Intro, section 1.1

["Stephen Green" <stephen.green@documentengineeringservices.com>]

I have been looking at section 1.1 and because it was hurriedly
edited from basic bullet lists (me doing the hurrying, apologies)
it looks rather stilted and crude. I want to try to improve the flow
of wording.

At present it reads (too obviously based on the initial bullet points):

"A test assertion is a statement of behavior, action or condition that
can be measured or tested. Each is an independent, testable statement
of a normative requirement in a specification to facilitate the
creation of a conformance test. Test assertions are derived from the
specification and can be mapped to it.

Test assertions are also to be distinguished from test metadata and
from test cases (see Glossary, Appendix A).

Test assertions are typically presented as lists of singular, atomic
statements more limited in scope and purpose than a conformance clause
and occupying a level between a specification with its conformance
clauses and the actual tests written to test the conformance of an
implementation. "


I would like to propose the following as more flowing wording (and
a bit more in line with recent discussions, etc)

"A test assertion is a statement of behavior, action or condition that
can be measured or tested. Judging whether the test assertion is
testable may require some knowledge about testing capabilities and
resource constraints. Sometimes the primary factor is conformance
testing, in which case closeness of adherence of the test assertions
to corresponding specification statements may be preferred over
judgements about testability. In some cases the focus is on supporting
a known test harness and testing technology and here the imprtance of
testability may be the uppermost concern. In either case though there
is always a need to make explicit the relationship between a test
assertion and the precise part of the specification to which it
applies.

The specification will often have a clause called a conformance clause
which identifies those parts of the specification to which adherence
is required for an implementation to be said to be conformant. Testing
such conformance entails matching test results to specification
statements for which there is directly or indirectly a conformance
requirement. Test assertions sit between the specification and
conformance clauses and any tests to be conducted to determine
conformance or otherwise. The test assertion is not the same as a
conformance clause as such. Test assertions are sometimes defined
prior to the completion of the specification and may even then be
refered to in the wording of the conformance clause to make it clear
exactly what conformance will entail. Sometimes test assertions are
authored after both specification and conformance clauses have been
finalised. Reference may be made to test assertions in the actual
conformance tests to aid analysis of test results. Sometimes metadata
accompanies a test suite to tie the tests to the specification
statements to which they apply. This is a different thing to test
assertions although there is a slight overlap in purpose. (See
Glossary, Appendix A, for definitions of test metadata, conformance
and conformanc clauses for further clarifications of these
distinctions.)  "




-- 
Stephen D. Green

Partner
SystML, http://www.systml.co.uk
Tel: +44 (0) 117 9541606
Associate Director
Document Engineering Services
http://www.documentengineeringservices.com

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew+22:37 .. and voice