Problem Statement and Description Available Options Solutions

12 Copyright © 2011 Open Geospatial Consortium.

5.3 Specification and Usage of Conformance Targets

5.3.1 Problem Statement and Description

The DNES contains many normative statements. Many of them apply to an encoded dnotam:Event. However, some apply also to the data originator or publisher. Some of these statements can be tested with automated tools. It is not always clear for which entity a given statement is relevant. This makes it more difficult for a data originator or developer of a DNOTAM validator tool to identify the statements that are relevant for himher.

5.3.2 Available Options Solutions

Some specifications in the IT domain clearly identify so called conformance targets to which normative statements in the specifications are unambiguously assigned. For example, the WS-I Basic Profile 2.0 1 defines conformance targets such as “Message”, “Receiver” and “Sender”. The following extract from WS-I Basic Profile 2.0 section 2.1 explains the use of conformance targets in combination with requirements: “ Requirement levels, using RFC2119 language e.g., MUST, MAY, SHOULD indicate the nature of the requirement and its impact on conformance. Each requirement is individually identified e.g., R9999 for convenience. For example: R1012 An ENVELOPE MUST be serialized using either UTF-8 or UTF-16 character encoding. CORE TESTABLE BP1018 This requirement is identified by R1012, applies to the target ENVELOPE, and places a requirement upon envelopes. Each requirement statement contains exactly one requirement level keyword e.g., MUST and one conformance target keyword e.g., MESSAGE. The conformance target keyword appears in bold text e.g. MESSAGE. Other conformance targets appearing in non-bold text are being used strictly for their definition and NOT as a conformance target. Additional text may be included to illuminate a requirement or group of requirements e.g., rationale and examples; however, prose surrounding requirement statements must not be considered in determining conformance. ” As we can see, the requirements stated in WS-I Basic Profile clearly identify to which conformance target they apply. Rules are in place to ensure that requirements are unambiguous with respect to the target they apply to. 1see http:ws-i.orgProfilesBasicProfile-2.0-2010-11-09.html