Common Look



Frequently Asked Questions
I had my site tested with WATS. Why should I test my site again with Common Look? How does Common Look compare to content management products that support CLF compliance? I have a Web site that was developed using a variety of technologies. Can Common Look verify my site for CLF compliance? How much will my productivity increase if I were to use Common Look to verify my site? Can Common Look fix compliance problems? Can Common Look verify my entire site at once? Does Common Look perform incremental verification? What types of reports are provided with Common Look? Does Common Look test pages that have nested frames? What platforms does Common Look support?

I had my site tested with WATS. Why should I test my site again with Common Look?
WATS (Web Site Accessibility Testing Service) testing is a good way to get a feel for some of the accessibility issues, and to become more aware of the technologies that people with disabilities use when browsing the Web. The approach that WATS testers follow is to have people with disabilities go through a random selection of pages on your site, and provide a judgment as to how accessible these pages are. WATS testing is not intended to be a methodical quality assurance process where all the pages are checked for all the CLF checkpoints, including standards that are not related to accessibility. Common Look, on the other hand, is a product that is designed to provide a comprehensive, highly automated, quality assurance process for all the pages and all the checkpoints.


How does Common Look compare to content management products that support CLF compliance?
It doesn't. Content Management, and similar technologies, focus on helping create, manage and present the contents of a Web site. Common Look, on the other hand, is a quality assurance tool that checks for compliance from the point of view of the person browsing the WEB site. In the traditional software development lifecycle, content management products are analogous to development and delivery technologies, while Common Look is a testing/quality assurance tool.


I have a Web site that was developed using a variety of technologies. Can Common Look verify my site for CLF compliance?
Yes. The way Common Look verifies a site is independent of the technology that was used to create the site.


How much will my productivity increase if I were to use Common Look to verify my site?
A tester utilizing Common Look will take less than 5 minutes per Web page. Assuming it takes 4 hours, on average, to manually complete the compliance checklist (which typically has approximately 70 items to be checked) for a single page, Your productivity will increase 24 times. This translates into significant savings in time and money, as well as more comprehensive and consistent testing.


Can Common Look fix compliance problems?
No. Since Common Look is technology-independent, it is not possible, at this point, to automatically fix the problems. However, Common Look provides comprehensive information to make it possible to pinpoint and fix the problems.


Can Common Look verify my entire site at once?
Yes. The most efficient way to run Common Look is to select the root of the site (or a folder within the site) and activate the verification for the automatic checkpoints. This will run unattended. The tester can then verify the "assisted" checkpoints (which require operator intervention) afterwards.


Does Common Look perform incremental verification?
Yes. Common Look will only verify pages if they have changed or if they weren't tested for a specific checkpoint.


What types of reports are provided with Common Look?
Common Look provides reports that: Give senior management a high-level view of the compliance status of an entire enterprise, including all sub-sites. Provide site management with a high-level view of the compliance status of a given Web site. Allow development managers to track the compliance status on a per page basis. Help developers fix the compliance issues by providing comprehensive information on the cause of the problems.


Does Common Look test pages that have nested frames?
Yes. Common Look verifies all the components of a page, including any nested frames.

What platforms does Common Look support?
Client: Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP. Server: Any platform. Database: Any database that supports ODBC. No database is needed for the Small Site edition.


Copyright © 1995-2002 NetCentric Technologies		Legal