Conformance testing or type testing is testing to determine whether a product or system or just a medium complies with the requirements of a specification, contract or regulation. This may apply to various technical terms as well as to pure formal terms with respect to obligations of the contractors. Conformity assessment, also known as compliance assessment, is any activity to determine, directly or indirectly, that a process, product, or service meets relevant technical standards and fulfills relevant requirements.
Contents
- Typical areas of application
- Software engineering
- Electronic and electrical engineering
- Telecom and datacom protocols
- Standardization
- References
Conformity assessment activities may include:
Additionally, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) governs conformity assessment through the Agreement on Mutual Recognition in Relation to Conformity Assessment (Signed July 4, 2000)
Testing is often either logical testing or physical testing. The test procedures may involve other criteria from mathematical testing or chemical testing. Beyond simple conformance other requirements for efficiency, interoperability or compliance may apply.
To aid in the aim towards a conformance proof, various test procedures and test setups have been developed, either by the standard's maintainers or external auditing organizations, specifically for testing conformance to standards. Conformance testing is performed preferably by independent organizations, which may be the standards body itself, to give sound assurance of compliance.
Products tested conformance may then become advertised as being certified by the testing organization as complying with the referred technical standard. Service providers, equipment manufacturers, and equipment suppliers rely on such qualified data to ensure Quality of Service (QoS) through this conformance process.
Typical areas of application
Conformance testing is applied to various areas of application, as e.g.
In all such testing the subject of test is not just the formal conformance in aspects of e.g.
but especially the aspects of e.g.
Hence conformance testing leads to a vast set of documents and files that allow for re-iterating all performed tests.
Software engineering
In software testing, conformance testing verifies that a product performs according to its specified standards. Compilers, for instance, are extensively tested to determine whether they meet the recognized standard for that language.
Electronic and electrical engineering
In electronic engineering and electrical engineering, some countries and business environments (such as telecommunication companies) require that an electronic product meet certain requirements before they can be sold. Standards for telecommunication products written by standards organizations such as ANSI, the FCC, and IEC, etc., have certain criteria that a product must meet before compliance is recognized. In countries such as Japan, China, Korea, and some parts of Europe, products cannot be sold unless they are known to meet those requirements specified in the standards. Usually, manufacturers set their own requirements to ensure product quality, sometimes with levels much higher than what the governing bodies require. Compliance is realized after a product passes a series of tests without occurring some specified mode of failure. Failure levels are usually set depending on what environment the product will be sold in. For instance, test on a product for used in an industrial environment will not be as stringent as a product used in a residential area. A failure can include data corruption, loss of communication, and irregular behavior.
Compliance test for electronic devices include emissions tests, immunity tests, and safety tests. Emissions tests ensure that a product will not emit harmful electromagnetic interference in communication and power lines. Immunity tests ensure that a product is immune to common electrical signals and Electromagnetic interference (EMI) that will be found in its operating environment, such as electromagnetic radiation from a local radio station or interference from nearby products. Safety tests ensure that a product will not create a safety risk from situations such as a failed or shorted power supply, blocked cooling vent, and powerline voltage spikes and dips.
For example, the telecommunications research and development company Telcordia Technologies publishes conformance standards for telecommunication equipment to pass the following tests:
Telecom and datacom protocols
In protocol testing, TTCN-3 has been used successfully to deploy a number of test systems, including protocol conformance testers for SIP, WiMAX, and DSRC.
Based on 3GPP and non-3GPP specification, the test equipment vendors develops the test cases and validated by the bodies.
Standardization
The international standards of the topic are published by ISO and covered in the divisions of ICS 03.120.20 for management and ICS 23.040.01 for technical. Other standalone ISO standards for the topic include