The CTM Certification was developed to fill the gap in the management skills required by test managers and test leads to effectively manage the test process, the test project and the test organization. Specifically, CTM aims at achieving the following objectives:

• Help individuals develop their test management skills through formal education
• Establish a common skill set for software test managers and test leads based on a well-defined Test Management Body of Knowledge (TMBOK)
• Create a pool of qualified software test managers
• Prepare test professionals, especially those who achieved the Certified Test Professional (CSTP) designation for management and lead positions in software testing projects
• Provide professional recognition and career enhancement for those who manage test projects.

• Any person who has worked in software testing for at least 3 years
• People with a management or leadership role in testing
• Development managers and development leads who wish to move to a test management or lead position
• Auditors, Inspectors, and others who must evaluate the work product of the testing process

Two requirements must be satisfied before the CTM certification can be granted. These are:

1. Formal Education Requirement
2. Job Experience Requirement

Upon satisfying these two requirements, a candidate shall submit an application to the IIST Chairperson for the certification to be granted. Application forms can be downloaded by clicking the following link: download CTM certification application. The application must be accompanied by payment of the $120 non-refundable graduation fee. This fee covers the cost associated with record-keeping, grading exams, and certification plaque.

Course of Study: The total number of training days required is 10 days. All training must be completed in no more than 3 years. Credit for any training will expire 3 years after its completion.

A CTM Candidate must complete at least one day of training in each of the seven areas of the CTM Body of Knowledge. In addition, a CTM candidate must complete 3 days of “elective” training covering any testing or quality topics as fit within the candidate's job responsibilities and interest.

CTM Training: Candidates may select any of the courses offered by IIST that are marked as (CTM) offered at the International Test Managers Weeks or any of the one-day tutorials offered in conjunction with PSQT that are marked as (CTM). However, the course of study must cover all seven areas below.

Written Exam: CTM candidates are required to complete a written exam for each course and pass with a level of performance no less than 80%. For courses conducted by IIST, a candidate is allowed to retake the exam for a second time without having to attend the course again. There will be a charge of $100 for any re-take exams administered. If 80% performance is not achieved on a second attempt, the candidate must retake the course or another course. Please contact sean at sean@iist.org, if you would like to set up a retake exam.

Transfer Credit: A CTM candidate may transfer work performed outside the CTM program for credit towards the CTM certification under any of the following conditions:

1. A CTM candidate who has been awarded the Certified Software Test Professional (CSTP) designation may receive a credit for THREE days as elective training towards the CTM certification.
2. A CTM candidate who has been awarded the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification may receive a credit for TWO days as elective training towards the CTM certification.
3. A CTM candidate may receive credit for courses attended by providers other than IIST for a maximum of TWO days as elective training towards the CTM certification. Candidates must submit evidence of successful completion from a recognized training institution along with detailed course material for evaluation and a certificate of completion. Materials must be accompanied by a fee of $25.00 for each course to be evaluated.

Transfer credit is subject to the following rules:

1. A CTM candidate is allowed to transfer credit only based on one of the three conditions listed above.
2. The maximum number of training days transferable is three days
3. Transfer credit can be used only to satisfy elective training and may not be used to satisfy any Body of Knowledge area.

In order for the CTM certification to be granted, a candidate must have a total of at least three years working in test projects, including 1 year in a lead or management position in areas relevant to testing. This requirement must be completed by the time CTM is granted. This requirement shall be met by means of a letter of support describing the candidate's specific role and responsibilities over a period of three years or more. The letter must be authored and signed by:

1. The candidate's current or former supervisor/manager
2. The candidate's client or customer (if self-employed)
3. A co-worker with a CTM or now working in a management role.

Multiple sources may be submitted to cover the three year period. Any variation from this requirement must be reviewed and approved by the IIST Chairperson.

The TMBOK was developed and approved by the IIST Advisory Board. The purpose of the Body of the Knowledge is to define all knowledge areas that a test managers and test leads must be proficient with. The IIST Advisory Board consists of practitioners and experts in software testing and quality.

• Effort estimation
• Quality policies, processes, and standards
• Defining quality goals
• Process definition
• Process control
• Process documentation
• Relationship with service management infrastructure processes (incident management, problem management, configuration management, change management, release management, etc.)
• Best practices, including use of both static and dynamic testing
• Test processes for different development models (XP, RAD, JAD, waterfall, etc.)

See course selection

• Test coverage analysis
• Incident tracking and management
• Defining and capturing test measurements
• Basic “best practices” development metrics
• Alternative measurement goal-setting with the Basili goal/question/metric paradigm
• Test maturity models
• Establishing process goals
• Performing assessments and using surveys
• Benchmarking
• Overview of process improvement models such as CMM/CMMI, Six Sigma, TQM, ISO, etc.
• Overview of the applicable IEEE documentation standard

See course selection

• Resource management.
• Staffing, hiring, contracting, and reviewing performance.
• Equipment, facilities, hardware, and software resource management
• Politics
• Training and career development
  Ethics
• Team building and retention
• Compensation
• Budgeting
• Presentation skills including data preparation

See course selection

• Risk analysis methodologies
• Risk identification, classification, and prioritization
• Calculating costs and probability
• Risk reporting
• Monitoring and controlling risks
• Contingency planning and mitigation
• Risk-based test planning and management: sizing and resource planning

See course selection

• Defining a test automation strategy and plan
• Test tool evaluation and selection
• Build it vs. Buy it: automation strategies approaches
• Developing skills and relevant test automation roles
• Long term maintenance considerations
• Selecting which tests to automate and converting from manual to automated
• Calculating ROI of automation
• Building a performance test team
• Process automation and metric analysis
• Test environments - test data, architecture, security, networks, etc.
• Categories of automated tools that can be used to aid testing

See course selection

• Quality Assurance Vs Quality Control
• Defining processes
• Implementing Quality Assurance
• Developing effective standards
• Inspections and review of artifacts other than code
• Development and Test lifecycles and methodologies
• QA concepts, methods and approaches
  Prominent quality assurance model such as:
  • CMM/CMMI
  • Six Sigma
  • IEEE standards
  • TQM
  • ISO
• ROI justification for Quality Assurance
• Quality Assurance according to W. Edwards Deming
• Quality Assurance for modern development methodologies: RAD, Agile and eXtreme
• Independent Verification and Validation

See course selection