FW: CALL for PARTICIPATION: ebXML Messaging Interoperability Compliance Pilot

[Philippe DeSmedt <PDeSmedt@viquity.com>]

 

All,

 

FYI, please find attached a message from the Drummond Group on interoperability testing. This relates to and provides further context for the discussion that we had yesterday in the ebXML IIC TC face-to-face meeting.

 

-Philippe

_______________________________
Philippe De Smedt 
Viquity Corporation (www.viquity.com)
1161 N. Fair Oaks Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94089-2102
(408) 548-9722
(408) 747-5586 (fax)
pdesmedt@viquity.com

-----Original Message-----
From: Beth Morrow [mailto:Beth@drummondgroup.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2001 3:03 PM
To: "ebXML Messaging Interop"; @drummondgroup.com
Subject: CALL for PARTICIPATION: ebXML Messaging Interoperability Compliance Pilot

ebXML Messaging Interoperability Compliance 
Pilot

This pilot will bring together the needs of this user community, 
the vendors and the standards community to drive adoption of
ebXML 
Messaging around the globe.

SPONSOR
The Uniform Code Council (www.uc-council.org) is 
the official sponsor of this pilot.

The Uniform Code Council, Inc. (UCC) 
is a not-for-profit standards development organization originally founded in 
1972. The UCC, along with its global partner EAN International, administers the 
EAN.UCC System, which includes the Universal Product Code (U.P.C.) and other 
tools to facilitate efficient global trade.  The EAN.UCC System is used by 
nearly one million member companies worldwide. The UCC functions as a primary 
resource for business and industry, developing worldwide identification codes, 
data carriers, and electronic commerce.

SUPPORTING USER GROUPS
The 
following groups are building use cases to assist us in testing
for the key 
items which they consider central to their industry.  They 
will be 
closely following the pilot and subsequent list of passing products.  

The Global Commerce Initiative (GCI), (www.globalcommerceinitiative.org) a
global user 
community of the forty largest global retailers and
manufacturers, originally 
launched with pilot and has already endorsed the ebXML messaging standard and 
are looking for a group of products which support that standard.

Pam 
Flaten, GCI Technical Chair and Target Stores Director, says "The goal of this 
pilot is to transform the concepts of the ebXML messaging specifications into 
reality thus facilitating their adoption and implementation on a global 
basis."

Info Links:
http://www.globalcommerceinitiative.org/oas/gci/gci.wwv_main.main?p_language=us&p_cornerid=263&p_currcornerid=1&p_full=1

http://www.drummondgroup.com/html/pr_07-20-01.html

Drummond 
Group Inc. is also leading a pilot on the architecture definition process based 
on ebXML Messaging for the Open Applications Group and STAR (Standards for 
Technology in Automotive Retail consortium). OAGI and STAR have partnered to 
lead a series of specification building projects focused on automotive 
distribution business processes and the messaging infrastructure supporting 
them. 
This group has asked us to include test profiles specific to this 
industry also.

You can review the press release on that pilot at:
http://www.drummondgroup.com/html/pr_07-12-01.html

Our 
final test profile will include requirements from both global retail and 
automotive.
Besides benefiting the international retail industry, the testing 
will also benefit the 20,000 strong automotive dealerships and their network of 
auto manufacturers and business partners. It will further ehance the 
marketability for ebXML Messaging products by facilitating products which meet 
the needs of several verticals.

HOW ARE THE TESTS DEVELOPED?
At 
present test plans are being written based on use cases developed by GCI
and 
the automotive industry dealership network.  These use cases 
generate
requirements which produce specific detailed testing plans and 
verify conformance to 
the function requirements for these two vertical's 
global user communities.  The test 
plans will then be reviewed by those 
vendors who choose to join the pilot and necessary
modifications will be made 
based on those recommendations.  Drummond Group
Inc. will be writing the 
test plans, facilitating the test process and
feeding the lessons learned 
back into GCI and the OAGI/STAR project.  This
information will also be 
distributed to the OASIS ebXML Messaging Standards
group for next versions 
and the OASIS Interoperability and Conformance Test Group.

