The Scope of Office Compatible 97 Testing: A Word About Bugs In Office Compatible Products

It goes without saying that bugs are undesirable, and Microsoft sincerely hopes that Office Compatible 97 participants will take great care to create products that meet the highest standards of quality. However, Office Compatible testing is not designed to help vendors find bugs in their products, and it definitely does not certify that their products are bug free. On the contrary, even if bugs are noted, the outcome of testing will depend solely on whether the product has met the requirements discussed above, and unrelated problems will not be listed in the test report.

However, there is one important exception to this rule: if testing reveals that a product impairs, degrades, or disrupts the normal operation of Office, then it will fail Office Compatible 97 testing.

This policy reflects Microsoft's belief that software bugs are an issue that is best left between a product's developer and its customers, but as noted, bugs that disrupt Office are clearly unacceptable in an Office Compatible product. In any case, although Microsoft strongly encourages participants to create high quality products, the Office Compatible testing program does not certify that they have actually done so, and vendors must not represent that it does. On the contrary, testing merely verifies that a product's basic user interface complies with the testing guidelines described here.