Description and purpose:

• TM Forum Interface framework, which is a design methodology and software environment (methodology + tooling) to support the development of all the TM Forum Interface feature deliverables (requirement definitions, model definitions, solution sets, reference implementations and compliancy test kits).
• TM Forum Interface implementation toolkits to help with the development of RI and CTK for each TM Forum Interface as well as their implementations.

Additional key items developed by through the Shared Interface Infrastructure proejcts include:

• Various guidebooks (Wiki based) to cover the methods, IDE & tools developed for the generation of interface specifications and their RI and CTK toolkits
• Various tools used in Eclipse Tigerstripe (RSM Import, Model Documentation, Model to Code Generation) and integrated with continuous build using Maven

The charter for this TIP Shared Interface Infrastructure project is necessary to cover the development of enhancements and new capabilities to be delivered in future releases.

The scope of the TIP Shared Interface Infrastructure project include:

• Identification of protocol neutral interface patterns including meta-model and common model definitions.
• Identification of protocol specific interface definitions from the model definitions best practices. Currently focusing on Web Service specifications (XSD/WSDL) and soon adopting Java as well.
• Auto-generation of documentation from information and operation models
• Auto-generation of partial Reference Implementations (RI).
• Auto-generation of partial Compliancy Test Kits (CTK).
• Build environment with automated tests and packaging

This project is pioneering a Model Driven approach to Telecommunications Interface standardization. This promises to deliver a number of direct benefits to the TM Forum membership including:

• Rapid Interface Delivery
• Accurate Documentation
• Close Alignment with the TM Forum Information Framework (SID)
• Correctness: The Interface Development Tool ensures repeatability and correctness in the generation and on-going maintenance of interface artifacts.
• Reference Implementation: Generating Reference Implementation (RI) artifacts provides evidence that the interface is realizable, proof of the interface's correctness and greatly helps developers and integrators to adopt the technology into their own projects.
• Compliance: Generating Compatibility Toolkits (CTK's) allows developers to self certify their interfaces against a test suit which will significantly reduce the integration risks in OSS projects using TIP Standards.