CSQE Exam Format | CSQE Course Contents | CSQE Course Outline | CSQE Exam Syllabus | CSQE Exam Objectives

The Certified Software Quality Engineer (CSQE) understands software quality development and implementation, software inspection, testing, and verification and validation; and implements software development and maintenance processes and methods.CSQEComputer Delivered – The CSQE examination is a one-part, 175-question, four-and-a-half-hour exam and is offered in English only. One hundred and sixty questions are scored and 15 are unscored.Paper and Pencil – The CSQEexamination is a one-part, 160-question, four-hour exam and is offered in English only.



Work experience must be in a full-time, paid role. Paid intern, co-op or any other course work cannot be applied toward the work experience requirement.



Candidates must have eight years of on-the-job experience in one or more of the areas of the Certified Software Quality Engineer Body of Knowledge.



A minimum of three years of this experience must be in a decision-making position. ("Decision-making" is defined as the authority to define, execute, or control projects/processes and to be responsible for the outcome. This may or may not include management or supervisory positions.)



For candidates who were certified by ASQ as a quality auditor, reliability engineer, supplier quality professional, quality engineer or quality manager, the experience used to qualify for certification in these fields applies to certification as a software quality engineer.



Here are the minimum expectations of a Certified Software Quality Engineer.


Must possess a fundamental understanding of quality philosophies, principles, methods, tools, standards, organizational and team dynamics, interpersonal relationships, professional ethics, and legal and regulatory requirements.
Must evaluate the impact of software quality management principles on business objectives and demonstrate comprehensive knowledge of developing and implementing software quality programs, which include tracking, analyzing, reporting, problem resolution, process improvement, training, and supplier management. Must have a basic understanding of how and when to perform software audits including audit planning, approaches, types, analyses, reporting results and follow-up.
Must understand systems architecture and be able to implement software development and maintenance processes, quantify the fundamental problems and risks associated with various software development methodologies, and assess, support, and implement process and technology changes.

Must be able to apply project management principles and techniques as they relate to software project planning, implementation and tracking. Must be able to evaluate and manage risk.
Must select, define and apply product and process metrics and analytical techniques, and have an understanding of measurement theory and how to communicate results.
Must have a thorough understanding of verification and validation processes, including early software defect detection and removal, inspection, and testing methods (e.g., types, levels, strategies, tools and documentation). Must be able to analyze test strategies, develop test plans and execution documents, and review customer deliverables.
Must have a basic understanding of configuration management processes, including planning, configuration identification, configuration control, change management, status accounting, auditing and reporting. Must assess the effectiveness of product release and archival processes.



Certification from ASQ is considered a mark of quality excellence in many industries. It helps you advance your career, and boosts your organizations bottom line through your mastery of quality skills. Becoming certified as a Software Quality Engineer confirms your commitment to quality and the positive impact it will have on your organization. ExaminationEach certification candidate is required to pass an examination that consists of multiple-choice questions that measure comprehension of the body of knowledge.



I. General Knowledge (16 questions)A. Benefits of Software Quality Engineering Within the OrganizationDescribe the benefits that software quality engineering can have at the organizational level. (Understand)B. Ethical and Legal Compliance 1. ASQ code of ethics for professional conductDetermine appropriate behavior in situations requiring ethical decisions, including identifying conflicts of interest, recognizing and resolving ethical issues, etc. (Evaluate)2. Regulatory and legal issuesDescribe the importance of compliance to federal, national, and statutory regulations on software development. Determine the impact of issues such as copyright, intellectual property rights, product liability, and data privacy. (Understand) C. Standards and ModelsDefine and describe the ISO 9000 and IEEE software standards, and the SEI Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) for development, services, and acquisition assessment models. (Understand)D. Leadership Skills1. Organizational leadershipUse leadership tools and techniques (e.g., organizational change management, knowledge transfer, motivation, mentoring and coaching, recognition). (Apply)2. Facilitation skillsUse facilitation and conflict resolution skills as well as negotiation techniques to manage and resolve issues. Use meeting management tools to maximize meeting effectiveness. (Apply)3. Communication skillsUse various communication methods in oral, written, and presentation formats. Use various techniques for working in multicultural environments, and
identify and describe the impact that culture and communications can have on quality. (Apply)E. Team Skills1. Team managementUse various team management skills, including assigning roles and responsibilities, identifying the classic stages of team development (forming, storming, norming, performing, adjourning), monitoring and responding to group dynamics, working with diverse groups and in distributed work environments, and using techniques for working with virtual teams. (Apply)2. Team toolsUse decision-making and creativity tools such as brainstorming, nominal group technique (NGT), and multi-voting. (Apply)



