Conformance testing — an element of conformity assessment, and also known as compliance testing, or type testing — is
testing or other activities that determine whether a process, product, or service complies with the requirements of a
specification
A specification often refers to a set of documented requirements to be satisfied by a material, design, product, or service. A specification is often a type of technical standard.
There are different types of technical or engineering specificati ...
,
technical standard
A technical standard is an established norm or requirement for a repeatable technical task which is applied to a common and repeated use of rules, conditions, guidelines or characteristics for products or related processes and production methods, ...
,
contract
A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tr ...
, or
regulation
Regulation is the management of complex systems according to a set of rules and trends. In systems theory, these types of rules exist in various fields of biology and society, but the term has slightly different meanings according to context. Fo ...
.
Testing is often either
logical testing or
physical test A physical test is a qualitative or quantitative procedure that consists of determination of one or more characteristics of a given product, process or service according to a specified procedure. ASTM E 1301, Standard Guide for Proficiency Testing ...
ing. The test procedures may involve other criteria from
mathematical testing or
chemical test
In chemistry, a chemical test is a qualitative or quantitative procedure designed to identify, quantify, or characterise a chemical compound or chemical group.
Purposes
Chemical testing might have a variety of purposes, such as to:
* Determin ...
ing. Beyond simple conformance, other requirements for efficiency, interoperability or compliance may apply. Conformance testing may be undertaken by the producer of the product or service being assessed, by a user, or by an
accredited
Accreditation is the independent, third-party evaluation of a conformity assessment body (such as certification body, inspection body or laboratory) against recognised standards, conveying formal demonstration of its impartiality and competence to ...
independent organization, which can sometimes be the author of the standard being used. When testing is accompanied by
certification, the products or services may then be
advertised
Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...
as being certified in compliance with the referred
technical standard
A technical standard is an established norm or requirement for a repeatable technical task which is applied to a common and repeated use of rules, conditions, guidelines or characteristics for products or related processes and production methods, ...
. Manufacturers and suppliers of products and services rely on such certification including listing on the certification body's website, to assure quality to the end user and that competing suppliers are on the same level.
Aside from the various types of testing, related conformance testing activities include:
*
Surveillance
*
Inspection
*
Auditing
*
Certification
*
Accreditation
Accreditation is the independent, third-party evaluation of a conformity assessment body (such as certification body, inspection body or laboratory) against recognised standards, conveying formal demonstration of its impartiality and competence to ...
.
Forms of conformance testing
The
UK government
ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd
, image = HM Government logo.svg
, image_size = 220px
, image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg
, image_size2 = 180px
, caption = Royal Arms
, date_est ...
identifies three forms of testing or assessment:
[ Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy]
Conformity Assessment and Accreditation Policy in the UK
published February 2017, accessed 8 August 2020
*1st party assessment (self assessment)
*2nd party assessment (assessment by a purchaser or user of a product or service)
*3rd party assessment (undertaken by an independent organisation)
Typical areas of application
Conformance testing is applied in various industries where a product or service must meet specific quality and/or regulatory standards. This includes areas such as:
* biocompatibility proofing
* data and communications
protocol engineering
* document engineering
* electronic and electrical engineering
* medical procedure proofing
* pharmaceutical packaging
* software engineering
* building construction (fire)
In all such testing, the subject of test is not just the formal conformance in aspects of completeness of filed proofs, validity of referred certificates, and qualification of operating staff. Rather, it also heavily focuses on operational conditions, physical conditions, and applied test environments. By extension conformance testing leads to a vast set of documents and files that allow for reiterating all performed tests.
Software engineering
In
software testing
Software testing is the act of examining the artifacts and the behavior of the software under test by validation and verification. Software testing can also provide an objective, independent view of the software to allow the business to apprecia ...
, conformance testing verifies that a product performs according to its specified standards.
Compiler
In computing, a compiler is a computer program that translates computer code written in one programming language (the ''source'' language) into another language (the ''target'' language). The name "compiler" is primarily used for programs tha ...
s, for instance, are extensively tested to determine whether they meet the recognized standard for that language.
Electronic and electrical engineering
In
electronic engineering
Electronics engineering is a sub-discipline of electrical engineering which emerged in the early 20th century and is distinguished by the additional use of active components such as semiconductor devices to amplify and control electric current ...
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 American National Standards Institute (ANSI ) is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organi ...
, the
FCC
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdictio ...
, and
IEC
The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC; in French: ''Commission électrotechnique internationale'') is an international standards organization that prepares and publishes international standards for all electrical, electronic and r ...
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.
