- From: Mark Skall <mark.skall@nist.gov>
- Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2002 16:42:27 -0400
- To: "David Marston/Cambridge/IBM" <david_marston@us.ibm.com>, www-qa-wg@w3.org
- Cc: mary.brady@nist.gov
David, This is the response to your question from Mary Brady who is in charge of our XML Testing activities: It's actually a mathematical term, because the majority of the test assertions are written using if...then...(else) logic or a=>b (a implies b). The if clause or the a part is typically referred to as the premise. If you are not mathematically inclined, the same ideas can be stated in other ways. Essentially, you are trying to identify concrete behaviors, defined in the spec, that can be easily testable. Mark At 12:10 PM 4/16/02 -0400, David Marston/Cambridge/IBM wrote: >I, too, would like to see the term "test assertion" defined in a >manner that is approachable by QA practitioners and product >developers. > >"A set of premises that are known to be true by definition in the >spec." > >The above makes me think of my ancient academic study of syllogisms >and the like. That's far removed (in my world-view) from the >semantic space where a spec (document) specifies (asserts) how a >class of product must behave. When testing, you have a product, you >stimulate it in some way, and you evaluate whether the resulting >behavior conforms to the spec. Where does the "premise" fit in? >.................David Marston **************************************************************** Mark Skall Chief, Software Diagnostics and Conformance Testing Division Information Technology Laboratory National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8970 Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8970 Voice: 301-975-3262 Fax: 301-590-9174 Email: skall@nist.gov ****************************************************************
Received on Tuesday, 16 April 2002 16:37:55 UTC