Ada 95 conformity assessment - Phil Brashear

ABSTRACT

On September 30, 1998, the Ada Resource Association (ARA) accepted responsibility to continue the activities of the Ada Joint Program Office (AIPO), as part of transitioning Ada support from government to private industry. The ARA is promoting Ada in a variety of areas. One primary responsibility is the continuation of the Ada compiler validation process.The ARA considered it necessary to distance the vendors that comprise the ARA from the validation process itself. Consequently, the ARA is supporting the activities of the Ada Working Group (JTC1/SC22/WG9) within the International Organization for Standards (ISO) to standardize the existing validation processes. To become a standard, the Ada validation terminology must be changed to match ISO terminology (for example, validation is replaced with conformance assessment). The actual validation procedures supported by the ARA are largely unchanged from those under the AJPO, with a few minor changes to reduce bureaucracy, improve reproducibility, and more easily integrate language maintenance. A number of independent organizations will work together to perform and oversee validations.The revised procedures are in use while waiting for the actual ISO approval. To date, seven conformity assessments by two vendors have been performed using the new procedures and organization.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.3 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
      D.3.2 Language Classifications

          Nouns: Ada

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.2 SOFTWARE ENGINEERING
      D.2.4 Software/Program Verification
          Subjects: Validation
  D.3 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
      D.3.0 General
          Subjects: Standards

General Terms:
Design, Languages, Reliability, Standardization, Verification