The Rapid Software Testing curriculum, developed by James Bach and Michael Bolton, continuously evolves to meet the needs of people who develop and test software and related products.
Because our classes are only taught by people who control the methodology, you are getting the training directly from the source. We don’t just read slides, but rather lead and debrief exercises, tell stories, and answer questions based on original thought and experience. We invite challenge and debate; that’s how good ideas get strengthened and bad ones get fixed. We are fully answerable for what we teach.
Attendees of our classes qualify to join the RST Slack forum, where students can interact and ask questions of the instructors. We do everything we can to make the lessons of the class work for you. (If you’ve taken RST in the past, you’re welcome to join. Click here, and let us know where you took the class, when you took it, and who the instructor was.)
RST Courses Offered
Rapid Software Testing Explored (RSTE)
This unique class introduces Rapid Software Testing, a context-driven methodology for testing any product that includes or involves software. We show you powerful new ways to think, to apply heuristic models, and to test responsibly and systematically, so that you focus on business risk and do the right kinds of deep testing that your project needs, when it needs it.
RST Explored course description (PDF)
Rapid Software Testing Applied (RSTA)
Focuses on Rapid Software Testing in practice. Instead of explaining every part of the methodology to you, we focus on a particular product. We survey it, analyze it, perform tests and report bugs. Testers practice note-taking, product analysis, risk analysis, bug reporting and test reporting.
RST Applied course description (PDF)
Rapid Software Testing Managed (RSTM)
Excellent testing is an open investigation by skilled technical people. Excellent test management requires you to center on the people who do testing—their skills, behavior, and relationship to the rest of the development process. This class will help you to be a better test manager.
RST Managed course description (PDF)
Rapid Software Testing Coached (RSTC)
In the technical world, everyone learns on the job. That process goes a lot better with good coaching. Coaching is more than giving pep talks, it is an interactive exploration and leadership of work in progress. A good senior tester needs to involve the whole team in testing, explain and demonstrate testing, learn from the testing of others, evaluate progress, and report status. Coaching encompasses all these activities.
RST Coached course description (PDF)
Rapid Software Testing Focused: Risk (RSTF-Risk)
Risk-based testing means organizing test strategy around suspected product risks. This means testers perform risk analysis before, during, and after tests are performed: before tests to guide the test process, during tests to adjust the strategy, and after the product is released to learn about risks that were missed in the original planning. Risk-based testing is a powerful way to focus testing and to justify the time and energy it takes to test deeply.
RST Focused: Risk course description – pdf
Rapid Software Testing Focused: Strategy (RSTF-Strategy)
Countless thousands of people create test cases and perform testing on product in the software industry. Yet few of us, when challenged, can concisely and compellingly explain why we chose to do these tests instead of those tests. This leads to testing that is wasteful, unagile, and disrespected. Good test strategy solves that problem. Test strategy is the set of ideas that guide our choices about what testing to do. Knowing how to construct, explain, and critique a test strategy is the gateway to credibility as a tester.
RST Focused: Strategy course description – pdf
Rapid Software Testing Focused: Automation (RSTF-Automation)
“Test automation” is a hot topic. If you are in the testing field, then you are probably being pressured to automate your work. But how should you go about it? Only certain specific aspects of testing can be automated, so which aspects should you focus on first? There are lots of expensive tools you could use, but there are also free tools, and maybe you can create some tools yourself. What should you NOT focus on? What traps must you try to avoid? How can AI help — or hurt?
RST Focused: Automation course description – pdf