{"paper":{"title":"ISTQB Certifications Under the Lens: Their Contributions to the Software-Testing Profession; and AI-assisted Synthesis of Practitioners' Endorsements and Criticisms","license":"http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/","headline":"","cross_cats":[],"primary_cat":"cs.SE","authors_text":"Alper Bu\\u{g}ra Kele\\c{s}, Sevde De\\u{g}irmenci, Vahid Garousi","submitted_at":"2026-03-15T19:51:20Z","abstract_excerpt":"Context: The International Software Testing Qualifications Board (ISTQB) certification dominates global software testing practice, with 1.2+ million certifications issued across 130+ countries. Yet it remains contested: practitioners value it for career advancement and shared terminology, while others criticize it as overly theoretical and somewhat disconnected from real-world testing practices.\n  Objective: This study investigates the perceived value and critique of ISTQB certifications, the most widely recognized testing qualifications worldwide.\n  Method: We conducted an AI-assisted Multivo"},"claims":{"count":0,"items":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"source":{"id":"2603.14572","kind":"arxiv","version":2},"verdict":{"id":null,"model_set":{},"created_at":null,"strongest_claim":"","one_line_summary":"","pipeline_version":null,"weakest_assumption":"","pith_extraction_headline":""},"integrity":{"clean":true,"summary":{"advisory":0,"critical":0,"by_detector":{},"informational":0},"endpoint":"/pith/2603.14572/integrity.json","findings":[],"available":true,"detectors_run":[],"snapshot_sha256":"c28c3603d3b5d939e8dc4c7e95fa8dfce3d595e45f758748cecf8e644a296938"},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}