ISTQB ISTQB Agile Public Sector Exam ISTQB-Agile-Public Exam Dumps: Updated Questions & Answers (October 2025)

The whole-team approach in agile methodologies is beneficial because it leverages the diverse skill sets within the team for the project's benefit. In this collaborative environment, team members, including developers, testers, and business analysts, work closely together from the project's outset. This close collaboration ensures a better understanding of the project goals, more innovative solutions to problems, and a higher quality product. The whole-team approach encourages knowledge sharing and collective problem-solving, leading to more efficient and effective project outcomes. This approach contrasts with traditional methodologies, where roles are more siloed, and collaboration between different roles occurs less frequently​​.

Agile retrospectives focus on the process, practices, and tools, rather than personal critiques. The effectiveness of a retrospective lies in its ability to foster a positive, constructive environment where the team can discuss what worked well, what didn't, and how to improve going forward. Focusing on an individual's perceived shortcomings, such as being "disruptive and lazy" (Option C), does not align with the Agile principle of building projects around motivated individuals and trusting them to get the job done. It could lead to a negative atmosphere, reducing the team's willingness to openly share and collaborate on solutions. Instead, retrospectives should concentrate on actionable items that can lead to process improvements, such as addressing frequent automation test failures, discrepancies in effort estimations, and delays in the build process, as mentioned in options A, B, and D respectively.

Equivalence partitioning is a black box test design technique suitable for verifying the accuracy of user stories like the one described. It involves dividing input data of a software unit into partitions of equivalent data from which test cases can be derived. For a user story involving tax percentage calculation based on income, Equivalence Partitioning allows the creation of test cases for different income ranges (low, medium, high) to ensure that the system accurately calculates tax percentages for each partition, thus covering various scenarios within the application's functionality.

A test charter is primarily used in exploratory testing (i) to guide the test session with a clear mission or objective, which might be related to specific functionalities, user stories, or areas of the application, making reference to user stories (iii) plausible. It also contains notes taken during the test session (iv), which are crucial for documenting observations, anomalies, and insights gained during exploratory testing. This approach aligns with Agile's emphasis on individuals and interactions and responding to change, as exploratory testing is inherently adaptive and relies on the tester's skill, creativity, and intuition. It contrasts with more traditional, documentation-heavy approaches, emphasizing the value of working software and collaboration.

The Agile Manifesto, a foundational document for Agile development, outlines four core values intended to guide Agile practices. Option C, "Processes and tools over individuals and interactions," is not a statement of value from the Agile Manifesto. In fact, the correct value stated in the Agile Manifesto is the opposite: "Individuals and interactions over processes and tools."

The Agile Manifesto values are as follows:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan

These values emphasize the importance of people, collaboration, adaptability, and the delivery of functional software in Agile development. The manifesto suggests that while processes, tools, documentation, contracts, and plans have their place, they should not overshadow the importance of human elements, effective collaboration, and responsiveness to change.

Option C is the verified answer because it misrepresents the Agile Manifesto's values by prioritizing processes and tools over individuals and interactions, which contradicts the manifesto's emphasis on the latter. This understanding is crucial for implementing Agile practices that align with the manifesto's intent to foster more adaptive, people-oriented, and customer-focused approaches to software development.

The acceptance criteria for a sprint focused on improving the performance of a system, like the one described for Sprint 5, typically include ensuring that the system meets specific performance benchmarks and that the functionality implemented in previous sprints continues to work as expected. Therefore, the most relevant acceptance criteria for such a sprint would be:

iii) "100% of the existing regression test suite has passed." This criterion ensures that the new performance enhancements have not adversely affected the existing functionalities of the system. It's a common practice in agile projects to maintain the integrity and quality of the system by running regression tests. This is supported by the notion that continuous testing and quality assurance are integral components of agile methodologies, ensuring that each increment of the project maintains and improves the quality of the product (Source: Agile Project Management methodologies).

iv) "System is responding in less than 3 seconds, 90% of the time." This criterion directly addresses the goal of the sprint, which is to increase the performance of the system. Setting a specific target for response times is a quantifiable and testable way to measure the improvement in performance. This aligns with agile principles, which emphasize delivering valuable, working software and encourage adaptive planning and continuous improvement. Performance targets like these help the team focus on delivering specific, valuable improvements to the system (Source: Principles behind the Agile Manifesto).

Options i) and v) are less relevant to the specific focus of Sprint 5, which is on performance improvement, and more about user roles and software compatibility, which are not directly tied to the performance objectives of the sprint. Therefore, options iii) and iv) constitute the most appropriate acceptance criteria for Sprint 5, focusing on ensuring that the system's performance meets the set benchmarks without compromising existing functionalities.

The defect titled "Payment for parking ticket is restricted to cash only (no credit card supported)" is out of scope for the given test charter titled "Buy a bus ticket" because it pertains to a different functionality not covered by the charter. The charter focuses on the process of purchasing a bus ticket, which involves functionality such as selecting a ticket type, choosing a journey, and completing the transaction. A defect related to payment methods for a parking ticket does not relate to these functions and is therefore considered out of scope for the testing session focused on buying a bus ticket​​.

A testable acceptance criterion must be specific, measurable, and verifiable, which makes option C the correct choice. Stating that "the response time to confirm a customer submission must not exceed 5 seconds" provides a clear, quantifiable measure that can be tested to determine whether the criterion has been met. This contrasts with more subjective criteria, such as the system being "easy to use," which cannot be easily quantified or measured in a straightforward manner. The specificity of the response time allows for the creation of test cases that can confirm whether the system meets this particular requirement, thus making it a testable acceptance criterion​​.

Risk-based testing is a strategic approach to testing that prioritizes testing activities based on the level of risk associated with various features or components of the software. In Agile development, this approach aligns well with the iterative and incremental nature of Agile methodologies. During both release and iteration planning, Agile teams assess and prioritize work based on risk, value, and other factors. This double layer of risk analysis allows teams to focus their testing efforts more effectively on areas that pose the greatest risk to the project's success, thereby enhancing the quality and reliability of the deliverables. This approach is consistent with Agile principles, which emphasize adaptability and the delivery of value to the customer​​.