Charter (IOP)

Charter approved by Leadership Council on Feb 17, 2010

(1) WG NAME (and any acronym or abbreviation of the name): The WG name, acronym and abbreviation must not include trademarks not owned by the Organization, or content that is infringing, harmful, or inappropriate.

Interoperability Work Group (IOPWG)

(2) PURPOSE: Please provide a clear statement of purpose and justification why the proposed WG is necessary.

  • The Interoperability Work Group (IOPWG) serves to support the Kantara Initiative Interoperability Program through the development of Test Procedures used by the Interoperability Review Board, regardless of protocol. IOPWG will work closely with the Interoperability Review Board (IRB). The IRB is the Board of Trustees (BoT) sub-committee responsible for member oversight of the Interoperability Program. In addition, the IOPWG will make resources available to provide expertise and “technical support” to the IRB during the course of any given Kantara Initiative Interoperability event for the purpose of assisting the IRB in its resolution of conflicts of protocol interpretation that may arise among test participants.

(3) SCOPE: Explain the scope and definition of the planned work.

The development of Test Procedures is the primary scope of work. The development of Static Conformance Requirements and, potentially, Profiles are within scope on an as-needed basis. The development of new protocol functionality or features not already found in the protocol itself, are out-of-scope. Furthermore any SCRs and or Profiles created by the IOPWG will be submitted to the relevant Standards Development Organizations (SDOs)/communities involved.

The IRB will determine the protocols to be tested and the need to develop test procedures. Such direction will be communicated from the IRB directly to the leadership of the IOPWG

The IOPWG will be responsible for:

  • Developing the necessary testing documentation to support the Interoperability Program of the Kantara Initiative. This includes protocol-specific Test Procedures that meet the modalities as defined by the IRB’s published Strawman schedule.
  • Where a needed testing Static Conformance Requirement (SCR) and/or Profile does not already exist, the IOPWG may liaise with external organizations or the protocol specific Authoritative Body to assist in the development of needed SCRs and Profiles. Such activities may be undertaken as simple cross-organizational communications or if a larger scope is needed through a formal Liaison Agreement.
    • “Static Conformance Requirements (SCR) define a subset of a specification's full set of features that software implementations of that specification are expected to support - thereby optimizing the chances for different software implementations finding a useful intersection of functionality.
    • “Interoperability Profiles” define constraints on the different features/components that a given specification may allow - this decreased flexibility serving to enhance the chances of interoperability between different implementations or deployments of that specification

(4) DRAFT TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS: List Working Titles of draft Technical Specifications to be produced (if any), projected completion dates, and the Standards Setting Organizations (SSOs) to which they will be submitted upon approval by the Membership.

  • Potential SSOs for SCR and Profile submission include: OASIS and IETF

(5) OTHER DRAFT RECOMMENDATIONS: Other Draft Recommendations and projected completion dates for submission for All Member Ballot.

Given the IOPWG’s role to provide direct support to the IRB, it is expected that IOPWG Approved “Reports” (as defined in section 7 of the KI Operating Procedures) shall be deemed sufficiently vetted and stable for inclusion by IRB into the Kantara Initiative Interoperability Program. Additionally, the Test Procedures developed by IOPWG may be submitted as Draft Recommendations for an All Member Ballot.

  • SAML 2.0 Test Procedures
  • ID-WSF Test Procedures
  • WS-Security Test Procedures
  • Oauth Test Procedures
  • XRD Test Procedures
  • InformationCard Procedures
  • OpenID Procedures
  • On an as-needed basis, SCRs and Profiles

(6) LEADERSHIP: Proposed WG Chair and Editor(s) (if any) subject to confirmation by a vote of the WG Participants.

Ellen Newlands, Computer Associates (CA) will act as Leadership Council process Convener.

Leadership and Editor Positions will include but are not limited to:

  • Chair, TBD
  • Vice-Chair, TBD
  • SAML 2.0 Editor, TBD
  • Oauth Editor, TBD
  • ID-WSF Editor, TBD
  • XRD Editor, TBD
  • InformationCard Editor, TBD
  • OpenID Editor, TBD
  • WS-Security Editor, TBD

Note that the list of Editor types may expand to include any additional protocol the IRB may include in the testing scope as the program progresses.

(7) AUDIENCE: Anticipated audience or users of the work.

Participants in KI Interoperability tests are expected to follow all applicable IOPWG Test Procedures. Deployers of IRB adopted protocols are expected to contribute requirements to IOPWG Test Procedures and require Kantara Initiative Interoperability certification as appropriate.

(8) DURATION: Objective criteria for determining when the work of the WG has been completed (or a statement that the WG is intended to be a standing WG to address work that is expected to be ongoing).

The IOPWG is expected to exist for the duration of the Kantara Initiative Interoperability Program, as such there is no pre-determined ‘expiration’ date for the life of the Work Group.

The charter may be amended on an as-needed basis, with changes approved by the Leadership Council.

(9) IPR POLICY: The Organization approved Intellectual Property Rights Policy under which the WG will operate.

Patent & Copyright: Reciprocal Royalty Free with Opt-Out to Reasonable And Non-discriminatory (RAND)

(10) RELATED WORK AND LIAISONS: Related work being done in other WGs or other organizations and any proposed liaison with those other WGs or organizations.

The IOPWG directly supports the Interoperability Review Board

Related Kantara Initiative Work Groups include but are not limited to:

  • eGovernment WG (who produce protocol profiles for testing)
  • ID-WSF Evolution WG (who produce Oauth extensions and ID-WSF SCR’s & profiles)
  • User Managed Access WG (who produce Oauth extensions)
  • Health Identity Assurance WG (who produce profiles for Heathcare)
  • Telecommunications WG (who produce profiles for Telecom industry)
  • Assurance Review Board on an as-needed basis

Related external organizations include but are not limited to:

  • OASIS (SDO for SAML, IMI, WS-Security and XRD)
  • OpenID Foundation (SDO for OpenID)
  • Information Card Foundation (consortium developing profiles for IMI)
  • WS-I (consortium developing profiles for WS-Security)

(11) CONTRIBUTIONS (optional): A list of contributions that the proposers anticipate will be made to the WG.

  • Liberty Alliance ID-WSF 1.1 Static Conformance Requirements
  • Liberty Alliance ID-WSF 1.0 Static Conformance Requirements
  • Liberty Alliance ID-FF 1.2 Static Conformance Requirements
  • Liberty Alliance ID-FF 1.1 Static Conformance Requirements
  • Liberty_Interoperability_SAML_Test_Plan_v3.2.2.pdf
  • Liberty Interoperability Testing Procedures for SAML 2.0, v3.2
  • Liberty Interoperability Testing Procedures for SAML 2.0, v3.1
  • Liberty Interoperability Testing Procedures for SAML 2.0, v3.0 errata J
  • Liberty Interoperability Testing Procedures for ID-WSF 2.0
  • Liberty Interoperability Testing Procedures for SAML 2.0 v2.0
  • Liberty Interoperability Testing Procedures for SAML 2.0 v1.0
  • Liberty Interoperability Testing Procedures for ID-WSF 1.1
  • Liberty Interoperability Testing Procedures for ID-FF 1.2
  • Liberty Interoperability Testing Procedures for ID-FF 1.1

(12) PROPOSERS: Names, email addresses, and any constituent affiliations of at least the minimum set of proposers required to support forming the WG.

  • Ellen Newlands, Computer Associates (CA)
  • David Temoshok, General Service Administration (GSA)
  • Collin Wallis, New Zealand Government (Dept of Internal Affairs)