ISO 12107:2003 presents methods for the experimental planning of fatigue testing and the statistical analysis of the resulting data. The purpose is to determine the fatigue properties of metallic materials with both a high degree of confidence and a practical number of specimens.

It provides a method for the analysis of fatigue life properties at a variety of stress levels using a relationship that can linearly approximate the material's response in appropriate coordinates. Specifically, it addresses the fatigue life for a given stress, and the fatigue strength for a given fatigue life.

It is limited to the analysis of fatigue data for materials exhibiting homogeneous behaviour due to a single mechanism of fatigue failure. This refers to the statistical properties of test results that are closely related to material behaviour under the test conditions.