W3C Process
The
W3C Process describes the steps to advance a specification from a
technical report to a
Recommendation:
- Publication of First Public Working Draft (FPWD)
- Publication of zero or more revised Working Drafts (WD)
- Publication of Candidate Recommendation (CR)
- Publication of Proposed Recommendation (PR)
- Publication as a W3C Recommendation (REC)
- Possibly: PUbli as an Edited or Amended Recommendation
Working Drafts (WD)
Working Drafts are published while the document is still in design phase.
The last Working Draft is one sometimes referred to as Last Call Working Draft (LCWD)
Candidate Recommendation (CR)
A Candidate Recommendation is published while the specification (not the implementation) is being tested.
This phase reveals problems with the spec, causing a feedback loop to update the CR.
In order to exit the CR phase, each feature of the spec needs to be shown as correct by at least two independent implementations. This test is performed by a test suite that is also built in this phase.
Recommendation (REC)
When the process is completed, the spec has become recommended.
A recommended spec is only updated with errata.