To learn more 
about test plan development and ebXML, go to:
http://www.drummondgroup.com/html/ebxml.html

What is 
Drummond Group Inc's background on Interoperability Compliance
Testing? DGI, 
a vendor neutral organization, has developed the Drummond
Group Inc. Process 
for running compliance testing. We have run testing for the 
AS1 and AS2 
standards over the past five years. 
Rik Drummond, CEO of DGI, led the ebXML 
Messaging vs 1.0 Work Group and has 
worked with numerous industry groups to 
drive adoption. In our experience,
adoption of standards is dependent on 
market acceptance, education and some
level of user assurance that the 
developing software product base has been
tested.  We realize that 
market penetration is key to the success of the
standard and that conformance 
is key to market acceptance.
Therefore, Drummond Group's goal is to enable 
all test participants to pass
the testing. This will be critical to the 
marketing of these products
and the continued acceptance and development of 
the standard.

For more background DGI info, please review our website 
at:
http://www.drummondgroup.com

Why should a vendor 
participate?
To:
*Develop global market penetration for a particular 
standard and their products;
*De-bug their software with their competitors in 
a low risk,
neutral, "market simulated" test environment rather than on their 
customers, 
*Gain market acceptance and recognition for new standards and 
their
applications in a low cost manner,
*Save time in the de-bugging of 
new releases and versions,
*Learn the early needs of the sponsoring user 
community to aid
marketability of product launch,
*Join the early adopter 
list of preferred vendors - the shopping list for
endorsing 
organizations.

When:  The test round one will launch in Sept 2001 
with completion scheduled
for January 2002.

Where:  Tests are 
conducted over the internet with once or twice daily
conference calls. It is 
suggested that one person be dedicated during the 
testing process to handle 
the testing process.  At times it may be necessary to add additional staff 
to keep from falling behind in the testing process and ensure your
product 
stays on the test schedule.  NOTE:  Because this is the first 
test
for ebXML messaging specification and many companies are in alpha, we 
would
suggest being open to have development support staff available to 
assist in
case of problems.

What part of ebXML specification is being 
tested?
At present, there are three test cycles planned.  Each would 
incorporate
tests adding additional functionality; beginning with a common 
baseline messaging
and payload security test for the first round. Additional 
tests will be added each subsequent round to incorporate CPP, security, CPA 
functionality and registries.

Test Cycle ONE (Sep 01 - Jan 02) will focus 
on basic messaging, payload
security and CPP functionality.

Test Cycle 
TWO will expand these tests to include most of the Messaging,
Intermediate 
CPP, Very basic Registry access, and DSIG functionality.

Test Cycle THREE 
will expand the previous test cycle by completing
Messaging, Intermediate 
Registry access (read/write), a Major portion of CPP
and CPA functionality, 
and more in-depth DSIG testing.

Note: Unlike previous tests conducted by 
DGI, which uses use the same test plan
each cycle, this one will increase the 
testing through more tests each cycle.

Test Cycle ONE Participant 
Cost:
$35,000 per product tested. 

NOTE: In our poll of participating 
tested AS2 vendors, they generally agreed that 
the ebXML messaging spec was 
2-3 times as complex as the AS2 spec.  Therefore, the 
cost is at that 
ratio.  We also did detailed analysis on our cost based on our experience 
in running these type of tests.  

Because vendors find this process 
benefits their product marketing and new
version software de-bugging, the 
related cost for participating in this test
is often split between two budget 
areas:  product marketing and product
development. Also, for future 
budgeting information, it is our plan to do a test
cycle per year.  

How do I join?
Fill out the form:
http://www.drummondgroup.com/html/ebxml.html

Please contact Beth Morrow for more 
info.
Drummond Group, Inc.
512-335-5606 phone
512-335-5644 
fax
Beth@Drummondgroup.com
www.drummondgroup.com