W3C

QA Specification Guidelines - Implementation Conformance Statement

This version:
http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-qaframe-spec-20041122/specgl-ics
This document is an appendix to:
http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-qaframe-spec-20041122/
Latest version of "QA Framework: Specification Guidelines":
http://www.w3.org/TR/qaframe-spec/
Editors:
Karl Dubost, W3C
Lynne Rosenthal, NIST
Dominique Hazaël-Massieux, W3C
Lofton Henderson, CGM Open
Contributors:
See Acknowledgments in QA Framework: Specification Guidelines.

Copyright ©2004 W3C® (MIT, ERCIM, Keio), All Rights Reserved. W3C liability, trademark and document use rules apply.

Abstract

This document is an appendix QA Framework: Specification Guidelines [QAF-SPEC]. It provides a tabular checklist of all requirements and good practices from the specification guidelines, sorted by topics. Please refer to QA Framework: Specification Guidelines [QAF-SPEC] for the full statement and description of the specification requirements and good practices, as well as references to related documents and full credits and acknowledgements of contributors to the specification guidelines work.

Status of This Document

This section describes the status of this document at the time of its publication. Other documents may supersede this document. A list of current W3C publications and the latest revision of this technical report can be found in the W3C technical reports index at http://www.w3.org/TR/.

This document is a W3C Working Draft (WD), made available by the W3C Quality Assurance (QA) Activity for discussion by W3C members and other interested parties. For more information about the QA Activity, please see the QA Activity statement.

This document is derived from and is an appendix to QA Framework: Specification Guidelines [QAF-SPEC], which document is a W3C Working Draft, made available by the W3C Quality Assurance (QA) Activity for discussion by W3C members and other interested parties. For more information about the QA Activity, please see the QA Activity statement. Please see the "Status of this document" section of the corresponding specification guidelines [QAF-SPEC], for complete details about the status of the specification guidelines version from which this is extracted and which it accompanies.

Please send comments to www-qa@w3.org, the publicly archived list of the QA Interest Group[QAIG]. Please note that any mail sent to this list will be publicly archived and available. Do not send information you wouldn't want to see distributed, such as private data.

Publication of this document does not imply endorsement by the W3C, its membership or its staff. This is a draft document and may be updated, replaced, or made obsolete by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use this document as reference material or to cite it as other than "work in progress".

A list of current W3C Recommendations and other technical documents can be found at http://www.w3.org/TR.

Introduction

This checklist includes all defined requirements and good practices from the QA Framework: Specification Guidelines [QAF-SPEC] presented in a tabular format. The requirements and good practices are presented by order of their topics.

The presentation is intended to be convenient for organizers and evaluators of QA projects in W3C Working Groups, to facilitate assessing specifications against the checkpoints. The table includes spaces for scoring each checkpoint, "yes" (satisfied), "no" (not satisfied), "n/a" (not applicable).

Checklist table

Guidelines YES NO N/A
1 Specifying Conformance
1.1 A conformance clause is essential
Requirement : Include a conformance clause.
Good Practice : Define the specification's conformance model in the conformance clause.
Good Practice : Specify in the conformance clause how to distinguish normative from informative content.
1.2 Specify how to make conformance claims
Good Practice : Provide the wording for conformance claims.
Good Practice : Provide an Implementation Conformance Statement proforma.
Good Practice : Require an Implementation Conformance Statement as part of valid conformance claims.
2. Setting up Groundrules
2.1. Scope
Requirement : Define the scope.
Good Practice : Provide examples, use cases, and graphics.
2.2 What needs to conform
Requirement : Identify who or what will implement the specification.
2.3 Normative (and non-normative) references
Requirement : Make a list of normative references.
Good Practice : Do systematic reviews of normative references and their implications.
3. Defining and using terminology
3.1 Define terms
Requirement : Define the terms used in the normative parts of the specification.
Requirement : Create conformance labels for each part of the conformance model.
Good Practice : Define the unfamiliar terms in-line, and consolidate the definitions in a glossary section.
Good Practice : Use terms already defined without changing their definition.
3.2 What is mandatory
Requirement : Use a consistent style for conformance requirements and explain how to distinguish them.
Requirement : Indicate which conformance requirements are mandatory, which are recommended and which are optional.
4. Managing Variability
4.1 Subdivide
Good Practice : Create subdivisions of the technology when warranted.
Requirement : If the technology is subdivided, then indicate which subdivisions are mandatory for conformance.
Requirement : If the technology is subdivided, then address subdivision constraints.
Good Practice : If the technology is profiled, define rules for creating new profiles.
4.2 Optionality and Options
Good Practice : Make sure there is a need for the optional feature.
Good Practice : Clearly identify optional features.
Good Practice : Indicate any limitations or constraints on optional features.
4.3 Extensibility and Extensions
Requirement : Address Extensibility.
Good Practice : If extensibility is allowed, define an extension mechanism.
Good Practice : Warn implementers to create extensions that do not interfere with conformance.
Good Practice : Define error handling for unknown extensions.
4.4 Deprecation
Requirement : Identify deprecated features.
Requirement : Define how deprecated feature is handled by each class of product.
Good Practice : Explain how to avoid using a deprecated feature.
Good Practice : Identify obsolete features.
4.5 Error Handling
Good Practice : Define an error handling mechanism.
5. Do Quality Control
Good Practice : Define an internal publication and review process.
Good Practice : Do a systematic and thorough review.
Good Practice : Write sample code or tests.
Good Practice : Write Test Assertions.
Good Practice : Use formal languages and define which from prose and formal languages has priority.

References

QAF-SPEC
QA Framework: Specification Guidelines, Karl Dubost, Lynne Rosenthal, Dominique Hazaël-Massieux, Lofton Henderson, W3C Working Draft, http://www.w3.org/TR/2004/WD-qaframe-spec-20041122/ .Latest version available at http://www.w3.org/TR/qaframe-spec/ .