Following needs to be studied on top of QA related topics:Note: High level study is enough

1. C/C++2. Unix3. Java4. PERL5. ASP/ASP.NET6. .NET7. Oracle/SQL Server8. HTML9. XML

Visit www.w3schools.com for HTML, ASP/ASP.NET, Database (Learn SQL), XML, .NET, JavaScript, VBScript etc.

SQL:http://w3schools.com/sql/default.asp

It is a windows media player file.Lesson 5 and 6 are for learning how to reterive, delete, modify data from the database by using SQL with examples. Lesson 12 for how to create stored procedures and how to use it. Other lessons are also useful.http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/express/aa718391.aspx#5http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/beginner/bb308760.aspx

Unix:http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Teaching/Unix/unixintro.html

Download Cygwin to practice unix commands on windows operating system:Cygwin:Cygwin is a Linux-like environment for Windows. It consists of two parts: A DLL (cygwin1.dll) which acts as a Linux API emulation layer providing substantial Linux API functionality. A collection of tools, which provide Linux look and feel.

The Cygwin DLL works with all non-beta, non "release candidate", ix86 32 bit versions of Windows since Windows 95, with the exception of Windows CE.

Cygwin is not a way to run native linux apps on Windows. You have to rebuild your application from source if you want it to run on Windows. Cygwin is not a way to magically make native Windows apps aware of UNIX ® functionality, like signals, ptys, etc. Again, you need to build your apps from source if you want to take advantage of Cygwin functionality.

http://www.cygwin.com/

C/C++ Tutorial:http://www.uow.edu.au/%7Enabg/Books.html

PERL Tutorial:Practical Extraction and Reporting Language (PERL) is a robust scripting language frequently used for creating programs on Web servers because it is faster than UNIX shell script programs, it can read and write binary files, and it can process very large files. PERL is also used in back-end testing automation. It can also be used on Windows OS.

http://kgptech.blogspot.com/2005/07/perl.htmlhttp://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/Perl/start.html

Automated testing using PERL:http://petdance.com/perl/automated-testing/

http://www.wgz.org/chromatic/perl/IntroTestMore.pdf

http://books.google.com/books?id=o9xWJtvhVZ4C&dq=PERL+testing&pg=PP1&ots=XjUinZbNVP&sig=fD8vjg1eo2fJTFKzvbiF0rzaikc&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result#PPA7,M1

http://www.distinctquality.com/blog/2007/01/30/automated-testing-with-perl/http://www.perl.com/pub/a/2005/08/11/win32guitest.htmlhttp://petdance.com/perl/large-project-testing.pdfhttp://www.szabgab.com/talks/perl_in_testing/perl_in_testing.pdfhttp://www.ddj.com/development-tools/184416061

Link for  Perl Express and Perl Interpreter. Perl Expresshttp://www.perl-express.com/download.html Perl Interpreterhttp://www.dzsoft.com/getperl.htm

HTML: HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is the set of markup symbols or codes inserted in a file intended for display on a World Wide Web browser page. The markup tells the Web browser how to display a Web page's words and images for the user. Each individual markup code is referred to as an element (but many people also refer to it as a tag). Some elements come in pairs that indicate when some display effect is to begin and when it is to end. HTML is used for data presentation. http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp

VBScript:

VBScript is a scripting language. A scripting language is a lightweight programming language. VBScript is a light version of Microsoft's programming language Visual Basic

http://www.w3schools.com/vbscript/vbscript_intro.asp

Java Script:

JavaScript is a scripting language most often used for client-side web development. This is mostly used to do client side validation of web pages. Most of the browsers understand Java Script. This was developed by Netscape.

http://www.w3schools.com/js/js_intro.asp

 Also this a link to a UNIX tutorial that I found quiet helpfulhttp://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Teaching/Unix/index.html

J2EE Technologies

Core Java

Java is a higher level programming language. Core Java refers to the basic package of Java objects that are typically used for general desktop applications. These objects come in the 'Standard Edition' of Java.

JSP

JavaServer Pages (JSP) is a Java technology that allows software developers to dynamically generate HTML, XML or other types of documents in response to a Web client request. The technology allows Java code and certain pre-defined actions to be embedded into static content. This is one of the front end technologies.

