Tag Archives: ISO 29119

You can tell you’re a tester if you go to the pub and all the conversations are about ISO29119. The consensus that the reason the online testing community is overwhelmingly anti is that the pro-ISO29119 camp are just too boring to be on Twitter or write blogs.

Posted on September 19, 2014 by Tim Hall | Comments Off

Angry Weasel on ISO29119

Posted on September 17, 2014 by Tim Hall

Angry Weasel provides the most succinct summary of what’s wrong with ISO29119 I have seen to date:

A lot of testers I know are riled up (and rightfully so) about ISO 29119 – which, in a nutshell, is a “standard” for testing that says software should be tested exactly as described in a set of textbooks from the 1980’s. On one hand, I have the flexibility to ignore 29119 – I would never work for a company that thought it was a good idea. But I know there are testers who find themselves in a situation where they have to follow a bunch of busywork from the “standard” rather than provide actual value to the software project.

Quite.

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Alice and the Cheshire Cat talk ISO 29119

Posted on September 9, 2014 by Tim Hall

Mike Talks goes down the ISO29119 rabbit-hole and explains the likely outcome of IS29119 with Alice and the Cheshire Cat.

Alice took a quizzical look at the Cheshire Cat, “so you’re a tester? But you’re a cat!”.

“Oh,” the Cheshire Cat beamed, his almost rictus grin fixed permanently and inflexibly across his face, “in your world that might be a problem, but not in this one. Did you have a better candidate in mind? Would YOU want to sit in a meeting with the Mad Hatter, changing his seat every few minutes, or tell the Queen of Hearts that the project might have to be delayed?” He purred a very self-satisfied purr to himself. “No … I think you’ll find in reality, or as close as it gets in this place, I’m the perfect person for the job.”

I’m not going to spoil it by giving away the punchline; go and read the whole thing!

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Rent-Seekers : Michael Bolton on ISO 29119

Posted on September 1, 2014 by Tim Hall

In Rising Against the Rent-Seekers, testing Blogger Michael Bolton is under no illusions as to the real agenda behind proponents of ISO 29119. This particular observation is very, very telling:

If you want to be on the international working group, it’s a commitment to six days of non-revenue work, somewhere in the world, twice a year. The ISO/IEC does not pay for travel expenses. Where have international working group meetings been held? According to the http://softwaretestingstandard.org/ Web site, meetings seem to have been held in Seoul, South Korea (2008); Hyderabad, India (2009); Niigata, Japan (2010); Mumbai, India (2011); Seoul, South Korea (2012); Wellington New Zealand (2013). Ask yourself these questions:

  • How many independent testers or testing consultants from Europe or North America have that kind of travel budget?
  • What kinds of consultants might be more likely to obtain funding for this kind of travel?
  • Who benefits from the creation of a standard whose opacity demands a consultant to interpret or to certify?

It’s not exactly difficult to answer those three questions, is it?

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Stop ISO 29119

Posted on August 21, 2014 by Tim Hall

So, there is a proposed ISO standard for software testing, ISO 29119, which is causing an awful lot of controversy in the testing world.

Stop 29119Just about every software testing professional with an online presence is concerned about ISO 29119′s likely impact on the profession. The consensus is that forcing a highly bureaucratic one-size-fits-all cookie-cutter approach to testing across the whole software industry is unlikely to result in higher quality software, but will almost certainly stifle innovation and inhibit exploration of new creative approaches.

Rob Lambert is just one of many with serious reservations, and James Christie has this to say:

I’m afraid my hackles rise when I see phrases like “one definitive standard” and “used within any software development life cycle”. It immediately triggers an adverse emotional reaction as I remember this rhyme from Lord of the Rings, about the One Ring that would give the holder power over all.

“One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie”

Unfortunately it’s not something that anyone can guarantee will just go away if people ignore it.

Naturally those whose businesses revolve around selling consultancy to middle-management are going to support the introduction of a standard. As will the certification mills. And don’t even mention lawyers. I’m sure we can all easily imagine technically-illiterate politicians demanding that ISO 29119 be mandatory for all government contracts. After all, everyone knows that those gargantuan government IT failures we keep hearing about in the media are entirely down to sloppy software testing and have nothing to do with reality-denying project management.

There is now a petition against it. If you think ISO 29119 is a bad thing, go and sign it.

But not everyone agrees with the petition. Although this ridiculous Godwinesque screed hardly helps the cause:

Their objection is that not everyone will agree with what the standard says: on that criterion nothing would ever be published. The real reason the book burners want to suppress it is that they don’t want there to be any standards at all. Effective, generic, documented systematic testing processes and methods impact their ability to depict testing as a mystic art and themselves as its gurus.

I would say that resorting to personal attacks of that nature is strong indicator for the bankruptcy of their argument.

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