- From: Karl Dubost <karl@w3.org>
- Date: Wed, 27 Apr 2005 14:57:30 -0400
- To: Dominique Hazaël-Massieux <dom@w3.org>
- Cc: www-qa-wg@w3.org
I added Dom's comment. Yes there's room for more discussion. I second your proposal publishing with this text and then continue to work on this text here. :) Thank you very much, Dom. 4.2. Umbrella specifications A specification is a document that prescribes technical requirements to be fulfilled by a product, process or service. There is a tension between defining a technology by setting as many requirements as possible inside one document and setting a few requirements in many documents. The former allows to get a more cohesive set of requirements, while the latter enables a more flexible development. A monolithic specification sets all the requirements created for a given technology in a single document. The W3C Process document provides a framework for Working Groups to help them publish their specifications and enforce some quality practices (for example, implementation phase during Candite Recommendation). But it doesn't define of what a technology consists, nor how a technology relates to one or several specifications. Defined in one or several documents, specifications can import requirements of other specifications with normative references. Some specifications, denoted below as umbrella specifications, create all the requirements of the technology they define by simply grouping requirements of existing specifications in a well-defined manner. Figure 1: Umbrella specification [Here the figure] http://www.w3.org/TR/qaframe-spec/Umbrella-Specification.png On this figure, the technology is composed of two modules (defining functional division of the technology), a profile (defining the requirement of implementation for a specific device) and a primer (introducing the technology and its basic concepts). An "umbrella specification" document groups them together making it a logical, usable and complete technology. -- Karl Dubost - http://www.w3.org/People/karl/ W3C Conformance Manager *** Be Strict To Be Cool ***
Received on Wednesday, 27 April 2005 18:57:45 UTC