Armenia to host ISTQB General Assembly in 2019

The International Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB) held a General Assembly in Brussels this October. During the event, the organization decided to hold the next General Assembly (scheduled for 2019) in Armenia.

Itel.am talked about the upcoming event and QA with Arthur Mkrtchyan and Arshak Balyan, the founders of the Armenian Association of Quality Assurance Professionals and ISTQB’s Armenian platform ArmSTQB.

- What will be the impact of ISTQB General Assembly 2019 in Armenia?
 
Arthur Mkrtchyan - In 2019, Armenia will welcome over a hundred world-renowned, leading experts. The General Assembly will be preceded by conferences, the likes of which have never been held in the region. This will allow Armenian specialists to get involved in the events.

The assembly and conferences will give a strong impetus to advancement of QA in Armenia. We have already begun the preparations and soon we will be able to name clearly the events scheduled to take place prior to the assembly. The conferences will be on level with similar international events.

The next and no less important fact is that Armenia will once again be represented to the world as a country with a growing IT ecosystem and potential.

- What developments have you noticed in QA (quality assurance) this year?

Arshak Balyan - The profession has become more recognizable and the demand for QA experts has grown.

If we research Armenian websites posting IT vacancies, we will see ads for QA Engineers and Software Engineers in Test, both beginners and experienced specialists.

This is also proven by the growing interest in our courses. Both the frequency of the courses and the number of participants have grown significantly. We’ve also remarked a positive move from Armenian IT companies, as now they’re more interested in the development and forming their QA teams.

Artur Mkrtchyan - In this context we cooperate with a number of companies, trying to offer their vacancies to our most active students. Today companies pay more attention to the development and training of their personnel, taking into consideration the number of participants of ISTQB exam in Armenia.

- What other news does ArmSTQB have?

Arthur Mkrtchyan - ArmSTQB continues to aim at spreading quality assurance specialization, creating new platforms for training specialists, as well as providing the professionals with the opportunity to receive international qualification.

In addition to ISTQB Foundation Level qualification exam, Armenian specialists will be able to access all ISTQB Advanced Level exams, as well as Agile Tester qualification.

Arshak Balyan - In 2018 we plan to expand the geography of our courses, held in Armenia. With the support of local companies, we had the opportunity to hold the first courses in Gyumri, which are to be continuous. We also intend to organize similar courses in other cities of Armenia.  

Currently we are elaborating new type of courses for the coming year, the details of which will be announced later. Those are going to be long-term and more saturated courses, which will give the participants the opportunity to become competitive specialists in Armenia’s IT market in just a few months.

Narine Daneghyan talked to Arthur Mkrtchyan and Arshak Balyan