From: Lynne Rosenthal Position Paper Mark Skall, Mary Brady, and Lynne Rosenthal NIST The Information Technology Laboratory (ITL) at NIST is an agency of the U.S. Government. ITL works with industry to develop and apply technology, measurements, and standards for information technology. In particular, we develop software testing tools and methods that improve quality, conformance to standards and correctness. We also participate with industry, consortia, and standards groups in the development of standards in key areas at the forefront of technology. NIST/ITL has a long history of working with industry to develop conformance test suites. Conformance test suites increase the probability that software products that claim to conform to a specification are implemented correctly. Conformance is a necessary first step in creating robust, interoperable products. The results produced from running a test suite provides developers and users assurance and confidence that the conforming product behaves as expected, performs functions in a known manner, or possesses a prescribed interface or format. Our objective is to develop and make conformance tests available early on in the standardization and software development processes. Thus, the tests can help developers improve the quality of their implementations by identifying areas in which they conform as well as those areas in which they do not, allowing developers to correct these errors before the implementations go to market and become embedded in users92 applications. Additionally, any errors or ambiguities that are discovered in the specification as a result of building the tests can be fed back to the standards committee responsible for the specification, for correction or clarification. We believe that the development of a conformance test suite is a partnership between those who develop the standard, those who develop implementations and those who develop the tests. We have developed a comprehensive set of conformance test suites for XML, DOM Level 1 and are developing tests for XSLT, XSL-FO, and XML Schema. The test suites, which are all based on the same test methodology, include XML test description files containing pertinent information for each test, use XSL stylesheets, and are traceable back to the appropriate section in the specification. Where possible, we designed the tests with associated test frameworks to allow additional contributions by industry partners. The test suites are robust, full featured, self-contained, and available freely over the web. We offer our assistance in the use of our products and in helping organizations establish testing programs (e.g., validation and certification programs). Validation is the process of performing conformance testing in accordance with a prescribed procedure and test suite. When validation is coupled with certification, successful completion of the testing may result in the issuance of a certificate indicating that the software conforms to the appropriate standard. Validation with certification involves six components: - a standard, - a test suite, - a testing laboratory to perform the testing, - a certification organization responsible for issuing certificates for validated products, - a neutral body of experts (a control board) to resolve technical questions or disputes related to the testing process, and - a testing procedure which define the administrative as well as the technical process of testing an implementation. This workshop provides a forum for all of us to share our interests and perspectives on ensuring the high quality of technical specifications and implementations of those specifications. It is important that we, as a community, leverage current and future efforts in developing test suites for web technologies as well as promoting efforts to ensure clear, unambiguous, testable specifications that can be implemented in a consistent and correct manner. We view the workshop as a first step in accomplishing this by fostering communication and collaboration, avoiding duplication of efforts, and developing guidelines or criteria to facilitate the mutual recognition of work.