Application Independence

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Application Independence is a property of a subject whose governing intent, semantics, criteria, and required outcomes do not depend on the design, implementation, or selection of a particular Application.

The subject may include:

• A specification
• A model
• A test
• A Test Definition
• An evaluation method
• A data exchange
• An interface
• A policy
• A procedure
• A requirement

Application Independence separates the governing characteristics of the subject from Application-specific design and implementation choices.

Application-specific mechanisms remain consistent with Application Independence when they preserve the governing:

• Intent
• Semantics
• Evaluated characteristics
• Evaluation method
• Acceptance Criteria
• Required outcomes
• Evidence obligations
• Traceability

Such mechanisms include:

• Adapters
• Mappings
• Interface bindings
• Data transformations
• Test fixtures
• Execution procedures
• Configurations

A change to a governing characteristic constitutes a change to the subject rather than an Application-specific adaptation.

property of a subject whose governing intent, semantics, criteria, and required outcomes do not depend on the design, implementation, or selection of a particular Application

DIDO-TE Mission Objective MO-006: Application-Independent and Infrastructure-Independent Testing

DIDO-TE Mission Objective MO-006a: Application-Independent Testing

DIDO Reference Implementation Conceptual Model

Application Independence does not mean the absence of an Application.

Application Independence does not require identical execution across Applications. Different Applications may require different adapters, mappings, interfaces, Configurations, or execution procedures.

An adaptation preserves Application Independence when the adaptation does not change the governing intent, semantics, criteria, required outcomes, Evidence obligations, or Traceability.

Application Independence differs from Infrastructure Independence:

• Application Independence concerns separation from a particular Application
• Infrastructure Independence concerns separation from particular Infrastructure

A subject may possess Application Independence without possessing Infrastructure Independence, or Infrastructure Independence without possessing Application Independence.

DIDO-TE applies one Test Definition and one set of Acceptance Criteria to two sanctions-screening Applications.

Each Application uses a different interface adapter. The adapters map the common test inputs to the Application-specific interfaces and map the resulting outputs back to the common result format.

The adapters preserve the testing intent, semantics, evaluated characteristics, Acceptance Criteria, Evidence obligations, and required outcomes. The test therefore possesses Application Independence.