TL;DR

This post gives definition of Independent Testing. How can we distinguish it from dependent testing?

Definition

Here we will give definition of Independent testing that is aligned with Black Box Software Testing Foundations course (BBST) created by Rebecca Fiedler, Cem Kaner and James Bach.

This definition is very simple, but it contains several important keywords, that will be bolded:

The key notion is that independent testers aren't influenced or pressured to analyze to test the software in ways preferred by the developers.

Explanation

Independent test group could be in house or external third party, and they could perform any type of testing. Remember, in order to be independent, your still could take advice and suggestions from the developers, but that must not be the only source of your testing strategy.