II. Software Quality Management (22 questions)A. Quality Management System1. Quality goals and objectivesDesign software quality goals and objectives that are consistent with business objectives. Incorporate software quality goals and objectives into high-level program and project plans. Develop and use documents and processes necessary to support software quality management systems. (Create)2. Customers and other stakeholdersDescribe and analyze the effect of various stakeholder group requirements on software projects and products. (Analyze)3. OutsourcingDetermine the impact that outsourced services can have on organizational goals and objectives, and identify criteria for evaluating suppliers/vendors and subcontractors. (Analyze)4. Business continuity, data protection, and data managementDesign plans for business continuity, disaster recovery, business documentation and change management, information security, and protection of sensitive and personal data. (Analyze) B. Methodologies1. Cost of quality (COQ) and return on investment (ROI)Analyze COQ categories (prevention, appraisal, internal failure, external failure) and return on investment (ROI) metrics in relation to products and processes. (Analyze)2. Process improvement Define and describe elements of benchmarking, lean processes, the Six Sigma methodology, and use define, measure, act, improve, control (DMAIC) model and the plan-do-check-act (PDCA) model for process improvement. (Apply)3. Corrective action procedures Evaluate corrective action procedures related to software defects, process nonconformances, and other quality system deficiencies. (Evaluate)4. Defect prevention Design and use defect prevention processes such as technical reviews, software tools and technology, and special training. (Evaluate)C. Audits1. Audit typesDefine and distinguish between various audit types, including process, compliance, supplier, and system. (Understand)2. Audit roles and responsibilitiesIdentify roles and responsibilities for audit participants including client, lead auditor, audit team members, and auditee. (Understand)3. Audit processDefine and describe the steps in conducting an audit, developing and delivering an audit report, and determining appropriate follow-up activities. (Apply)III. System and Software Engineering Processes (32 questions)A. Life Cycles and Process Models1. Waterfall software development life cycleApply the waterfall life cycle and related process models, and identify their benefits and when they are used. (Apply)2. Incremental/iterative software development life cyclesApply the incremental and iterative life cycles and related process models, and identify their benefits and when they are used. (Apply)



Agile software development life cycleApply the agile life cycle and related process models, and identify their benefits and when they are used. (Apply)B. Systems ArchitectureIdentify and describe various architectures, including embedded systems, client-server, n-tier, web, wireless, messaging, and collaboration platforms, and analyze their impact on quality. (Analyze)C. Requirements Engineering1. Product requirements Define and describe various types of product requirements, including system, feature, function, interface, integration, performance, globalization, and localization. (Understand)2. Data/information requirements Define and describe various types of data and information requirements, including data management and data integrity. (Understand)3. Quality requirements Define and describe various types of quality requirements, including reliability and usability. (Understand)


