[SpecGL Draft] A.2 Provide the wording for conformance claims.

Principle:
	Provide the wording for conformance claims.

What does it mean?
	Claiming conformance to a technology is required in certain 
conditions, therefore it is important to give users the possibility to 
make such claims without ambiguities. Identification of the 
specification version, of the class of products, of the degree of 
conformance are some of the items that could be part of such wording. 
It will cover the different possible usage of the specification.

Why should I care?
	Having a more or less uniform way of claiming conformance for 
particular usage of the technology will avoid confusion of people who 
are interested by such claims. It can happen in many different context 
which can be legal for policies and laws, or commercial when selling a 
product.

Related:
	• 	Conformance claims are closely related to issues of logos &  
branding. See @@Sec.X.Y@@ of The QA Handbook [QA-HANDBOOK].

Techniques:

1. Identify all variabilities of the specification: class of products, 
modules, profiles, levels, extensions.
2. Give all information identifying uniquely the specification: name, 
versioning, date.
3. Write the wording of your conformance claims including this 
information:
	• 	the specification name,
	• 	the specification version,
	• 	the degree of conformance satisfied,
	• 	information about the subject which is claiming conformance,
	• 	the date of the claim.
4. The specification should require that conformance claims contain at 
least this information.

Examples
	[Ed note. WAI specs have some good  examples.]


-- 
Karl Dubost - http://www.w3.org/People/karl/
W3C Conformance Manager
*** Be Strict To Be Cool ***

Received on Thursday, 5 August 2004 17:56:24 UTC