Re: Draft Charter (Was: surviving the winter break)

[david_marston@us.ibm.com]

I don't have any fatal objections, but I would like to see some 
clarifications.

1. Are the deliverables intended to be an OASIS Standard? I notice that 
the charter only says that they will be sent to the TAB for approval.

2. The part about the test harness ("...characterization of the test 
environment or test harness assumed...") may be scary to some people. 
Could this be worded to say that "if necessary," some "minimal 
assumptions" may be expressed?

3. I think in pure form, the TAs won't require "refinement of the 
definitions of concepts" from prior work, but describing the practical 
usage of TAs should be integrated into the prior work and may indeed 
require such refinement. In that light, the TAs are closely related to 
test outcomes (pass, fail, precondition not met, etc.), and that concept 
should get mentioned on the list of "external" concepts. Again, I think 
this comes out in discussing practical usage rather than the theory of 
TAs.

There may be a few other bits that make me slightly uncomfortable, but I 
think they are subsumed under my assumption that the TC would act in good 
faith under the proposed charter that makes clear that TAs are one part of 
a larger effort.
.................David Marston