diff --git a/pylintrc b/pylintrc
index 110f0ecc21..b0852d8b28 100644
--- a/pylintrc
+++ b/pylintrc
@@ -39,12 +39,10 @@ disable=
     ###################### VV things we should fix VV
     W0719, # broad-exception-raised
     W1203, # logging-fstring-interpolation
-    W0107, # unnecessary-pass
     W0718, # broad-exception-caught
     W0102, # dangerous-default-value
     C0201, # consider-iterating-dictionary
     W1201, # logging-not-lazy
     W0707, # raise-missing-from
     W0212, # protected-access
-    W0223, # abstract-method
     W1509, # subprocess-popen-preexec-fn
diff --git a/sos/archive.py b/sos/archive.py
index cab724f34f..3374899220 100644
--- a/sos/archive.py
+++ b/sos/archive.py
@@ -116,18 +116,18 @@ def get_archive_path(self):
         directory based cache prior to packaging should return the
         path to the temporary directory where the report content is
         located"""
-        pass
+        raise NotImplementedError
 
     def cleanup(self):
         """Clean up any temporary resources used by an Archive class."""
-        pass
+        raise NotImplementedError
 
     def finalize(self, method):
         """Finalize an archive object via method. This may involve creating
         An archive that is subsequently compressed or simply closing an
         archive that supports in-line handling. If method is automatic then
         the following methods are tried in order: xz, gzip"""
-        pass
+        raise NotImplementedError
 
 
 class FileCacheArchive(Archive):
diff --git a/sos/collector/clusters/__init__.py b/sos/collector/clusters/__init__.py
index 4bddd5fa63..1e10379284 100644
--- a/sos/collector/clusters/__init__.py
+++ b/sos/collector/clusters/__init__.py
@@ -260,7 +260,6 @@ def set_node_options(self, node):
         :param node:        The non-primary node
         :type node:         ``SoSNode``
         """
-        pass
 
     def set_transport_type(self):
         """The default connection type used by sos collect is to leverage the
@@ -280,7 +279,6 @@ def set_primary_options(self, node):
         :param node:       The primary node
         :type node:        ``SoSNode``
         """
-        pass
 
     def check_node_is_primary(self, node):
         """In the event there are multiple primaries, or if the collect command
@@ -324,7 +322,6 @@ def setup(self):
         extra commands to be run even if a node list is given by the user, and
         thus get_nodes() would not be called
         """
-        pass
 
     def check_enabled(self):
         """
@@ -352,7 +349,6 @@ def cleanup(self):
         This helps ensure that sos does make lasting changes to the environment
         in which we are running
         """
-        pass
 
     def get_nodes(self):
         """
diff --git a/sos/component.py b/sos/component.py
index 6f42046022..e95ae4caa8 100644
--- a/sos/component.py
+++ b/sos/component.py
@@ -199,7 +199,7 @@ def add_parser_options(cls, parser):
         """This should be overridden by each subcommand to add its own unique
         options to the parser
         """
-        pass
+        raise NotImplementedError
 
     def apply_options_from_cmdline(self, opts):
         """(Re-)apply options specified via the cmdline to an options instance
diff --git a/sos/policies/__init__.py b/sos/policies/__init__.py
index 4731cc93ee..dd05a5806f 100644
--- a/sos/policies/__init__.py
+++ b/sos/policies/__init__.py
@@ -197,7 +197,6 @@ def dist_version(self):
         """
         Return the OS version
         """
-        pass
 
     def get_preferred_archive(self):
         """
@@ -308,13 +307,11 @@ def pre_work(self):
         """
         This function is called prior to collection.
         """
-        pass
 
     def post_work(self):
         """
         This function is called after the sos report has been generated.
         """
-        pass
 
     def pkg_by_name(self, pkg):
         """Wrapper to retrieve a package from the Policy's package manager
diff --git a/sos/policies/distros/__init__.py b/sos/policies/distros/__init__.py
index 162b161fb3..98e6b527a3 100644
--- a/sos/policies/distros/__init__.py
+++ b/sos/policies/distros/__init__.py
@@ -139,6 +139,14 @@ def set_forbidden_paths(cls):
             '/etc/shadow'
         ]
 
+    @classmethod
+    def check(cls, remote=''):
+        """
+        This function is responsible for determining if the underlying system
+        is supported by this policy.
+        """
+        raise NotImplementedError
+
     def kernel_version(self):
         return self.release
 
