CAMSS Context
For CAMSS, the assessment process and set of quality requirements are developed using best practice assessment methods at national level and by aligning with related initiatives at European level (e.g. the Regulation on European Standardisation (EU regulation 1025/2012)).
If no formal assessment method is available or defined, the public administrations in the Member States and EU institutions should preferably adopt the CAMSS as their (national) assessment method. However, the CAMSS can be implemented and adapted based on the specific needs and requirements of the administrations.
Using CAMSS in Member States and at EU institutions ensures that the assessments of ICT standards and technical specifications are performed in a consistent and high quality manner. The assessments will contribute significantly to the confidence in the interoperability of systems implementing these technical specifications and standards. The assessment brings transparency to the selection of standards in the context of ICT strategies, architectures and interoperability frameworks. Furthermore, it enables the reuse and sharing (in whole or in part) of already performed assessments and the continuous improvement of the efficiency and effectiveness of the assessment process.
CAMSS focuses on the assessment of standards and technical specifications for the adoption by public administrations. The evaluation of the actual content of the standards or specifications is outside its scope. The CAMSS is not proposed as a mandatory assessment method to be implemented at Member State level. CAMSS is provided as a best practice method for Member States and public administrations to use as they choose. It should not be considered as an approved or regulated European assessment method for the assessment of standards and technical specifications at European level.
On the 15th March 2018, the European Multi Stakeholder Platform on ICT standardisation(MSP) agreed to endorse ISA² Common Assessment Method for Standards and Specifications(CAMSS) solution as the key driver streamlining the process for the evaluation of ICT technical specifications submitted for identification by the Commission. CAMSS will play a key role in this process with the provision of a preliminary assessments against the set of requirements defined in Regulation 1025/2012 on standardization. The identification of these technical specifications that do not fall in any of the categories of standards so far used in public procurement, open up the possibility to use the full range of relevant technical specifications when procuring hardware, software and information technology services, thus increasing interoperability and allowing for more competition.
The positive feedback about the results of the CAMSS solution collected during the 2017 MSP meetings and the success of a pilot carried out in 2017 led to a unanimous positive decision from the MSP.
In 2019, CAMSS created the European Interoperability Framework Scenario within the CAMSS Tools. With the creation of the European Interoperability Scenario for the assessment of standards and specifications, CAMSS started producing assessments under this new scenario and allowing the Member States and stakeholders to reuse the assessments as a valuable source to get information about standards and specifications. The assessments help and support the Member States and stakeholders in the development solutions and services.
Moreover, these assessments produced by CAMSS Team are included, together with the related standard or specification,within the EIRA Library of Interoperability Specifications (ELIS) which is the solution developed by CAMSS to support the development of interoperable solutions by the Member States. It includes the association of standards and specifications to Architectural Building Blocks defined within the European Interoperability Reference Architecture (EIRA).
In 2020, another remarkable point is the fact that CAMSS action has become one of the most detailed actions documented within the EIF Toolbox. The EIF toolbox “is designed as a guidance for national public administrations to equip them with the tools necessary to align their National Interoperability Frameworks (NIFs) with the European Interoperability Framework (EIF) in order to promote interoperability at national and European level”.
During the past years, several improvements in the CAMSS Solutions have been made, including minor releases in ELAP, ELIS, and the CAMSS Vocabularies. Moreover, a major release on the CAMSS Assessment EIF Scenario has been deployed, which is now better aligned with the EIF and its security and privacy requirements. In order to homogenize, and update the content of previously performed assessments, a semi-automated migration methodology for old assessments to the newest EIF Scenario version has been developed. In addition, all the assessment results performed since 2022 are now published and can be accessed in the Cellar repository. At present, the possibility of submitting the CAMSS vocabularies to a standardization process by a relevant international standards organization is currently being studied, which would mark a milestone for CAMSS commitment towards interoperability and the dissemination of its vocabularies.
CAMSS history and evolution
During 2008, a proposal for a CAMSS was produced. This proposal focused principally on defining assessment criteria, based on Member States best practices and agreement among Member State experts. Following a presentation on CAMSS Info Day (28 May 2008) and public consultation during summer 2008, the Proposal for a CAMSS received positive and constructive comments from industry, standardisation bodies and public administrations.