4. Compliance requirementsDefine and describe various types of regulatory and safety requirements. (Understand)5. Security requirementsDefine and describe various types of security requirements including data security, information security, cybersecurity, and data privacy. (Understand)6. Requirements elicitation methodsDescribe and use various requirements elicitation methods, including customer needs analysis, use cases, human factors studies, usability prototypes, joint application development (JAD), storyboards, etc. (Apply)7. Requirements evaluationAssess the completeness, consistency, correctness, and testability of requirements, and determine their priority. (Evaluate)D. Requirements Management1. Requirements change managementAssess the impact that changes to requirements will have on software development processes for all types of life-cycle models. (Evaluate)2. Bidirectional traceabilityUse various tools and techniques to ensure bidirectional traceability from requirements elicitation and analysis through design and testing. (Apply)E. Software Analysis, Design, and Development1. Design methodsIdentify the steps used in software design and their functions, and define and distinguish between software design methods. (Understand)2. Quality attributes and designAnalyze the impact that quality-related elements (safety, security, reliability, usability, reusability, maintainability) can have on software design. (Analyze)3. Software reuseDefine and distinguish between software reuse, reengineering, and reverse engineering, and describe the impact these practices can have on software quality. (Understand)4. Software development toolsAnalyze and select the appropriate development tools for modeling, code analysis, requirements management, and documentation. (Analyze)F. Maintenance Management1. Maintenance typesDescribe the characteristics of corrective, adaptive, perfective, and preventive maintenance types. (Understand)2. Maintenance strategyDescribe various factors affecting the strategy for software maintenance, including service-level agreements (SLAs), short- and long-term costs, maintenance releases, and product discontinuance, and their impact on software quality. (Understand)3. Customer feedback managementDescribe the importance of customer feedback management including quality of product support and post-delivery issues analysis and resolution. (Understand)IV. Project Management (22 questions)A. Planning, Scheduling, and Deployment1. Project planningUse forecasts, resources, schedules, task and cost estimates, etc., to develop project plans. (Apply)2. Work breakdown structure (WBS) Use work breakdown structure (WBS) in scheduling and monitoring projects. (Apply)3. Project deploymentUse various tools, including milestones, objectives achieved, and task duration to set goals and deploy the project. (Apply)



B. Tracking and Controlling1. Phase transition controlUse various tools and techniques such as entry/exit criteria, quality gates, Gantt charts, integrated master schedules, etc., to control phase transitions. (Apply)2. Tracking methodsCalculate project-related costs, including earned value, deliverables, productivity, etc., and track the results against project baselines. (Apply)3. Project reviewsUse various types of project reviews such as phase-end, management, and retrospectives or post-project reviews to assess project performance and status, to review issues and risks, and to discover and capture lessons learned from the project. (Apply)4. Program reviewsDefine and describe various methods for reviewing and assessing programs in terms of their performance, technical accomplishments, resource utilization, etc. (Understand)C. Risk Management1. Risk management methodsUse risk management techniques (e.g., assess, prevent, mitigate, transfer) to evaluate project risks. (Evaluate)2. Software security risksEvaluate risks specific to software security, including deliberate attacks (hacking, sabotage, etc.), inherent defects that allow unauthorized access to data, and other security breaches. Plan appropriate responses to minimize their impact. (Evaluate)3. Safety and hazard analysisEvaluate safety risks and hazards related to software development and implementation and determine appropriate steps to minimize their impact. (Evaluate)V. Software Metrics and Analysis (19 questions)A. Process and Product Measurement1. Terminology Define and describe metric and measurement terms such as reliability, internal and external validity, explicit and derived measures, and variation. (Understand)2. Software product metricsChoose appropriate metrics to assess various software attributes (e.g., size, complexity, the amount of test coverage needed, requirements volatility, and overall system performance). (Apply)3. Software process metricsMeasure the effectiveness and efficiency of software processes (e.g., functional verification tests (FVT), cost, yield, customer impact, defect detection, defect containment, total defect containment effectiveness (TDCE), defect removal efficiency (DRE), process capability). (Apply)4. Data integrity Describe the importance of data integrity from planning through collection and analysis and apply various techniques to ensure data quality, accuracy, completeness, and timeliness. (Apply)B. Analysis and Reporting Techniques1. Metric reporting tools Using various metric representation tools, including dashboards, stoplight charts, etc., to report results. (Apply)2. Classic quality toolsDescribe the appropriate use of classic quality tools (e.g., flowcharts, Pareto charts, cause and effect diagrams, control charts, and histograms). (Apply)