Servlets

A servlet is a java program that runs on a server. The term was coined in the context of the Java applet, a small program that is sent as a separate file along with a Web (HTML) page. Java applets, usually intended for running on a client, can result in such services as performing a calculation for a user or positioning an image based on user interaction. This is one of the server side (backend) technologies.

EJB

Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) technology is the server-side component architecture for Java Platform, Enterprise Edition (Java EE). EJB technology enables rapid and simplified development of distributed, transactional, secure and portable applications based on Java technology. This is a server side (backend) technology used in enterprise (large) software.

Web Services

The term Web services describes a standardized way of integrating Web-based applications using the XML, SOAP, WSDL and UDDI open standards over an Internet protocol backbone. XML is used to tag the data, SOAP is used to transfer the data, WSDL is used for describing the services available and UDDI is used for listing what services are available.

Struts

Apache Struts is a free open-source framework for creating Java web applications. The Struts framework is designed to help developers create web applications that utilize a MVC architecture.

Spring

The Spring Framework (or Spring for short) is an open source application framework for the Java platform. This is a substitute for Struts framework.

Hibernate

Hibernate is a powerful, high performance object/relational persistence and query service.It is an open-source technology which fits well both with Java and .NET technologies. Hibernate lets developers write persistence classes with hibernate query features of HQL within principles of Object Oriented paradigm. Hibernate is used on top of Struts or Spring framework.

JUnit

JUnit is an open source, regression-testing framework that lets Java developers write unit tests as they develop systems. This is used for automating java unit tests.

Cactus

Cactus is a testing framework that allows you to create unit tests for your servlets. This is used in addition to JUnit.

Java/J2EE Tutorial:http://java.sun.com/j2ee/1.4/docs/tutorial/doc/

.NET (Dot Net) Technologieshttp://www.w3schools.com/ngws/ngws_intro.asp

ASP.NET

ASP.NET is a web application framework developed and marketed by Microsoft, that programmers can use to build dynamic web sites, web applications and web services. This is a front end technology.

VB.NET

Visual Basic.NET is a Microsoft-created object-oriented programming language which incorporates features of Microsoft's .NET Framework and Web Services, such as SOAP, which were originally developed using XML. This is a backend technology.

C#.NET

The C# programming language (pronounced "C-Sharp") is one of the most powerful object-oriented programming languages developed by Microsoft. According to them, "C# is a modern, object-oriented language that enables programmers to quickly build a wide range of applications for the new Microsoft .NET platform, which provides tools and services that fully exploit both computing and communications."

NUnit

NUnit is a unit-testing framework for all .Net languages. Initially ported from JUnit, the current production release, version 2.4, is the fifth major release of this xUnit based unit testing tool for

Microsoft .NET. It is written entirely in C# and has been completely redesigned to take advantage of many .NET language features, for example custom attributes and other reflection related capabilities. NUnit brings xUnit to all .NET languages.

Operating System (OS)

An operating system (sometimes abbreviated as "OS") is the program that, after being initially loaded into the computer by a boot program, manages all the other programs in a computer. Examples of OS are:

Windows (from Microsoft) Solaris (from Sun Microsystems) HP-UX (from HP) RedHat Linux (from RedHat)

Database (DB)

A database is a collection of information that is organized so that it can easily be accessed, managed, and updated. In one view, databases can be classified according to types of content: bibliographic, full-text, numeric, and images. SQL (Structured Query Language) is the most common standardized language used to access databases. SQL is common to all databases. SQL is a nonprocedural language. Oracle produces a procedural version of SQL which it calls PL/SQL. Examples of DB are:

Oracle (from Oracle Corporation) MS SQLServer (from Microsoft) DB2 (from IBM) Sysbase (from Sybase) MySQL (from Sun Microsystems)

Web Server

Web servers are computers on the internet that host websites, serving pages to viewers upon request. This service is referred to as web hosting. Every web server has a unique address so that other computers connected to the internet know where to find it on the vast network. The IP (Internet Protocol) address looks something like this: 69.93.141.146. This address maps to a more human friendly address, such as stqa.net. Examples of web server are:

Apache (from Apache) IIS (from Microsoft) Tomcat (from Apache) iPlanet (from Netscape)

