The INSPIRE infrastructure and its implementation could be considered as mainly a legal and practical implementation issue. However it also tends to be a topic dealt with on a scientific research and educational level, because of its highly innovative character. This paper presents the findings of a research project on ‘INSPIRE compliant web services’. Main objective of the project is to assess the quality and feasibility (in the sense of completeness, consistency and ease-of-implementation) of the guidelines for INSPIRE Network Services. Part of this assessment is also the question: how can INSPIRE compliance be tested and measured?