Conformance and Test Assertions

["Dennis E. Hamilton" <dennis.hamilton@acm.org>]

I am encountering the OASIS guidelines on Conformance and some related cases concerning conformance test assertions (in specifications, but which people can develop test suites against).

It is probably useful, in considering the creation of a document in the OASIS format, to also keep the conformance targets, their definition, and the use of normative language in mind from the beginning.

The 4 September 2007 Guidelines to Writing Conformance Clauses
<http://docs.oasis-open.org/templates/TCHandbook/ConformanceGuidelines.html>.

There guidelines offer a number of specific instructions about identifying conformance targets and there is an interesting checklist in section 6:
<http://docs.oasis-open.org/templates/TCHandbook/ConformanceGuidelines.html#_Toc170119665>

The checklist might be useful to think about.

The David Marston presentation on Conformance Testing has some interesting guidance on test assertations being incorporated in the text of the specification.  Those slides are available online for direct review now (and I keep finding pieces that I have misunderstood), at <http://wiki.oasis-open.org/oic/TestingThoughts1>.  (I have mentioned these before.  I don't think I've mentioned the conformance clauses before.)


 - Dennis

Dennis E. Hamilton
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