Compliance testing 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
In physics, electromagnetic radiation (EMR) consists of waves of the electromagnetic (EM) field, which propagate through space and carry momentum and electromagnetic radiant energy. It includes radio waves, microwaves, infrared, (visible) li ...
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 spike
In electrical engineering, spikes are fast, short duration electrical transients in voltage (voltage spikes), current (current spikes), or transferred energy (energy spikes) in an electrical circuit.
Fast, short duration electrical transients ( ...
s and dips.
For example,
Ericsson
(lit. "Telephone Stock Company of LM Ericsson"), commonly known as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company sells infrastructure, software, and services in informa ...
's telecommunications research and development subsidiary
Telcordia Technologies
iconectiv is a supplier of network planning and network management services to telecommunications providers. Known as Bellcore after its establishment in the United States in 1983 as part of the break-up of the Bell System, the company's name ...
publishes conformance standards for telecommunication equipment to pass the following tests:
; Radiated immunity : An
antenna is used to subject the device to
electromagnetic waves, covering a large frequency range (usually from 80 MHz to 6 GHz).
; Radiated emissions : One or more antennas are used to measure the amplitude of the electromagnetic waves that a device emits. The amplitude must be under a set limit, with the limit depending on the device's classification.
; Conducted immunity : Low frequency signals (usually 10 kHz to 80 MHz) are injected onto the data and power lines of a device. This test is used to simulate the coupling of low frequency signals onto the power and data lines, such as from a local AM radio station.
; Conducted emissions : Similar to radiated emissions, except the signals are measured at the power lines with a
filter
Filter, filtering or filters may refer to:
Science and technology
Computing
* Filter (higher-order function), in functional programming
* Filter (software), a computer program to process a data stream
* Filter (video), a software component tha ...
device.
;
Electrostatic discharge (ESD) immunity : Electrostatic discharges with various properties (
rise time In electronics, when describing a voltage or current step function, rise time is the time taken by a signal to change from a specified low value to a specified high value. These values may be expressed as ratiosSee for example , and . or, equivale ...
, peak voltage,
fall time
In electronics, fall time (pulse decay time) t_f is the time taken for the amplitude of a pulse to decrease (fall) from a specified value (usually 90% of the peak value exclusive of overshoot or undershoot) to another specified value (usually 10 ...
, and
half time) are applied to the areas on the device that are likely to be discharged too, such as the faces, near user accessible buttons, etc. Discharges are also applied to a vertical and horizontal
ground plane to simulate an ESD event on a nearby surface. Voltages are usually from 2 kV to 15 kV, but commonly go as high as 25 kV or more.
;
Electrical Fast Transient Burst immunity (EFTB) : Bursts of high voltage pulses are applied to the powerlines to simulate events such as repeating voltage spikes from a motor.
; Powerline dip immunity : The line voltage is slowly dropped down then brought back up.
; Powerline surge immunity : A surge is applied to the line voltage.
Standardization and agreements
Several international standards relating to conformance testing are published by the
International Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ) is an international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Membership requirements are given in Art ...
(ISO) and covered in the divisions of ICS 03.120.20 for management
and ICS 23.040.01 for technical.
Other standalone ISO standards include:
* ''ISO/TR 13881:2000 Petroleum and natural gas industries—Classification and conformity assessment of products, processes and services''
* ''ISO 18436-4:2008 Condition monitoring and diagnostics of machines—Requirements for qualification and assessment of personnel—Part 4: Field lubricant analysis''
* ''ISO/IEC 18009:1999 Information technology—Programming languages—Ada: Conformity assessment of a language processor''
Conformity assessment and mutual recognition agreements
Many countries sign
mutual recognition agreement
Mutual recognition occurs when two or more countries or other institutions recognize one another's decisions or policies, for example in the field of conformity assessment, professional qualifications or in relation to criminal matters.
A mutual ...
s (MRAs) with other countries in order to promote trade of and facilitate market access to goods and services, while making it easier to meet a country's conformance testing requirements.
Additionally, these agreements have the advantage of increasing confidence in conformance assessment bodies (e.g., testing labs and certification bodies),
and by extension, product quality.
An example is the
IAF MLA which is an agreement for the mutual recognition of accredited certification between IAF Accreditation Body (AB) Member signatories.
See also
*
Governance, risk management, and compliance
Governance, risk management and compliance (GRC) is the term covering an organization's approach across these three practices: governance, risk management, and compliance. The first scholarly research on GRC was published in 2007 by Scott L. Mitch ...
*
Standards organizations
*
Test assertion
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Conformance Testing
Software testing
Product testing
Standards
Evaluation methods