The following table describes the three stages in the life cycle of conformance tests: unsupported, proposed, and approved.
| Stage | Description |
| Unsupported | Intended as examples. Designed to work with the OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers, but might not work correctly with other providers. |
| Proposed | Updated tests that work with a wide range of providers—for example, read-write, read-only, SQL, and non-SQL. After broader exposure, they will move to the "Approved" category. |
| Approved | Available for accurate conformance testing. |