Never worry for the study materials. Infact the new CBOK has few additional concepts along with the concepts in the current version of the CBOK. In this global village, it is never a tough task to find out the relavent material. All you need is persistence. Go for the certification in a way to learn & apply the QA principles in the day to day QA operations, apart from getting certified; not for the purpose of just getting certified. Why dont you choose to go for two birds at one shot? In fact, that is the basic idea behind CSQA!!

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