The violation of some constraints may be more significant than others. Constraint Violation Significance (0082,0036) differentiates three levels of significance.

Specific behaviors associated with each level may be defined by the SOP Class or may be left to implementations. For example, violation of a constraint with a significance of FAILURE might require operator intervention, special auditing or rejection of the target Instance being evaluated; violation of a constraint with a significance of WARNING might require the operator be notified or a warning message be logged; violation of a constraint with a significance of INFORMATIVE might require an informational message be logged, or nothing at all if the constraint represents a preference not a significant concern.