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conformance, compliance and compatibility

DISCUSSION Esben Stien 1 participant 1 message Jan 30, 2004

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I remember to have read that ISO has standardized on using conformance for everything that is conforming to a specific standard but I can't find it again. Anyone know where I could look?

AFAIK, this is my understanding of these words

Conformance has a deep root different meaning than compliance, but today that difference is not clear. However, ISO has standardized on using the word conformance and not compliance when saying something conforms to a standard.

Compatibility is for hardware. You can say that a specific piece of hardware is compatible with another piece of hardware cause it speaks the same protocol. Compatibility is a way of saying that two components uses the same interfaces.

You can not call a system unix today, cause unix today is a standard. The last unix was sysv. You can however say a system is conforming to unix (iso posix unix)(ieee 1003.1), so it is a unix conformant system. (to be technically correct).

Is there any document that clarifies these words better. I'm looking for some official documentation from a standards body like ISO, IEC etc.

I also see the words comformance and compliance used interchangably in RFC's, but to my knowledge I think I remember that RFC's where also supposed to be using conformance

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