API conformance is highly measurable and suppliers who claim it must be able to substantiate that claim. Many major IT procurements now require guarantees of conformance such as the The Open Group brand and this is critically dependent on adequate testing. It is essential to be ready for this by incorporating appropriate testing regimes into the product release cycle at the earliest possible stage. Benefits Conformance testing as part of routine development enables product vendors to respond to key market opportunities where conformance certification is a mandatory requirement. They are also designed to meet NIST acceptance criteria for use in US procurements.
Test suites are very costly in time and effort to produce and to maintain.
The Open Group's shared development approach eliminates duplication of effort, ensures that these costs remain manageable and allows scarce resources to be better focused on delivering value to the end customer. How The Open Group delivers The Open Group develops a growing family test suites and offers an e-mail based support and maintenance service with regular updates. The Open Group test suites are developed in strict alignment with XPG specifications. This alignment is continuously maintained and reinforced. Vendors may license the test suites for in-house use.