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Practical Guide to the Open Brand
Copyright © 2002 The Open Group

Conformance Statements

A Conformance Statement must be produced for each product certified as conformant to a particular Product Standard. It is constructed by completing the appropriate Conformance Statement Questionnaire and it must be maintained in an up-to-date form.

A unique self-contained Conformance Statement Questionnaire is available for each Product Standard at www.opengroup.org/csq.

A Conformance Statement uniquely identifies the product and provides details of the way that the product implementation meets the relevant Product Standard. It also identifies the precise environment and software configuration in which conformance was tested, and if applicable defines the binary-compatible family (see Binary-Compatible Family).

The following are examples of what may be included in a Conformance Statement:

In addition, in the cases where it is impossible or economically not feasible to provide automated test suites, the Conformance Statement can help to establish exactly how conformance to the specification is demonstrated.

If a Product Standard has a communications aspect, then as well as the Certified Product being tested, other systems will be involved in testing for conformance. (Appropriate equipment must be at the other end of the link and there are likely to be other elements that are involved in establishing the connection.)

The Conformance Statement should declare any conformance or interoperability testing that has taken place, and must specify the exact configuration of all systems used in testing.

It should be noted that where no specific Indicator of Compliance is specified in the Product Standard, applicants will have performed sufficient tests of their own to undertake the obligations of the Trademark License Agreement; however, such tests will be specific to each individual vendor.

When complete, the Conformance Statement is submitted to Conformance Administration for review as part of Product Certification. Applicants need to obtain a user ID and password for access to the web to enable them to create, edit, recall, and save Conformance Statements in progress, which remain hidden from the public. When approved, Conformance Administration transfers the completed Conformance Statement to the public pages at www.opengroup.org/csq.

Licensees of the Open Brand are required to make the Conformance Statements for Certified Products available for examination on request to prospective customers free-of-charge. Suppliers can fulfill this obligation by:

Licensees are required to keep Conformance Statements up-to-date and to ensure that the Conformance Statement always reflects the most current and accurate information. If any material changes are made to the product which affect the Conformance Statement, an amendment must be made to the copy of the Conformance Statement on The Open Group web site (submitted via the web), and to any other form in which the Conformance Statement is made available. Note any changes to the Conformance Statement are reviewed by Conformance Administration before they are made public.

Buyers of Certified Products are strongly recommended to obtain access to the relevant Conformance Statement as it contains valuable information regarding the product and the way it conforms to the standards and specifications referred to in the Product Standard.

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