Principles of Conformance Testing

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the fundamental principles of conformance testing. Although the concepts of conformance testing are the key focal points addressed here, they can't be discussed in isolation; thus, we include related concepts when appropriate. A testing life cycle and process are presented along with their relationship to the standards development life cycle. An important principle in standards development is to integrate testing early in the process in order to obtain feedback for the authors of the standard. A testing methodology framework is introduced that provides a process for developing, organizing, and managing tests, as well as conducting testing and analyzing the results. A detailed description and example of a Test Plan is given. Since our focus is on communication between distributed applications, we discuss how sending and receiving applications can be tested, using a laboratory test results case study as the context. Next, we offer a set of basic principles for developing Test Plans and Test Cases. Finally, a comparison between capability testing and site-testing is presented. The conformance testing principles discussed in this chapter are applied in Chap. 13and are examined in relation to test tool implementations in Chap. 14.