Update on Test Assertion Guideline List and eTSL

["Monica J. Martin" <Monica.Martin@Sun.COM>]

As an update to my previous message [1], the discussion list will be 
exclusively for a Test Assertion Guideline.  it is possible a separate 
discussion list and possible TC will address the latter (the language). 
Thanks to Jacques for this additional information.  I've included the 
announcement from Mary McRae on 13 November.

-----Original Message-----
From: Mary McRae [mailto:mary.mcrae@oasis-open.org] Sent: Monday, 
November 13, 2006 12:30 PM
To: tc-announce@lists.oasis-open.org; members@lists.oasis-open.org
Cc: tag-discuss@lists.oasis-open.org
Subject: [members] New OASIS Discussion List: Test Assertion Guidelines
(TAG)

OASIS members have requested that we open a new discussion list, 
regarding a possible new OASIS Test Assertion Guidelines (TAG) TC. The 
proposal conforms to our rules and is set forth below. Standards always 
are improved by broad participation. OASIS encourages open discussions 
about possible new TCs, by offering a dedicated e-mail list for 90 days, 
upon member request. The address of this list will be:

tag-discuss@lists.oasis-open.org

Anyone, including OASIS members and non-members, may subscribe to this 
list in order to discuss the merits and possibility of the proposed 
project. The list is now open, and can be joined by sending a message to:

tag-discuss-subscribe@lists.oasis-open.org [1]

The discussion list is governed by Section 2.1 of the OASIS TC Process 
[2], and may last up to 90 days. Typically,  participants in the list 
will determine whether there is sufficient interest to form an OASIS TC, 
and then collaborate
on a draft TC charter for submission. Only subscribers to the list will 
have the ability to post to it. If you do not wish to subscribe, but 
would like to monitor the discussion, archives of the list will be 
visible at [3].

Please feel free to forward this announcement to any other appropriate 
lists. OASIS is an open standards organization, and welcomes your 
feedback. We look forward to assisting parties interested in joining the 
community of implementers, technologists, academics and end-users 
contributing to open standardization for e-business and information 
exchange.

Mary P McRae
Manager of TC Administration, OASIS
web: www.oasis-open.org
[1] Additional assistance is available, if needed, from the contacts 
listed at
http://www.oasis-open.org/who/contactus.php
[2] http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/process.php#2.1
[3] http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/

====
DISCUSSION LIST PROPOSAL

(1) name of discussion list: tag-discuss

(2) A preliminary statement of scope for the TC whose formation the list 
is intended to discuss:

We are considering the creation of a Test Assertion Guidelines (TAG) 
OASIS TC with a charter precisely focused on producing guidelines for 
facilitating and encouraging the creation of test assertions for OASIS 
specifications.
The charter would be aligned with the intent of the former OASIS 
Conformance TC, although the focus is here exclusively on test 
assertions, as opposed to general aspects of quality and conformance. 
The scope of TC deliverables may include a
formal representation for TAs, e.g. XML mark-up.

The benefits of a common methodology and model for generating test 
assertions (TAs) for OASIS specifications have been recognized by the 
OASIS Board and TAB as well as OASIS staff:

- Quality: When designed at the same time a specification is written, 
Test Assertions also help the TC in sharpening the specification 
requirements and finding missing requirements or error cases. It brings 
a pragmatic perspective to the specification work, and helps uncover 
potential interoperability issues.

- Coordination: Test Assertions represent a necessary step from the 
narrative of a specification to the concrete test suite that will verify 
conformance to this specification. No one is better qualified than 
members of a TC to write Test
Assertions relative to their specification, but the expertise of TC 
members is usually not in writing test suites: Test Assertions is the 
necessary input to a Quality Assurance team external to the OASIS TC 
that produced the specification
under test, for designing test suites.
- Time to adoption: By enhancing specification quality and completeness, 
as well as facilitating their testing for conformance and/or 
interoperability, test suites and test harnesses can be developed as 
soon as the specification
is finalized, and certification or badging programs put in place 
earlier. This is on the critical path in shortening the lead time to 
deploy implementations supporting these standards.

(3) The names, electronic mail addresses, and membership affiliations of 
the three or more Eligible Persons:

- Abbie Barbir, Nortel <abbieb@nortel.com>
- Patrick Curran, Sun <Patrick.Curran@Sun.com>
- Jacques Durand, Fujitsu Computer Systems, <jdurand@us.fujitsu.com>
- Carmelo Montanez, NIST <carmelo@nist.gov>
- Paul Rank, Sun <Paul.Rank@Sun.com>
- Lynne Rosenthal, National Institute for Standards and Technology
(NIST), US. <lynne.rosenthal@nist.gov>


(4) The name of the discussion list leader:
Jacques Durand

Also, archives for this list is accessible at:
http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/tag-discuss/


[1] See: 
http://www.oasis-open.org/apps/org/workgroup/ebxml-bp/email/archives/200611/msg00008.html

Important for our future discussions and for the ETSI interoperability 
test efforts, here is a link to the eTSL that was featured in an 
upcoming research paper submission by NIST, KorBIT, Fujitsu and myself. 
I also believe there is a discussion list being formed for OASIS for a 
new TC or alternative mechanisms to forward this work. eTSL is a 
standardized assertion language for testing and also includes an event 
board.

Information can be found at: 
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/download.php/20789/eTSL-draft-081.pdf

For more details see Jacques Durand, Jacques Durand <JDurand@us.fujitsu.com>....