I would say therefore that it is important that this testing is done by the users and that auditing the testing of the producers is not sufficient. If you are producing generic software components then the user will want to know whether they are actually of assistance in producing the applications, whether it would be quicker and cheaper to produce their own specific components rather than instantiate or modify yours. It is difficult to see how you as a producer could test the components from this point of view. The only real way to carry out acceptance testing is for the user to write their own set of requirements, preferably without any reference to the producers, and then carry out their own testing to see how well what you produce satisfies those requirements. Not just the quality, the functionality as well.
Functionality is quality.
Not just the quality, the functionality as well. Functionality is quality. Mike Not neccessarilly. In all of the C4I systems that I have worked on, the requirements have never changes between production and acceptance. Our final software test is witnissed by the customer and he signs off on the software as meeting the requirements set down for it in the software requirement spec.