Compliance Testing
Compliance testing verifies that software meets a specific external standard, regulation, or legal requirement — accessibility law, data privacy regulation, payment card security standards, or an industry-specific certification. Failing it isn't just a bug, it can mean the product legally can't ship in a given market.
Common examples: WCAG accessibility compliance, GDPR or CCPA data handling requirements, PCI-DSS for anything touching payment card data, and HIPAA for healthcare data in the US. Each comes with its own documented checklist of specific, testable requirements rather than general good-practice guidance.
Because the stakes are legal and financial, not just user experience, compliance testing is usually formally documented and sometimes independently audited — the test evidence itself (not just the passing result) often needs to be retained as proof of due diligence.
