Re: QUERY: Declaration of Conformity in User Documentation

[Peter Neilson <neilson -at- windstream -dot- net>]

SB wrote:
> In our User Documentation, as part of the declarations and certifications
> section, our declaration of conformity is a sentence saying that we comply
> to the required standards.
 > (etc)

As a side issue, these certifications are generally set forth as part of 
a "quality" effort, but actually have little or nothing to do with 
quality. Instead they claim (but not not ensure) conformance to a 
standard that could even *decrease* the level of quality of 
documentation, for instance by requiring the material to be presented 
badly. The ambiguity of location for the declaration might stem directly 
from bad standards.

My wife the quality engineer says that yes, I am correct in my 
understanding of this weird issue.

I wonder if people who design these standards (to which stuff is 
supposed to conform) ever actually test the standards themselves, as 
opposed to testing conformation to them? I'm thinking especially of 
standards that do not scale well, so that a test on a minuscule document 
(or perhaps on a pilot plant) looks ok, but on the full document set (or 
the huge factory) the standards are invasively destructive.
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