W3C Quality Assurance Activity Initiated

QA Activity in a Nutshell

NEED to give attention to the quality of implementation as well as their development

In order for W3C specifications to:

• Permit interoperability and access
• Ensure acceptance and deployment of specifications

Initiate QA Activity to:

• Address quality of implementations of W3C technologies
• Address quality of specifications produced by W3C

Today's Objectives

Introduction to this new Activity

Talk About:

• QA Activity Mission, Scope, Structure
• Working Group and Interest Group Charters
• Scope and deliverables
• Relationships to W3C WGs and external organizations
• Current Work items

Evolution of the QA Activity

Demand from web community for better support and better implementation of specifications in products

Growing awareness and interest in conformance and quality

QA Activity Statement-- www.w3.org/QA/Activity

Focus

• Solidify and extend current quality practices
• Share understanding of issues related to ensuring and promoting quality

Mission - improve quality of W3C specification implementation in the field

• Work on the quality of the specs themselves
• Promote the development of test materials
• Explore ways to achieve goals

QA Activity Statement

Structure

• Cross Domain Activity
• Consists of Working Group and Interest Group

Applicability

• Close coordination with all W3C Activities
• Coordination with external organizations and developers

Scope

• All aspects of QA
• Help with tools and tests
• Encourage WG or 3rd parties to produce tests
• Focus on quality of documents and their consistency
• Ensures conformance well defined in Recs

Working Group Charter-- www.w3.org/QA/WG/charter.html

Mission

• Organize, unify, extend existing quality practices for developing specifications, test suites, and validation tools
• Define the terms of QA via glossary, taxonomy and create how-to guidelines for building test materials

Scope

• Improve the quality of specs with respect to conformance, clarity and testability
• develop a common framework for building test materials
• Ensure coordination with W3C Wgs and internal W3C horizontal groups (WAI, I18N, TAG, Comm) Foster communication and coordination with external groups

Interest Group Charter -- www.w3.org/QA/IG/charter.html

Mission

• Share experience and understanding of the state of affairs related to quality and conformance
• Represent interests of software developers attempting to implement conformance products

Scope

• Discuss QA role in W3C standardization cycle
• Share experiences in test suite development and with validation of web content, documents, and protocols
• Discuss issues related to partnering with external organizations, external funding, IPR, education
• How to address certification: branding, logos, metrics

Conformance Matrix

• Provides an overview of conformance testing tools and test suites for current W3C technologies
• Identifies specification, its conformance clause, and associated QA Activities
• www.w3.org/QA/TheMatrix.html

QA Framework

Goals

• To foster a common look/feel for test suites, tools, harnesses and result reporting
• To encourage a common, shared set of tools and methods for building test materials

Provide a common framework for building conformance test material for W3C specifications

• Family of framework documents
• Facilitate and guide WG efforts to meet its QA commitments
• Addresses process, operational, specification and technical aspects
• Provides a collection of best practice principles and guidelines
• Spans the life of WG activities: WG charter through post-REC and post-WG maintenance

What the Future Holds

• Continue development of Framework documents
• Continue to work with W3C Groups
• Establish communication and coordination with external organizations
• Continue discussions of conformance related issues
• Promote QA through education

Participation

Multi-stakeholder approach

We welcome participation from different communities

• W3C WG participants developing spec
• W3C WG participants developing test materials
• Organizations that specialize in testing web technologies
• end user advocacy groups tracking and lobbying content/product compliance
• Organizations involved in certification/labeling of compliant products

URLs and Contact Information

QA Activity: http://www.w3.org.QA/

Mailing List: www-qa@w3.org

Contacts

• Karl Dubost, Karl@w3.org, Conformance Manager
• Daniel Dartlers, danield@w3.org, Activity Lead