The evolving role of testing in open systems standards

Open systems standards are developed through a consensus building process for the purpose of promoting portability and interoperability of software and hardware. Clearly, the ability to achieve such goals is directly related to the ability to enforce adherence to a standard. Perhaps less obvious is the impact of developing test specifications concurrently with the development of the standards. As the standards development process matures, lessons learned through experience will likely demonstrate that both these roles of testing are crucial to the success of a standard