Afterwards, it was executed a pilot assessments based on the previous CAMSS version. Through lessons learned, CAMSS was shaped by updating the CAMSS criteria and defining the CAMSS process. A first pilot was run during spring 2009, which provides a "proof-of-concept" by answering a business need with low complexity and narrow scope.
At beginning 2013, the objective was the further development of the CAMSS method and the preparation of the CAMSS tools for deployment on the Joinup platform. The main objectives of the study can be formulated as:
- Continued promotion of the CAMSS method.
- Provide the necessary documentation for the governance of the CAMSS method, including guidelines on the practical use of CAMSS in Member States, the migration, maintenance and update procedures for the CAMSS tools and library on the Joinup platform.
- Collaborate and discuss with Member States, the involved Commission services (e.g. DG ENTR), standardisation bodies and all other relevant stakeholders (e.g. ICT industry) in order to animate and populate the CAMSS library on the Joinup platform and gather feedback for the improvement and sustainability of the CAMSS method.
- Define an open and transparent governance for the CAMSS community.
On September 2014 the CAMSS v0.4 was updated into CAMSS v1.0. The following activities were performed in this context:
- Update and promotion of the CAMSS community in Joinup.
- Improve offline (spreadsheet based) tools version including the release of CAMSS v1.0 and the creation of a new scenario, the CAMSS MSP scenario which is fully aligned with the European Multi Stakeholder Platform on ICT Standardisation submission form used within the identification process of ICT technical specifications.
- Update and improve the functional specifications for the online CAMSS assessment tools already available in the Joinup community, including support on implementation and testing.
- Define a formal change management process for the CAMSS method.
In 2015 the main objectives of the action were:
- Continue promoting the CAMSS method in order to make it available to relevant stakeholders in Member States and in the EC.
- Implement the change management process defined in the previous phase of the project.
- Increase the benefits of CAMSS for its users, through the improvement of the CAMSS method, gathering feedback from active users (present and/or past).
- Boost the population of the CAMSS assessments library.
- Test, maintain and promote the online CAMSS assessment tools of the Joinup community.
In 2017:
- The CAMSS action established the first service in ISA², CAMSS as a Service (CAMSSaaS), which allows its users to request assessments of standards and technical specifications executed by the CAMSS Team on demand. The provision of the service has been continuous since it was established, delivering assessments for Spain and the Netherlands, between others.
In 2018:
- CAMSS has been institutionalised as part of the Multi Stakeholder Platform’s Streamlined Process. This process is in charge of the evaluation of standards and technical specifications proposed for their identification as suitable for their recommendation by the European Commission as fit for the use in public procurement.
- CAMSS has become responsible for the EIRA Library of Interoperability Specifications (ELIS), which is a component of EIRA consisting of a library containing the interoperability specifications that describe the interoperability aspects of the architecture building blocks (ABBs) contained in the EIRA architecture.
In 2019-2020:
- CAMSS Tools were enhanced with the creation of a scenario to assess the compliance of standards and specifications with the European Interoperability Framework. The scenario is known as EIF Scenario.
- The ELIS was developed from Beta version to version 1.0.0
- The Core Standards and Specifications Vocabulary (CSSV) was evolved from Beta version to 1.0.0. A public consultation was used to ensure the involvement of all interested parties.
- Core Assessment Vocabulary (CAV) was developed as Beta version. For the development of the CAV, it was reviewed by a group of semantic experts in order to ensure as much as possible the quality of its development.
- Also the CAMSS Ontology was drafted as Beta taking as inputs the two previous vocabularies (CSSV and CAV) to depict CAMSS universe.
In 2020-2021:
- Evolution of CAV from Beta version to 1.0.0, a public consultation have been used to ensure the participation of stakeholders in the evolution of the solution;
- New CSSV release v1.1.0;
- CAMSS Ontology upgraded from Beta version to 1.0.0;
- New ELIS release v1.1.0, a public consultation have been used to elaborate the quality review of the current v1.0.0.
