ISO/IEC/IEEE 29119-5:2024

This document defines an efficient and consistent solution for keyword-driven testing by:

— giving an introduction to keyword-driven testing;

— providing a reference approach to implement keyword-driven testing;

— defining requirements on frameworks for keyword-driven testing to enable testers to share their work items, such as test cases, test data, keywords, or complete test specifications;

— defining requirements for tools that support keyword-driven testing; these requirements are applicable to any tool that supports the keyword-driven approach (e.g. test automation, test design and test management tools);

— defining interfaces and a common data exchange format to ensure that tools from different vendors can exchange their data (e.g. test cases, test data and test results);

— defining levels of hierarchical keywords, and advising use of hierarchical keywords; this includes describing specific types of keywords (e.g. keywords for navigation or for checking a value) and when to use 'flat' structured keywords;

— providing an initial list of example generic technical (low-level) keywords, such as 'inputData' or 'checkValue'; these keywords can be used to specify test cases on a technical level and can be combined to create business-level keywords as required.

This document is applicable to all those who want to create keyword-driven test specifications, create corresponding frameworks, or build test automation based on keywords.