3. Problem-solving toolsDescribe the appropriate use of problem solving tools (e.g., affinity and tree diagrams, matrix and activity network diagrams, root cause analysis and data flow diagrams [DFDs]). (Apply)VI. Software Verification and Validation (29 questions)A. Theory1. V&V methods Use software verification and validation methods (e.g., static analysis, structural analysis, mathematical proof, simulation, and automation) and determine which tasks should be iterated as a result of modifications. (Apply)2. Software product evaluationUse various evaluation methods on documentation, source code, etc., to determine whether user needs and project objectives have been satisfied. (Analyze)B. Test Planning and Design1. Test strategies Select and analyze test strategies (e.g., test-driven design, good-enough, risk-based, time-box, top-down, bottom-up, black-box, white-box, simulation, automation, etc.) for various situations. (Analyze) 2. Test plansDevelop and evaluate test plans and procedures, including system, acceptance, validation, etc., to determine whether project objectives are being met and risks are appropriately mitigated. (Create)3. Test designsSelect and evaluate various test designs, including fault insertion, fault-error handling, equivalence class partitioning, and boundary value. (Evaluate)4. Software testsIdentify and use various tests, including unit, functional, performance, integration, regression, usability, acceptance, certification, environmental load, stress, worst-case, perfective, exploratory, and system. (Apply)5. Tests of external products Determine appropriate levels of testing for integrating supplier, third-party, and subcontractor components and products. (Apply)6. Test coverage specificationsEvaluate the adequacy of test specifications such as functions, states, data and time domains, interfaces, security, and configurations that include internationalization and platform variances. (Evaluate)7. Code coverage techniquesUse and identify various tools and techniques to facilitate code coverage analysis techniques such as branch coverage, condition, domain, and boundary. (Apply)8. Test environmentsSelect and use simulations, test libraries, drivers, stubs, harnesses, etc., and identify parameters to establish a controlled test environment. (Analyze)9. Test toolsIdentify and use test utilities, diagnostics, automation, and test management tools. (Apply)10. Test data managementEnsure the integrity and security of test data through the use of configuration controls. (Apply)C. Reviews and InspectionsUse desk checks, peer reviews, walk-throughs, inspections, etc., to identify defects. (Apply)D. Test Execution DocumentsReview and evaluate test execution documents such as test results, defect reporting and tracking records, test completion metrics, trouble reports, and input/output specifications. (Evaluate)



VII. Software Configuration Management (20 questions)A. Configuration Infrastructure1. Configuration management teamDescribe the roles and responsibilities of a configuration management group. (Understand) (NOTE: The roles and responsibilities of the configuration control board [CCB] are covered in area VII.C.2.)2. Configuration management toolsDescribe configuration management tools as they are used for managing libraries, build systems, and defect tracking systems. (Understand)3. Library processes Describe dynamic, static, and controlled library processes and related procedures, such as check-in/check-out, and merge changes. (Understand)B. Configuration Identification 1. Configuration items Describe software configuration items (baselines, documentation, software code, equipment) and identification methods (naming conventions, versioning schemes). (Understand)2. Software builds and baselinesDescribe the relationship between software builds and baselines, and describe methods for controlling builds and baselines (automation, new versions). (Understand)C. Configuration Control and Status Accounting1. Item change and version controlDescribe processes for documentation control, item change tracking, version control that are used to manage various configurations, and describe processes used to manage configuration item dependencies in software builds and versioning. (Understand)2. Configuration control board (CCB)Describe the roles, responsibilities and processes of the CCB. (Understand) (NOTE: The roles and responsibilities of the configuration management team are covered in area VII.A.1.)3. Concurrent developmentDescribe the use of configuration management control principles in concurrent development processes. (Understand)4. Status accountingDiscuss various processes for establishing, maintaining, and reporting the status of configuration items, such as baselines, builds, and tools. (Understand)D. Configuration AuditsDefine and distinguish between functional and physical configuration audits and how they are used in relation to product specification. (Understand) E. Product Release and Distribution 1. Product releaseAssess the effectiveness of product release processes (planning, scheduling, defining hardware and software dependencies). (Evaluate)2. Customer deliverablesAssess the completeness of customer deliverables including packaged and hosted or downloadable products, license keys and user documentation, and marketing and training materials. (Evaluate)3. Archival processesAssess the effectiveness of source and release archival processes (backup planning and scheduling, data retrieval, archival of build environments, retention of historical records, offsite storage). (Evaluate)