W3C

QA Specification Guidelines - Implementation Conformance Statement

This version:
http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/REC-qaframe-spec-20050817/specgl-ics
This document is an appendix to:
http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/REC-qaframe-spec-20050817/
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.

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 derived from and is an appendix to QA Framework: Specification Guidelines [QAF-SPEC], which document is a W3C Recommendation, 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.

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), and comments.

Users of this ICS are encouraged to put links back to the reviewed specification parts illustrating how it conforms to each of the Requirements and Good Practices of the Specification Guidelines.

Checklist table

Guidelines YES NO N/A Comments
2.1 Specifying Conformance
Requirement 01: Include a conformance clause.
Good Practice 01: Define the specification's conformance model in the conformance clause.
Good Practice 02: Specify in the conformance clause how to distinguish normative from informative content.
Good Practice 03: Provide the wording for conformance claims.
Good Practice 04: Provide an Implementation Conformance Statement Pro Forma.
Good Practice 05: Require an Implementation Conformance Statement as part of conformance claims.
2.2 Setting up ground rules
Requirement 02: Define the scope.
Good Practice 06: Provide examples, use cases, and graphics.
Good Practice 07: Write sample code or tests.
Requirement 03: Identify who and/or what will implement the specification.
Requirement 04: Make a list of normative references.
Good Practice 08: When imposing requirements by normative references, address conformance dependencies.
2.3 Defining and using terminology
Requirement 05: Define the terms used in the normative parts of the specification.
Requirement 06: Create conformance labels for each part of the conformance model.
Good Practice 09: Define unfamiliar terms in-line and consolidate the definitions in a glossary section.
Good Practice 10: Use terms already defined without changing their definition.
Requirement 07: Use a consistent style for conformance requirements and explain how to distinguish them.
Requirement 08: Indicate which conformance requirements are mandatory, which are recommended, and which are optional.
Good Practice 11: Use formal languages when possible.
Good Practice 12: Write Test Assertions.
2.4 Managing Variability
Good Practice 13: Create subdivisions of the technology when warranted.
Requirement 09: If the technology is subdivided, then indicate which subdivisions are mandatory for conformance.
Requirement 10: If the technology is subdivided, then address subdivision constraints.
Good Practice 14: If the technology is profiled, define rules for creating new profiles.
Good Practice 15:Use optional features as warranted.
Good Practice 16: Clearly identify optional features.
Good Practice 17: Indicate any limitations or constraints on optional features.
Requirement 11: Address Extensibility.
Good Practice 18: If extensibility is allowed, define an extension mechanism.
Good Practice 19: Warn extension creators to create extensions that do not interfere with conformance.
Good Practice 20: Define error-handling for unknown extensions.
Requirement 12: Identify deprecated features.
Requirement 13: Define how each class of product handles each deprecated feature.
Good Practice 21: Explain how to avoid using a deprecated feature.
Good Practice 22: Identify obsolete features.
Good Practice 23: Define an error handling mechanism.

References

QAF-SPEC
QA Framework: Specification Guidelines, Karl Dubost, Lynne Rosenthal, Dominique Hazaël-Massieux, Lofton Henderson, W3C Recommendation, http://www.w3.org/TR/2005/REC-qaframe-spec-20050817/ .Latest version available at http://www.w3.org/TR/qaframe-spec/ .