OSLC 3.0 Core Actions status and future direction

[Jim Amsden <jamsden@us.ibm.com>]

During the OSLC CCM meeting today (https://wiki.oasis-open.org/oslc-ccm/Meetings/Telecon2015.03.26),
the TC discussed the state of the current OSLC 3.0 Core Actions specification
and the dependencies CCM has on that specification. In summary, the results
of the meeting were:

1. Actions may be unnecessary for managing
the Change Management oslc-cm:state property and the TC is exploring using
its existing specification for state transitions rather than relying on
actions.

2. Configuration Management involves
complex operations such as creating a baseline that currently rely on Actions.
However the CCM TC is also exploring other approaches that utilize LDP
containers that would further decouple CCM from Actions.

The current Actions draft document is
essentially a reformatted version of the open-services.net 2.0 specification
and needs quite a bit of work. There are a number of empty sections, no
scenarios, and no examples in the specification. There is currently no
editor assigned to the Actions specification, and the Core TC may not have
sufficient resources for timely completion of this specification. 

In addition, the Actions specification,
and the related Automation specification are quite complex and may result
in implementation challenges for clients and servers. Given the level of
adoption and experience with the current specifications, there is some
risk that Actions could lead to unfortunate delays in completing the other
Core 3.0 and CCM specifications, create undue burden on implementers, and/or
introduce capabilities that are not yet ready for standardization.

If the CCM TC no longer has a dependency
on Actions, there may be little value in including Actions in the 3.0 multi-part
submissions, and little motivation for delaying the 3.0 draft submissions
in order to complete Actions.

The Core TC should consider deferring
Actions from the 3.0 draft specifications. Clients and server implementers
can still use the existing open-services.net 2.0 Actions specifications
if these are needed with the OSLC 3.0 Core and Domain specifications. This
will give more time to better understand the scenarios that need to be
supported, gain more experience in how the current specifications meet
those needs, and capture the challenges and point points that eventual
standards should address.




Jim Amsden, Senior Technical Staff Member
OSLC and Linked Lifecycle Data
919-525-6575