Member States are currenlty organising the assessment of standards and specifications, e.g. within the context of their National Interoperability Frameworks. Sharing information and knowledge on this process, aligning the national processes and re-using best practices will speed up the assessment processes and reduce their cost throughout European Public Administrations.   

Implementation Phases

The CAMSS project is currently in Phase 1, launched in early January, 2008. During phase 1, the IDABC Programme facilitates the definition of common assessment guidelines sharing experiences through the:

• provision of collaborative working / editing / discussion tools;
• collection / analysis and elaboration of workable versions of Member State contributions;
• collection and analysis of valuable input from similar experiences around the world.

A CAMSS Member State Expert Group has been formed with the role to identify and define a set of criteria for the Common Assessment Method of Standards and Specifications.

It will then be at the convenience of the Member States and the European Commission on how to use the criteria, and to proceed with their own interpretations / recommendations / regulations in using the assessment study results.

The first phase of the CAMSS is still ongoing with the help of our contractor StrateQo who has made in close collaboration with the Member States and the concerned Commission services a proposal for the CAMSS.

IDABC has received comments on the content of CAMSS from:

• Sun Microsystems
• IBM
• COSS (Centre for Open Source solutions) 
• ESOMA (European Software Market Association)
• OFE (Open Forum Europe)
• Mr Jukka Rannila (Citizen of Europe), and
• BSA

A summary of those consultations will be published on the IDABC web-site (http://ec.europa.eu/idabc) and will constitute a valuable input for the completion of CAMSS.

The final version of CAMSS which has been prepared in collaboration with the Member States and other services of the Commission will soon be published.

Phase 2 will aim at:

• setting up proposals for assessment studies to be carried out and subsequently shared;
• disseminating the assessment study results and conduct specific studies, if needed.

The anticipated outcome is an IDABC registry, accordingly updated, containing methods and aspects used as a reference by the Member States and the Commission, either in whole or in part, aiming to create re-usable and comparable interoperability ICT investigations, with improved quality and reduced time and resources.

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Why is the CAMSS important?

The elaboration and use of the CAMSS by the Member States will lead to:

• a more efficient use of public funds via sharing and re-use among eGovernment projects;
• avoiding duplication of effort. Results will be re-used and best practices shared; this will lead to defining guidelines at a faster pace and lower cost, as well as to cross-border transparency;
• improved efficiency and expertise.

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How is the CAMSS used?

The CAMSS is an initiative from the Member States, with the aim to enable interoperability through sharing expertise and best practices in the use of standards and specifications for software in eGovernment.

The use of the CAMSS by the Member States also allows for transparency in the choice of eGovernment solutions and standards.

Not only a guide for assessing and selecting standards and specifications, a reference when building an architecture, the CAMSS can furthermore explain these choices.

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Criteria

When using the CAMSS, the first step is to identify the context of use.

It is necessary to precisely define needs and requirements, as well as the scope of impact linked to the choice of a standard / specification.

The criteria figure as a list of qualitative aspects to be taken into account, rather than a quantitative evaluation.

The choice of criteria used to assess a standard or specification depends on the standard or specification itself, as well as on the specific context of use. In defining criteria, the CAMSS promotes the idea of "the more the better": each Member State defines the significance and prioritisation of each of the criteria according to its own needs and context of use of the standard or specification.

A further adaptation of the criteria list to a specific domain is to be subsequently considered, should the need emerge. Such adaptations are to be implemented during the second phase of the project.

At this stage of the project, the CAMSS proposes a series of four criteria:

• Suitability: to what extent does the standard or specification respond to the identified need? Does it promote interoperability?
• Potential: what potential does the standard or specification present? (in terms of strategic impact, etc)
• Openness: to what extent is the standard or specification considered to be Open (open deliverables, open process)?
• Market Conditions: what are the market conditions linked to the standard or specification (in terms of market support, wide adoption, etc)?

Each criterion is described with a series of questions and suggestions on how to implement the assessment. These elements will have to be adapted / interpreted according to the identified context and scope of the assessment.

CAMSS fact sheet also exists in printed version, you may find here more info on the IDABC fact sheets.

The CAMSS will be published around mid-2008 on the IDABC website.

For further information contact: CAMSS@ec.europa.eu

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Technical Information

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