@@ -1063,5 +1071,12 @@ class GenericLinuxPolicy(LinuxPolicy):
                    'users are encouraged to request a new distribution-specifc'
                    ' policy at the GitHub project above.\n')
 
+    @classmethod
+    def check(cls, remote=''):
+        """
+        This function is responsible for determining if the underlying system
+        is supported by this policy.
+        """
+        raise NotImplementedError
 
 # vim: set et ts=4 sw=4 :
diff --git a/sos/policies/init_systems/__init__.py b/sos/policies/init_systems/__init__.py
index d313b23cbc..f3c4d5f67c 100644
--- a/sos/policies/init_systems/__init__.py
+++ b/sos/policies/init_systems/__init__.py
@@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ def load_all_services(self):
         This must be overridden by anything that subclasses `InitSystem` in
         order for service methods to function properly
         """
-        pass
+        raise NotImplementedError
 
     def _query_service(self, name):
         """Query an individual service"""
diff --git a/sos/policies/package_managers/__init__.py b/sos/policies/package_managers/__init__.py
index 9be2efab72..b6ff28f63e 100644
--- a/sos/policies/package_managers/__init__.py
+++ b/sos/policies/package_managers/__init__.py
@@ -335,6 +335,23 @@ def __init__(self, primary, fallbacks, chroot=None, remote_exec=None):
         self._managers = [self.primary]
         self._managers.extend(self.fallbacks)
 
+    def _parse_pkg_list(self, pkg_list):
+        """
+        Using the output of `query_command`, build the _packages dict.
+
+        This should be overridden by distinct package managers and be a
+        generator for _generate_pkg_list which will insert the packages into
+        the _packages dict.
+
+        This method should yield a tuple of name, version, release for each
+        package parsed. If the package manager or distribution does not use a
+        release field, set it to None.
+
+        :param pkg_list: The output of the result of `query_command`
+        :type pkg_list:  ``str``
+        """
+        raise NotImplementedError
+
     def all_files(self):
         if not self.files:
             for pm in self._managers:
diff --git a/sos/report/plugins/__init__.py b/sos/report/plugins/__init__.py
index fc23a900ab..7bd26b1abb 100644
--- a/sos/report/plugins/__init__.py
+++ b/sos/report/plugins/__init__.py
@@ -3216,7 +3216,6 @@ def collect(self):
         are more likely to be interrupted by timeouts than file or command
         output collections.
         """
-        pass
 
     @contextlib.contextmanager
     def collection_file(self, fname, subdir=None, tags=[]):
@@ -3470,7 +3469,6 @@ def path_join(self, path, *p):
     def postproc(self):
         """Perform any postprocessing. To be replaced by a plugin if required.
         """
-        pass
 
     def check_process_by_name(self, process):
         """Checks if a named process is found in /proc/[0-9]*/cmdline.
diff --git a/tests/sos_tests.py b/tests/sos_tests.py
index ded1c1a23b..00576890b9 100644
--- a/tests/sos_tests.py
+++ b/tests/sos_tests.py
@@ -319,20 +319,17 @@ def post_test_tear_down(self):
         """Called at the end of a test run to ensure that any needed per-test
         cleanup can be done.
         """
-        pass
 
     def setup_mocking(self):
         """Since we need to use setUp() in our overrides of avocado.Test,
         provide an alternate method for test cases that subclass BaseSoSTest
         to use.
         """
-        pass
 
     def pre_sos_setup(self):
         """Do any needed non-mocking setup prior to the sos execution that is
         called in setUp()
         """
-        pass
 
     def assertFileExists(self, fname):
         """Asserts that fname exists on the filesystem"""
diff --git a/tests/unittests/policy_tests.py b/tests/unittests/policy_tests.py
index a64275b8cb..bdca6fcf35 100644
--- a/tests/unittests/policy_tests.py
+++ b/tests/unittests/policy_tests.py
@@ -21,10 +21,18 @@
 class FauxPolicy(Policy):
     distro = "Faux"
 
+    @classmethod
+    def check(cls, remote=''):
+        return False
+
 
 class FauxLinuxPolicy(LinuxPolicy):
     distro = "FauxLinux"
 
+    @classmethod
+    def check(cls, remote=''):
+        return False
+
     @classmethod
     def set_forbidden_paths(cls):
         return ['/etc/secret']