[SpecGL Draft] A.2 Provide an Implementation Conformance Statement (ICS) proforma.

Good Practice:
	Provide an Implementation Conformance Statement (ICS) proforma.

What does it mean?
	An Implementation Conformance Statement (ICS) provides standardized 
information about the conformance of an implementation to the 
specification. It indicates which capabilities and options have been 
implemented, as well as the limitations of the implementation. An ICS 
typically takes the form of a questionnaire or a checklist for 
implementor to complete. This Good Practice suggests that the 
specification itself include an ICS proforma. (Caveat. The ICS concept 
may be inapplicable to some types of specifications.)

Why care?
	An ICS provides detail about conformance. The detail can, for example, 
be used to identify the subset of a conformance test suite that is 
applicable to the implementation to be tested. An ICS can also be 
especially valuable in optionality choices in the implementation, and 
documenting the presence of extensions.
	The ICS is also a good tool to help implementors claim conformance to 
the technology and use the specific wording, that has been defined for 
this purpose.

Related:
	Conformance claim wording
	Test Assertions.

Technique:
1. List your test assertions
2. Organize your test assertions following the subdivisions of the 
specification if there are.
3. If there are dependencies, express them. (For instance, if No to 
this question, jump to the next section.)
4. Define a list, a table or  a form that will give the possibility to 
the implementers to check: Yes, No, Not Applicable
5. You may want give a tool that will help the implementors to fill the 
ICS and have a formatted report  (for example, with EARL).

Examples

WCAG 1.0


-- 
Karl Dubost - http://www.w3.org/People/karl/
W3C Conformance Manager
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