CSA Preface

Standards development within the Information Technology sector is harmonized with international standards development. Through the CSA Technical Committee on Information Technology (TCIT), Canadians serve as the SCC Mirror Committee (SMC) on ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 on Information Technology (ISO/IEC JTC1) for the Standards Council of Canada (SCC), the ISO member body for Canada and sponsor of the Canadian National Committee of the IEC. Also, as a member of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), Canada participates in the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee (ITU-T).

Scope

Consistent with the first business-related principle of interoperability, B01 [5], the context-setting framework focuses on the interface between two or more interacting parties. This may be associated with inter- or intra-organizational software; however, we emphasize the independence of information technology choices and solution approaches to the business that occurs on either side of the interface.

Our scope concentrates on the situation and needs of the system integrator. Improvements in interoperability facilitate the integrator?s job to hook-up and configure the interacting automation components so that they perform properly. Whereas other aspects of software engineering focus on the developer or end user, the framework focuses on concepts and a structure for discussing issues related to developing independent automation components and collaborative processes so that they can be integrated more easily.

With the support of the context-setting framework, opportunities and hindrances to interoperability can be debated and prioritized for resolution. For example, suggestions can be made to revise an existing standard so that it conforms to the current best practices in information science. In another example, an application segment may ease integration where ambiguous identification is an issue by considering a distributed identification authority that issues identifiers according to an agreed-upon process. The framework does not prescribe solutions, but it enables communities to identify issues, debate them, and take steps toward resolution in a manner that maintains alignment with other facets of interoperation.