In 2021-2022:
- The CAMSS Assessment Scenarios (EIF, MSP, TS) replace the old CAMSS Tools and from now on each CAMSS Asssement scenario is an independent CAMSS Solutions;
- A new release of the CAMSS Assessment EIF Scenario have been produced;
- New CSSV release v1.2.0;
- New CAMSS Ontology release v1.1.0;
- New ELAP release v1.1.0.
In 2022:
- A minor release of the CAMSS Assessment EIF Scenario has been produced;
- New ELAP release v1.2.0
- New CAV release v1.1.0
- The CAMSS Ontology and the CAMSS Assessment TS scenario have been deprecated.
- New release of ELIS 5.0.1;
- A set of 14 specifications has been assessed under the new version of the CAMSS Assessment EIF Scenario.
- The CAMSS Knowledge Discovery Platform has been migrated to Jupyter Notebook.
In 2023:
- A major release of the CAMSS Assessment EIF Scenario has been produced;
- New ELAP release v2.0.0 and the ELAP Validator v1.0.0
- New release of ELIS 6.0.0 (mapped with EIRA v6.0.0);
- A set of 10 new specifications have been assessed.
- A set of 17 previously assessed specifications have gone through a quality check.
Roles and responsibilities
In the context of CAMSSaaS, the roles and responsibilities are the following:
Role | Description |
---|---|
User | A User will be any person, entity or Member State of the European Union that uses the service. |
CAMSS Team | CAMSS Team will be the group of experts belonging to CAMSS action that will provide the service. |
The submitter: Commission / Member States | In accordance with Article 13 of the Regulation 1025/2012 only the Commission and Member States can propose ICT technical specifications to be identified for referencing in public procurement. |
In the specific context of the MSP streamlined process, the roles and responsibilities are the following:
Role | Description |
---|---|
The submitter: Commission / Member States | In accordance with Article 13 of the Regulation 1025/2012 only the Commission and Member States can propose ICT technical specifications to be identified for referencing in public procurement. |
The CAMSS Team | The CAMSS Team is composed of external contractors. The team is led by a policy officer in DIGIT. The CAMSS Team supports the evaluation of ICT technical specifications submitted for identification. |
The Multi Stakeholder Platform (MSP) | The MSP is composed of representatives of the Member States and EFTA countries, stakeholder organisations representing industry, SME, consumers and other societal stakeholders; and European and international standards-setting organisations that develop standards in the field of ICT. The Platform members have the responsibility to inform and consult their interested constituency about the evaluation of the ICT technical specification carried out by CAMSS Team and the proposed decision to be taken by the Commission. If the MSP decides to set up an evaluation working group the procedure continues as described in document ICT/MSP (2014) 014v8. |
The MSP Secretariat | The Commission services provide the secretariat of the MSP, that will be composed of members of DG GROW and DG CONNECT. The secretariat will support the submission of proposals as well as the evaluation process and the link with the CAMSS Team. |
Change management process
CAMSS has defined a change management process in order to group the activities related to the management of requests for changes and the development of new CAMSS releases.
The change management life-cycle starts and ends with the publication of a release.
The CAMSS roles and activities during this process are split into:
- Phase one: Change Request Management Procedure
- Phase two: Release Implementation
Change Request Management Procedure
A change request is any proposal oriented to modify CAMSS solutions and assets:
- Starts with the submission of a change request form by a requestor (Access the form through the link below)
- Once the CAMSS team receives the request form, they validate if the request is related to the CAMSS method and the impact of the change.
- Once all the change requests are collected, the release management life-cycle starts.
Phase two: Release Implementation
This phase consists of the implementation of the changes proposed in the previous phase.
Once updated and reviewed by the CAMSS team, a public review and announcement is done in order to verify the correctness and the good quality.
CAMSS Generic Privacy Statements (GPS)
This section provides a statement regarding Data Protection in accordance with the Regulation (EU) 2018/1725. Find bellow the different CAMSS Privacy Statements:
CAMSS Assessment Generic Privacy Statement
CAMSSaaS Generic Privacy Statement
CAMSS Change Request Generic Privacy Statement
CAMSS Deployments Generic Privacy Statement
CAMSS Evaluation Purposes Generic Privacy Statement
Overall Statement regarding Data Protection on CAMSS activity