RE: ebXML Conformance Charter discussions

[Krishna Sankar <ksankar@cisco.com>]

Hi,

	Here are my thoughts :

	1.	How to check the result of conformance test? OASIS or other
organization checks test log files generated by test program?

	<KS>
		The test program would flag conformance and non-conformance and possibly
some diagnostic messages.
	</KS>

	2.	Who does issue the certification of the conformance?  OASIS or other
organization?
	<KS>
		We discussed this in detail at the SAML conformance. OASIS will not be
able to do any certification - too much legal and other issues. Either
industry organizations or a govt agency like NIST could be the certifying
agency.
	</KS>

	3.	Does the activity mean development of “Reference
Implementation” of ebXML Message Service?
	<KS>
	Most probably Yes. This would be one of the ways to test an
implementation. Compare results with the ref impl.
	</KS>
	4.	If the activity means creating of implementation guideline for each
vendor, the guidelines should specify which API should be used as
MSH’s interface, Current Message Service specification does not
define MSH’s API. This situation causes portability problem of
ebXML Application. It is difficult to develop standard conformance check
program without MSH’s standard API. The guidelines should specify
what functions must be supported at least to conform with the ebXML Message
Service specification Current Message Service specification defines many
functions  (e.g. Security, Synchronous/Asynchronous, FTP ...) But the
specification does not define what function must be supported to conform
with the specification. So, it is difficult to decide what function should
be implemented. This cause interoperability problems between different
vendor implementations
	<KS>
	ebXML specs might not be complete in terms of conformance clause and
conformance points. This is the job this TC to figure out these details in
conjunction with the respective spec committee.
	</KS>
	5.	We need to define system model and test items for interoperability
test. The result of the interoperability test should be used for evaluation
of conformance.
	An example of the system model:
	<snip.../>
	<KS> Yep. This would be another big area to be elaborated. My feeling is
that we would need to divide the subject into at least 6 or 7 sub committees
which deal with each area.
	</KS>

	6.	What is the “conformance laboratories” work?
	<KS>
	If we succeeded in initiating a lab (most probably under the NIST
umbrella) it would of course run the conformance tests developed by this TC.
AT a min. the lab could be a place where conformance, interoperability et al
can be checked.
	Whether it will do actual "certification" is a good question.
	BTW, if we develop the conformance software right, the report it generates
should be self-evident as to the various conformance issues.
	</KS>
	7.Other Issues : Cooperation with OASIS ebXML Message Service TC et al
	<KS>
	Yep, we are the conformance arm possibly for ebXML. May be just the TRP.
But we would work with all the respective TCs.One of the main influence from
our side would be to develop the conformance clause for the specifications
so that the conformance can be tested.
	</KS>

	Here are some of the relevant links we had collected for the SAML
conformance.

	1.	Sample Conformance Clause and conformance program document outlines.
Attached as two zip files
	2.	Sample Conformance Clause : attached. We need to have similar clauses
in our documents.
	3.	The documents also contain URLs to relevant NIST documents

cheers
  |-----Original Message-----
  |From: iwasa [mailto:iwasa@fs.fujitsu.com]
  |Sent: Friday, August 10, 2001 4:05 PM
  |To: Philippe DeSmedt; ebxml-iic@lists.oasis-open.org
  |Cc: SHIMAMURA Masayoshi
  |Subject: Re: ebXML Conformance Charter discussions
  |
  |
  |Sorry, here is the presentation.
  |
  |Iwasa
  |
  |
  |
  |> Philippe,
  |>
  |> I think the proposed charter is appropriate.
  |> However I would like to have some clarification
  |> for some items. Here is our question and
  |> discussion items I would like to raise at the
  |> F2F meeting next week. Is it possible to have
  |> time to explain this presentation at the F2F?
  |> Thanks,
  |>
  |> Iwasa
  |> Fujitsu
  |>
  |

SAMLConformance Clause-005.pdf

SAMLConformance.zip