Submitting Problem Reports

The Problem Report Submission page allows a user to submit a problem report. The report information is collected using a web form, and the forwarded to the Problem Reporting system. The required review group will then be notified of the new report, so that a review can begin. The review group will be the Certification and Verification Authority (CVA) for reports classified as System Deficiencies (SDs), or the Specification Authority (SA) for reports classified as Specification problems (INTs). In all cases, the SA and CVA will be notified of the submission of the new problem report so that the groups can monitor it.

When filling in the forms it is important to provide as much information as possible. Only a few fields are optional, and these depend on the classification that is given to the report as it is created. If any mandatory fields are left blank, the form will be returned with a message explaining what is missing, and a request to add the missing details. The fields are shown below.

Confidential Information

The confidential fields will only be visible to members of the Certification and Verification Authority, but will not be visible to other users of the Problem Reporting system.

Enter your name here, or the name of a contact person if you are submitting on behalf of a group of people.

Enter your email address here, or a contact email address if you are submitting on behalf of a group of people.

Enter the name of the organization that you represent.

Enter a telephone number which can be used in case there are urgent issues with the resolution of your problem report.

You may enter a reference identifier if you wish, which will be quoted in correspondence relating to the problem report.

Public Problem Information

Please enter the classification of the problem you are raising. The options are explained in the table below.

Problem Classifications
Classification	Description
Validation Method problem	An error in a validation method, which is causing it to produce an incorrect result that impacts certification/verification.
System problem	The certification/verification system or processes do not allow you to certify/verify your business practice or technology.
Specification problem	There is ambiguous text in the specification, and the web-based certification/verification system has interpreted the text in a different way than you interpreted it during adoption of the best practice or technical standard in your business practice or technology.

Certification and Verification Program

The name of the Certification and Verification Program that includes the web-based certification/verification system, validation method, or specification to which your problem report refers.

Provide a summary of the problem, containing key words. This summary is used in table listings of problem reports returned by searches, for example when another user of the Problem Reporting system is checking whether the problem the user is encountering has already been seen by someone else. Please do not include any information that would identify you, your organization, or your business practice or technology.

If you think that your problem relates to any existing problem report in the Problem Reporting system, provide the relevant report number(s) here. This will allow cross-referencing between reports for reviewers and other users of the system. If you enter multiple problem report numbers, please enter them as a comma separated list.

Please be aware that you should *only* enter a problem report number in this field if you are aware of a related problem report. If no related problem report exists, or if you do not wish to enter a related problem report number, please leave this field blank.

Enter a full description of the problem you are encountering. Your description should be detailed enough to enable reviewers to agree or disagree with your assessment during the resolution process. It should also be presented in a way that will enable other users of the Problem Reporting system to identify whether they are seeing the same problem, when they search for resolved problem reports. Please do not include any information that would identify you, your organization, or your business practice or technology.

Public Validation Method Information

Provide the name and version of the Validation Method that was in use when the problem was encountered. In general, validation method output should always be provided unless the problem occurs independent of the validation method, for example a specification problem for which there is no relevant validation method. If you are not reporting a validation method problem, then this field is optional.

Provide as much information as possible to identify the specific area of the validation method that is exhibitingi the problem.

If you are not reporting a validation method problem, this field is optional. Note that this field is purely a reference field to identify exactly where "something" has gone wrong.

If your problem is identified in the output of the validation method, you should enter the relevant fragment of the validation method output here. This will be used by the reviewers in resolving your problem, and by future users of the Problem Reporting system when searching for existing known problems.

Public Specification Information

Provide the name and version of the specification that contains the problem being reported, or which contains the references that justify the behavior of your business practice or technology. If you are not reporting a specification problem, this field is optional.

Provide a reference to the location in the specification to which your problem or justification refers.

Conformance Requirements Documents

Provide the Conformance Requirements Document to which your problem refers.

Copy From Existing Report

Provide the Problem Report Number that you would like to copy from. Please note that The Problem Report number you copy from needs to apply to the same Conformance Requirements Document, otherwise the copy may produce unexpected results.