Standards Profile Format

The Services column identifies the service and provides representative standards, interfaces, protocols and/or product specifications that fall within the Service Category. The Standards/Protocols column lists the particular vendor-neutral and vendor-specific Standards and/or Protocols cited for use by the particular Service Category. Standards, Protocols, or Specifications should be associated with individual service components (items listed under a service category), and not with a service category in general. If no Standard or Protocol is applicable or available, then Column 2 should be left blank for that particular service component or the service component deleted from the table. The Implementation Level Column will be used to indicate the level of compliance or adoption for the invoked standard. The following classifications will be used to describe the Implementation Level of Standards to an Operating Unit's Standards Profile:

• Mandatory

• Recommended

• Emerging

• Obsolete

The four classification categories are defined below

• Mandatory: Mandatory standards must be followed, adopted and used. Mandatory standards are required to comply with applicable laws, regulations, requirements, or because of industry technological practices or business processes. Each management level may impose mandatory standards on all units within its jurisdiction. In other words, the Department may impose mandatory standards on the Operating Units, the Operating Units may impose mandatory standards on regional offices and regional offices can impose mandatory standards on local organizations under its jurisdiction. Mandatory standards must be followed throughout the organization that defines and imposes the standard as well as all subordinate organizations. Additional mandatory standards can be added by lower-tiered organizations. However, mandatory standards cannot be disregarded when invoked by a higher level of organizational authority.

• Recommended: Recommended standards are those standards that are highly desirable and/or describe the minimum needed to implement a family of standards. They can be either extensions to mandatory or required standards, or be ad hoc standards used in areas where no other mandatory standard has been identified. A recommended standard can be invoked as a mandatory standard at a lower level of the organization.

• Emerging: An emerging standard may involve a technology that is still evolving. An emerging standard may be in draft form or going through the peer review process. Also, an emerging standard may have been issued but the technological implementation of the standard may not be in a mature state. Emerging standards may be invoked at a lower level of an organization to allow technical flexibility at the level that it is invoked. Support and training for emerging standard is provided by the sponsoring organization.

• Obsolete: Obsolete standards are those standards or technologies that are currently part of the baseline, and that are recommended to be phased out and are not be procured. These standards may have been cancelled or superseded and may no longer be supported technically by any vendor. Obsolete standards may face interface-compatibility problems in the future.