All,

Thanks to Darran for posting this document and Kelly and John for their help in putting the 1st Draft of PSTC together. The document is available in DOC and PDF formats at the following hyperlinks below:

http://oasis-open.org/committees/provision/PSTCFAQv01.doc

http://oasis-open.org/committees/provision/PSTCFAQv01.PDF

-Gavenraj Sodhi

Provisioning Services Technical Committee (PSTC)

FAQ

Revision History

Version	Draft 01 – v01
Date	12 October 2001 28 October 2001
Editor	Kelly Emo, John Aisien, Gavenraj Sodhi
Comments	FAQ - 28 October 2001 - Modification and addition of question, added hyperlink to Introduction document

PSTC FAQ

· What is provisioning?

o Provisioning is the automation of all the steps required to manage (setup, amend & revoke) user or system access and entitlement rights to electronic services.

· Why is a standard for the provisioning of services important?

o Agreement of a vendor-neutral syntax for the exchange of provisioning data between systems & resources will significantly reduce the cost of integration for all members of the provisioning value chain and thus serve as a key accelerator for conducting eBusiness within and across enterprises.

· What are the core aims & objectives of the PSTC?

o The purpose of the OASIS Provisioning Services Technical Committee (PSTC) is to define an XML-based framework for exchanging user, resource, and service provisioning information. The Technical Committee will develop an end-to-end, open, provisioning specification developed from Provisioning specifications.

o The goal (subject to revision) is to submit a Committee Specification to the OASIS membership for its approval by September 2002.

· How would achievement of these aims & objectives benefit stakeholders within the provisioning value chain? (vendors, customers, partners, etc)

o Interoperability between multiple systems

o Additional functionality for the system the customer may have internally to use a multitude of resources, from a multitude of vendors

o Vendors may manufacture, according the proposed standard, into customers sites that need access to resources (Electronic Services(s)) which may currently not be available.

o Partners can develop open-standard communication to Resources and system collaboratively by having a standard interface.

· What specific problem(s) are we trying to solve?

o Two main initial issues:

§ Interoperability between system to system

· System may be meta-directory system, provisioning system, web access control system, or other.

§ Standard interface between the system and resource (Electronic Service(s)).

· How does this effort relate to XRPM, ADPR, DSML, SAML, DMTF/CIM and so on...?

o Please refer to the Overview/Introduction Document.

o http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/provision/Intro-102301.doc

· How does this effort complement or compete with Liberty, .Net, Passport and so on..?

o Still being investigated…

· What is our timeline?

o The goal (subject to revision) is to submit a Committee Specification to the OASIS membership for its approval by September 2002.

o Meeting times, dates, and other detailed information are available at:

§ http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/provision/

· What are our critical success factors?

o Successful Use Case development

o Prototypes and Implementations by working group members

o Test Case Publications

o Approval of Proposed Specification (currently stated for September 2002)

o Specification recognition and implementation

· Can you provide some practical use cases?

o These will be made available after November 12, when the formal PSTC convenes and starts the work on a proper Use Cases working document. Many artifacts may be derived from XRPM, ADPr, and ITML proposals.

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PSTC FAQ