Application Server

An application server is a server program in a computer in a distributed network that provides the business logic for an application program. The application server is frequently viewed as part of a three-tier application, consisting of a graphical user interface (GUI) server, an application (business logic) server, and a database and transaction server. Web servers are usually in-built in application servers. Examples of Application Server are:

Weblogic (from Oracle Corporation) Websphere (from IBM) JBoss (from JBoss) Netweaver (from SAP)

ERP

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems attempt to integrate several data sources and processes of an organization into a unified system. A typical ERP system will use multiple components of computer software and hardware to achieve the integration. A key ingredient of most ERP systems is the use of a unified database to store data for the various system modules. Examples of ERP are:

SAP (from SAP) Oracle Applications (from Oracle Corporation) Peoplesoft (from Oracle Corporation) JDEdwards

CRM

CRM (customer relationship management) is an information industry term for methodologies, software, and usually Internet capabilities that help an enterprise manage customer relationships in an organized way. For example, an enterprise might build a database about its customers that described relationships in sufficient detail so that management, salespeople, people providing service, and perhaps the customer directly could access information, match customer needs with product plans and offerings, remind customers of service requirements, know what other products a customer had purchased, and so forth. Examples of CRM are:

SAP CRM (from SAP) Siebel (from Oracle Corporation) SalesForce (from SalesForce) ThinkBeyond (from Simplion )

Others:

VNC (Virtual Network Computing): Remote Desktop Sharing VNC stands for Virtual Network Computing. It is remote control software which allows you to view and interact with one computer (the "server") using a simple program (the "viewer") on another computer anywhere on the Internet. The two computers don't even have to be the same type, so for example you can use VNC to view an office Linux machine on your Windows PC at home. VNC is freely and publicly available and is in widespread active use by millions throughout industry, academia and privately.

http://www.realvnc.com/download.html

XENU:

Xenu's Link Sleuth (TM) checks Web sites for broken links. Link verification is done on "normal" links, images, frames, plug-ins, backgrounds, local image maps, style sheets, scripts and java applets. It displays a continously updated list of URLs which you can sort by different criteria. A report can be produced at any time.http://home.snafu.de/tilman/xenulink.html

smartFTP:

SmartFTP allows you to transfer files across the Internet. It features an Explorer-like, customizable

interface and supports drag-and-drop functions. Multiple FTP connections can be opened at the same

time, and you can copy files from one remote host to another (FXP). Remote-host directory information

is cached for future viewing, and FTP URLs are supported. Other features include a Favorites list; the

ability to resume broken downloads; a global history; background transfers; proxy support; a passive

transfer mode; and the ability to perform recursive downloads, uploads, and deletes. Version

2.0.996.33 may include unspecified updates, enhancements, or bug fixes.http://www.download.com/SmartFTP-Client/3000-2160_4-10028635.htmlJoin QA Forum. You will get lastest updates on QA related stuff:

The most popular Software Testing and Quality Assurance discussions site. With over 50 forums that cover almost every area in software testing, quality assurance and quality engineering. Here, you will also find a forum for every software test tool available like WinRunner, QuickTest Pro and LoadRunner by Mercury Interactive, Rational Robot and SilkTest by Segue Software to name a few.http://www.qaforums.com

MS Office 2007 Trail version (60 Days):http://us20.trymicrosoftoffice.com/free-download-microsoft-excel-2007-download.html

Localization L10N:http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr

C# Tutorialhttp://www.softsteel.co.uk/tutorials/cSharp/contents.html

XML: Tutorial:http://www.w3schools.com/xml/

PUTTY: Using this you can connect unix servers from Windows machinehttp://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

Learn perl, unix, html, SQL and PL/SQL and more. http://www.geocities.com/x_scn/Ebooks/EBooks.html See also in the old stuff

http://www.geocities.com/x_scn/Ebooks/Lang.html

Visit this site. you can learn WinRunner and LoadRunner. http://www.wilsonmar.com/1loadrun.htm

UML (Unified Modeling Language) Tutorial:

http://pigseye.kennesaw.edu/~dbraun/csis4650/A&D/UML_tutorial/

http://homepages.uel.ac.uk/D.Bowden/ This is video based training

Learn perl, unix, html, SQL and PL/SQL and more. http://www.geocities.com/x_scn/Ebooks/EBooks.html See also in the old stuff http://www.geocities.com/x_scn/Ebooks/Lang.html

