Exam CTAL-TA_V4.0 Topic 1 Question 3 Discussion
Actual exam question for ISQI's CTAL-TA_V4.0 exam
Question #: 3
Topic #: 1
Question #: 3
Topic #: 1
You are working on a project to build a purchasing system. The main requirements for the system are that it shall:
* Allow users to enter details of items that they would like to purchase and, from these details, create a purchase request.
* Take each purchase request through a workflow that will allow the requestor's line manager to approve the request, reject it, or return it for clarification / modification.
* Forward approved requests to the Purchasing Department.
* Allow purchasers to find the best available supplier for each approved request and place the request on that supplier as a purchase order.
The system is being developed following an Agile SDLC. Risk-based testing is practiced informally, discussion about what testing each user story will need being done in a risk-driven way during story refinement, but there is no central product risk register. Testing is exploratory, except for the acceptance tests for each story's acceptance tests. Operational profiles have been created to guide performance testing.
Regression test automation started late. The team want to automate all acceptance tests for every user story, but the test automation engineers are still playing catch up. They started with the tests that were easiest to automate, so the functional and non-functional coverage of the regression test pack is incomplete and random.
The current iteration is delivering a major change to the approval workflow and you, as a Test Analyst, have been tasked with defining the regression testing.
Which techniques would be MOST effective for selecting regression tests?
a) History-based, driven by the results of the regression tests run so far b) Risk-based, driven by the product risks and their traceability to the tests c) Operational profile-based, driven by the likely patterns of use of the relevant transactions d) Coverage-based, driven by the coverage obtained from use of relevant test techniques e) Impact analysis, driven by consultation with technical stakeholders to identify what might be affected.
* Allow users to enter details of items that they would like to purchase and, from these details, create a purchase request.
* Take each purchase request through a workflow that will allow the requestor's line manager to approve the request, reject it, or return it for clarification / modification.
* Forward approved requests to the Purchasing Department.
* Allow purchasers to find the best available supplier for each approved request and place the request on that supplier as a purchase order.
The system is being developed following an Agile SDLC. Risk-based testing is practiced informally, discussion about what testing each user story will need being done in a risk-driven way during story refinement, but there is no central product risk register. Testing is exploratory, except for the acceptance tests for each story's acceptance tests. Operational profiles have been created to guide performance testing.
Regression test automation started late. The team want to automate all acceptance tests for every user story, but the test automation engineers are still playing catch up. They started with the tests that were easiest to automate, so the functional and non-functional coverage of the regression test pack is incomplete and random.
The current iteration is delivering a major change to the approval workflow and you, as a Test Analyst, have been tasked with defining the regression testing.
Which techniques would be MOST effective for selecting regression tests?
a) History-based, driven by the results of the regression tests run so far b) Risk-based, driven by the product risks and their traceability to the tests c) Operational profile-based, driven by the likely patterns of use of the relevant transactions d) Coverage-based, driven by the coverage obtained from use of relevant test techniques e) Impact analysis, driven by consultation with technical stakeholders to identify what might be affected.
Suggested Answer: B Vote an answer
The correct answer is B because the most effective regression-selection combination in this situation is operational profile-based selection plus impact analysis . CTAL-TA v4.0 states that regression testing often cannot execute every regression test because of time, budget, environment, or data constraints, so appropriate regression tests must be selected and the scope must be reviewed every cycle. The syllabus identifies impact analysis as a regression selection technique that focuses tests on areas most likely to be affected by changed configuration items, and also recognizes operational-profile-based testing as useful for selecting tests according to likely usage patterns and critical business processes.
Here, the current change is a major approval workflow change , so impact analysis with technical stakeholders is essential to identify direct and indirect effects. Operational-profile-based selection is also appropriate because approval, rejection, clarification, forwarding, and purchase-order creation are transaction flows with realistic usage patterns. Option A is weak because history-based selection is unreliable when the existing regression pack is incomplete and randomly biased toward easy-to-automate tests. Option C is invalid because formal risk-based selection depends on product risks and traceability to tests, but the scenario explicitly says there is no central product risk register. Option D also includes the invalid risk-based pair.
Reference: CTAL-TA v4.0, Section 2.2 Risk Control / Regression Testing .
Here, the current change is a major approval workflow change , so impact analysis with technical stakeholders is essential to identify direct and indirect effects. Operational-profile-based selection is also appropriate because approval, rejection, clarification, forwarding, and purchase-order creation are transaction flows with realistic usage patterns. Option A is weak because history-based selection is unreliable when the existing regression pack is incomplete and randomly biased toward easy-to-automate tests. Option C is invalid because formal risk-based selection depends on product risks and traceability to tests, but the scenario explicitly says there is no central product risk register. Option D also includes the invalid risk-based pair.
Reference: CTAL-TA v4.0, Section 2.2 Risk Control / Regression Testing .
by Joy at Jul 27, 2026, 12:42 AM
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