All about K-Levels or learning Objectives extensively talked during prestigious certifications

Let us delve upon the various skill levels or knowledge levels for the testing industry being designated as
K-Levels.

What are K-Levels of knowledge?

K-Levels or “Knowledge Levels” basically refers to the prescription of an upper limit of skills or knowledge
essential for a particular certification.

Hierarchy of K-Levels is described in globally recognized Bloom’s Texonomy of learning. Reaching a

particular K-Level means that the individual has successfully achieved some measurable & meaningful
objectives.

How many K-Levels or learning objectives do we when talking about test certification?
K-Levels begins at K-1 being the kindergarten level of learning in testing & ending up at K-6 with
specialized knowledge as described below:

Level Area of Objectives to Sample Examples to explain the

Achieve abilities acquired
K-1 Knowle It means that the Aspirant shall be able to recognize the
dge or aspirant shall be able definition of a "failure" like:
Remem to recognize,
bering remember and recall a # "Actual deviation of the system or its
concept or a term. components from its expected delivery,
service or result".

Or

# "Non-delivery of service to an end user or

any other stakeholder"
K-2 Compre It means that the Aspirant shall be able to explain:
hension aspirant shall be able
or to select the reasons Example – 1: The reason why tests should
underst or explanations for be designed as early as possible:
anding statements related to
the topic, and can # To find the most important defects first.
summarize, compare,
classify and give # To find defects when they are cheaper to
examples for the remove.
testing concept.
Example – 2: The differences and
similarities between integration and system
testing:

# Differences: integration-testing
concentrates on interfaces and
interactions, and system testing
concentrates on whole-system aspects,
such as end to end processing.

# Similarities: testing more than one

component, and can test non-functional
aspects.
 K-3 Applica It means that the Aspirant shall be able to:
t aspirant shall be able
i to select the correct # Select test cases from a given state
o application of a transition diagram in order to cover all
n concept or technique transitions.
and apply the
knowledge already # Identify boundary values for valid and
learnt to a another invalid partitions.
given context.

K-4 Analysi It means that the Aspirant shall be able to:

s aspirant shall be able
to separate the # Describe which portions of an incident
information related to report are factual and which are inferred
a concept or technique from the results.
into its constituent
parts for better
understanding, and # Understand the various options available
can distinguish for risk identification.
between facts and
inferences.
K-5 Synthe It means that the Aspirant shall be able to:
s aspirant shall be able
i to identify and build # Design a quality risk analysis processes
s patterns in facts and which includes both rigorous and informal
information related to elements.
a concept or
technique, and can # Create a blended test strategy, which
create new meaning or uses a dynamic strategy to balance an
structure from parts of analytical strategy.
a concept. Can combine aspects of different review
processes to form an effective process for
their organization.
K-6 Evaluati It means that the Aspirant shall be able to:
o aspirant can judge the
n value of information # Find out the type of information that
and decide on its should be gathered for an incident report.
applicability in a given
situation. # Find out the relative effectiveness and
efficiency of different review processes or
different testing techniques.

Best of Luck !!!

Article by:
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