Visit this site. you can learn WinRunner and LoadRunner. http://www.wilsonmar.com/1loadrun.htm

TestDirector 7.0i version Demo:http://www.contractedwork.com/pport/p8043/quicktour.swf

Other Technical topics:

UML (Unified Modeling Language) Tutorial:

http://pigseye.kennesaw.edu/~dbraun/csis4650/A&D/UML_tutorial/

http://homepages.uel.ac.uk/D.Bowden/ This is video based training

C# Tutorialhttp://www.softsteel.co.uk/tutorials/cSharp/contents.html

Java, SQL, .NET etc:http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/java/

Mercury/HP Tools Downloads:

HP Test Director for Quality Center 9.0 Starter Edition Evaluation https://h10078.www1.hp.com/cda/hpdc/display/main/search_results.jsp?zn=bto&cp=54_4012_100__

HP QuickTest Professional 9.5 Evaluationhttps://h10078.www1.hp.com/cda/hpdc/display/main/search_results.jsp?zn=bto&cp=54_4012_100__

HP LoadRunner 9.1 Windows Evaluation https://h10078.www1.hp.com/cda/hpdc/display/main/search_results.jsp?zn=bto&cp=54_4012_100__

Video of LoadRunnerhttp://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=loadrunner+tutorial++video+1&btnG=Search

Segue Silk Tools Downloads:http://www.borland.com/downloads/download_silk.html

JIRA bug tracking tool:http://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/

QA Certifications:

ASQ Certification:www.asq.org

CSQE: http://www.asq.org/certification/software-quality-engineer/prepare.html

CMQ: http://www.asq.org/certification/manager-of-quality/prepare.html

Brain bench Certification:http://brainbench.com

Software Testing: http://brainbench.com/xml/bb/common/testcenter/taketest.xml?testId=473

Software Quality Assurance:http://brainbench.com/xml/bb/common/testcenter/taketest.xml?testId=235

ISTQB Software Testing Certification:http://www.astqb.org/

ISTQB Model papers:http://www.istqbinfo.blogspot.com/

I gave the exam at Santa Clara parametric center.(its nearby from san Thomas expressway and mission college blvd) I paid about $250 for it. It’s a multiple choice question exam. 40 questions in 1 hour. The passing is 65%. Mostly I studied from Rama Sir's notes which i got in class. I also referred to ISTQB certification book for sample questions which Rama sir mentioned in the class. But, the notes are enough for the preparation. I hope this helps and let me know if you need anything else.Sample questions and answers at this linkhttp://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/accevo_sqa_0608/files/ISTQB%20Sample%20Qns%20%26%20AnsRemya/

FOUNDATION LEVELFoundation Level certification is appropriate for anyone who wants to demonstrate a basic understanding of software testing goals, practices, and terminology. Holders of the Foundation Certificate with the required experience will be able to go on to the Advanced Level certification.

 The passing score for the Foundation Level exam is 65% or more.

 The fee for a Foundation Level exam is $250

SQL Server downloads:http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=8e2dfc8d-c20e-4446-99a9-b7f0213f8bc5&displaylang=en

Open Source Tools:Bug Tracking Tool: (BugZilla)http://www.bugzilla.org/download/

Enter new bug in BugZilla:https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi

Functional & Regression Tool: (Watir)

http://wtr.rubyforge.org/

Performance Tool: (OpenSTA)MDAC Installation: (Before you install OpenSTA s/w, install this- it is a pre-requisites) http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=6C050FE3-C795-4B7D-B037-185D0506396C&displaylang=enOpenSTA Installation: http://www.opensta.org/download.htmlOpenSTA Tutorial: http://opensta.org/docs/gsg/index.htmLoadRunner vs OpenSTA: http://www.testingreflections.com/node/view/361

Before you come for next session if you get chance, go thru the following items:1. SQL: http://w3schools.com/sql/default.asp - 2hours study enough2. PERL: http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/Perl/start.html - 2hours study enough3. UNIX: http://kgptech.blogspot.com/2005/07/perl.html - 2hours study enough 4. Study Manual Testing handbook which I have given yesterday Item1 to Item3 are not really important but good to have.