Re: Test FAQ: draft for discussion

Le mer 15/12/2004 à 09:44, Patrick Curran a écrit :
> Attached is a brief draft for a "Test FAQ" for discussion at tomorrow's 
> telecon.

Excellent start! I like the tone and style a lot. My only quick comment
is that the FAQ mostly works also for interop testing, and that as such
the two 1st questions should be reworded to take it into account, e.g.:

* "What is conformance testing, and how does it differ from other kinds
of testing?"
-> "What is the difference between conformance testing, interoperability
testing and other kinds of testing?"

* add a paragraph in the 1st question defining interoperability testing:
"Interoperability testing focuses on finding interoperability issues
between implementations of a given specification. It complements
conformance testing in so that it can also detect defects in
specifications - ambiguities, inaccuracies, etc. As such, it is usefully
conducted in parallel with the specification development." 

* in "Why is conformance testing important?", add an introductory
paragraph like
"While interoperability testing happens more and more often in W3C to
help assess the Proposed Recommendation entrance criteria, very few
groups have been working on conformance testing."

Another possible point of discussion: should this be a simple document
in QA WG space or be published as a Working Group Note? I guess I have a
preference for a Working Group Note, given that this incorporates some
of the important work we've been doing in this area. In this case, I
guess it should supersede testGL on the TR page. The main drawback is
that it reduces the ease to add/change questions, which may be an issue
for a FAQ...

Things I would like to see added during the polishing phase: links to
the Wiki for further discussions of some of the items; more links to the
examples given in the text; links to the documents developed by the CSS
and SVG WG on developing test suites. But that said, I think keeping the
document somewhat short should be one of design goals.

Thanks,

Dom
-- 
Dominique Hazaël-Massieux - http://www.w3.org/People/Dom/
W3C/ERCIM
mailto:dom@w3.org