Re: Version for QA WG Specification Guidelines

At 04:54 PM 2/22/2005 -0500, Karl Dubost wrote:
>[...]
>
>  a "QA Spec GL conformance checker" being one of the class of Products of 
> QA Spec GL.

Actually it is an interesting question, whether or not it is a CoP.  I'm 
not sure that it is.  Our current CoP definition is something like,

>generic name for the group of products or services to which the Working 
>Group has determined the specification applies, (i.e., target of the
>specification). A specification may identify several classes of products.

Ignoring a certain wooliness in the word "applies", a CoP is a generic 
category of product which implements the specification, and for which the 
specification defines conformance requirements.  So for SpecGL, 
specifications are surely a CoP -- they implement (or not!) the 
requirements of SpecGL.  SpecGL give requirements against which to measure 
specifications' conformance to SpecGL.

A Conformance Checker does not implement any requirements of the 
specification -- at least not directly -- but rather checks whether another 
product (a specification) correctly implements the requirements.  Does a 
SpecGL contain requirements that define what is a conforming SpecGL 
Checker?  I.e., we don't find anything like "A conforming SpecGL Checker 
must ...blah...blah...".  Is it a conformance target for SpecGL?  I don't 
think so.

My 2¢,
-Lofton.