This part of the IEC 60870-5 series specifies methods for conformance testing of telecontrol equipment, amongst Substation Automation Systems (SAS) and telecontrol systems, including front-end functions of SCADA. The use of this part of IEC 60870-5 facilitates interoperability by providing a standard method of testing protocol implementations, but it does not guarantee interoperability of devices. It is expected that using this part of IEC 60870-5 during testing will minimize the risk of noninteroperability. The goal of this part of IEC 60870-5 is to enable unambiguous and standardised evaluation of IEC 60870-5 companion standard protocol implementations. The guidelines and conditions for the testing environment are described in this part of IEC 60870-5. The detailed test cases per companion standard, containing among others mandatory and optional mandatory test cases per Basic Application Function, ASDU and transmission procedure, will become available as technical specifications (IEC 60870-5-60x). Other functionalities may need test cases, but this is beyond the scope of this part of IEC 60870-5. This part of IEC 60870-5 deals mainly with communication conformance testing; therefore other requirements, such as safety or EMC are not covered. These requirements are covered by other standards (if applicable) and the proof of compliance for these topics should be done according to those standards.