By Olivier Thereaux, W3C
Japanese members' meeting, Keio University, Mita Campus, 16 April 2002.
Location :
http://www.w3.org/Talks/2002/04/16-JP_Meeting-QA/
Status : Public Material
Well-known list of "success stories":
W3C creates specifications and technologies known as "standards"
but
No (legal) authority, or control, over the use or implementations of these standards.
"help the web reach its full potential".
| Standards | Tools | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|
| W3C | Specifications (bad) | Test suites | |
| Developers | Tools (bad) | ||
| Users | Resources (bad) |
Example case : The specification is bad (design errors? too complicated? etc.) Even if there is one (or more) test suite available (good or bad), the authoring tools available for this technology are bad (non-conformant, unusable, etc), and, as a result the resources created are also bad. This is of course an extreme example used for demonstration purposes.
The QA Framework is a family of seven documents written to provide guidelines, examples and techniques for every step of the work done at W3C : Specification writing, test suite building, etc.
Note : links point to Working-Group drafts. Documents with no link have not been published yet.
| Standards | Tools | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|
| W3C | Specifications (good) | Test suites | |
| Specification guidelines | Test Guidelines | ||
| Operational Guidelines | |||
| Developers | Tools (bad) | ||
| Users | Resources (bad) | ||
The QA Framework is meant to improve all the work done within (or maintained by) W3C : Specifications, and test material.
| Standards | Tools | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|
| W3C | Specifications (good) | Test suites (good) | |
| Specification guidelines | Test Guidelines Test Harness |
||
| Operational Guidelines | |||
| Test and Validation Tools | |||
| Education and Outreach | |||
| Developers | Tools (good) | ||
| Users | Resources (good) | ||
In addition to the QA Framework, the rest of the QA effort will aim at improving conformance and quality of all aspects of the web, from the standard to their implementations and the final products.
As a member of the Organisation whose goal is to lead the web to its full potential, it is our/your duty to demonstrate the use of good practices.
This is also contributing to the quality of the web...