ISO/IEC 29109-7:2011

Courtesy: ISO/IEC 29109-7:2011

Experience-based test design techniques

These exploratory testing techniques rely on the experience of the human tester.

Suggested test design techniques in this group are:

ISO/IEC/IEEE 29119-5:2016, Part 5: Keyword-driven testing

This standard covers keyword-driven testing, an approach to specifying software tests (normally automated) used in the software testing industry. This standard is intended for users “who want to create keyword-driven test specifications, create corresponding frameworks, or build test automation based on keywords.”

Controversy

Upon introduction of ISO/IEC/IEEE 29119, culminating in the summer of 2014, some software testers and associated organizations began making calls for the ISO to rescind the standard. Notable organizations that protested the standard included the Association for Software Testing and the International Society for Software Testing Some reasons for opposition to the standard included:

• lack of true consensus of content—as required by ISO/IEC—among professional testers
• heavy focus on documentation will detract from the actual process of software testing
• ISO 29119 is inconsistent with the way that people work on cognitively demanding tasks, while reinforcing the way they cling to unhelpful practices while doing complex, stressful organisations 
• the standard fails to take account of relevant work elsewhere on the balance of rules and principles in regulation and standards; the standard is unclear about the principles that should govern testing, while being over-prescriptive about the detail, leading to a confusion of means and ends
• the standard effectively excludes context-driven testing
• standardization of software testing in general is unnecessary
• the standard has political and monetary connotations and is too prescriptive, which doesn’t benefit the industry

Dr. Stuart Reid, convenor of WG26, replied to some of these and other opposing viewpoints in September 2014, though it’s not clear if any further action by WG26 was taken due to software testers’ complaints.