Conformance Semantics

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Conformance semantics defines meaning through conformance criteria, validation rules, test cases, expected results, permitted results, prohibited results, and acceptance conditions.

Conformance semantics identifies what an artifact, implementation, model, message, report, schema, rule, or runtime behavior means when evaluated against a specified requirement or specification. A conformance test expresses semantic content because it distinguishes acceptable interpretation from unacceptable interpretation.

Conformance semantics depends on traceability to the requirement, rule, policy, conceptual model, semantics, schema, ontology, report, or other authoritative source that establishes the intended meaning.

Conformance semantics prevents implementation behavior from becoming the hidden source of meaning. A governed specification defines the meaning first, then defines conformance criteria that test whether an artifact preserves that meaning.

Conformance semantic content includes:

• Conformance criteria
• Validation rules
• Test cases
• Expected results
• Permitted results
• Prohibited results
• Acceptance conditions
• Rejection conditions
• Positive tests
• Negative tests
• Test evidence
• Evaluation procedures
• Conformance levels
• Conformance claims
• Traceability to requirements and semantic sources

meaning defined through criteria, tests, expected results, and acceptance conditions that distinguish conforming interpretation or behavior from non-conforming interpretation or behavior

DIDO Solutions usage, informed by conformance testing practice, specification governance, validation practice, model-driven architecture principles, and semantic traceability practice.

Conformance semantics is not equivalent to implementation testing alone. Implementation tests execute checks. Conformance semantics defines what the result of those checks means with respect to a specification, requirement, rule, policy, model, report, schema, ontology, or other governed semantic source.

An FX Demo specification defines the following semantic rule:

A confirmed FX trade has a settlement date that does not precede the trade date.

The rule expresses domain meaning. It states that a confirmed trade with a settlement date before the trade date represents an invalid lifecycle interpretation, not merely an unusual calendar arrangement.

A conformance test expresses this meaning as an evaluation condition:

The test result carries conformance semantics because it explains what the failed check means. The rejected message does not merely contain a date comparison failure. The rejected message violates the defined meaning of a confirmed FX trade.

A second test provides the conforming case:

Together, the positive and negative tests define the boundary between conforming and non-conforming interpretation. The tests make the semantic rule testable, repeatable, and traceable.