Forward

This is an official document of FIPA, the Foundation for Intelligent Physical Agents.  Information about FIPA and FIPA documents, including copyright notices, may be found on the world-wide web at http://www.fipa.org/.

Introduction

This document outlines the working practices and terms of reference under which the FIPA Architecture Board will operate.

The general purpose of the Architecture Board is to ensure that the technical work of FIPA is appropriate and that any official standards documents that are produced achieve the high level of quality demanded by FIPA and its membership.

For information on the definitions and life cycle of FIPA specifications, please refer to the FIPA policy documents (see [f-out-00001], [f-out-00002] and [f-out-00003]).

Contents

This document is divided into the following sections:

• Terms of Reference.

• Work Plan Creation Guidelines.

• Work Plan Submission Procedures.

• Specification Approval Guidelines.

• Specification Submission Procedures.

Terms of Reference

The FIPA Architecture Board has the following remit:

• To ensure that FIPA specifications exhibit: consistency, coherence, integrity and merit.

• To approve the advancement of FIPA specifications through the standard's life cycle.

• To oversee the technical direction of FIPA and influence it where necessary.

• To maintain a registry of FIPA specifications and work plans.

Procedural Policy

The FIPA Architecture Board will use the following policy statements when executing its mandate:

1. The approval of work plans can be achieved by a FIPA member (with the support of commitment from at least one other FIPA member) submitting the completed work plan via email to the Architecture Board mailing list 21 days before the next scheduled FIPA meeting. Such an email will contain enough information to assist the Architecture Board in making its decision. The decision of the Architecture Board will be made available during the plenary session of the next scheduled FIPA meeting. A submission will be returned with one of the following grades: Approve, Approve with Comments or Disapprove with Comments. In the event of approval by the Architecture Board, the work plan will be assigned either an existing or new Technical Committee (TC) or Working Group (WG).

2. A specification can be made Preliminary by a TC chair submitting via email to the Architecture Board mailing lists requesting a document number, or set of document numbers, the types of document being request (profile or component) and (preferably) the titles of those documents. A submission will be return with the assigned document numbers.

3. The transition of specifications from Preliminary status to Experimental status can be achieved by a TC chair submitting the necessary specifications via email to the Architecture Board mailing list one month before the next scheduled FIPA meeting. Such an email will contain enough information to assist the Architecture Board in making its decision. A submission will be returned with one of the following grades: Approve, Approve with Comments or Disapprove with Comments. In the event of approval by the Architecture Board, the specifications will move to Experimental status and be assigned a new document number.

4. The transition of specifications from Experimental status to Standard status can be achieved by a TC chair submitting the necessary specifications via email to the Architecture Board mailing list one month before the next scheduled FIPA meeting. Such an email will contain enough information to assist the Architecture Board in making its decision. A submission will be returned with one of the following grades: Approve, Approve with Comments or Disapprove with Comments. In the event of approval by the FIPA membership and the subsequent approval by the Architecture Board, the specifications will move to Standard status and be assigned a new document number.

5. Incremental revisions to Experimental specifications can be achieved by a TC chair by submitting the new specifications via email to the Architecture Board mailing list 21 days before the next scheduled FIPA meeting. A submission will be returned with one of the following grades: Approve, Approve with Comments or Disapprove with Comments. In the event of approval by the Architecture Board, the specifications will be assigned an incremental version letter and become the latest Experimental status versions.

6. The transition of specifications from any status to Obsolete status can be achieved by a TC chair submitting the document numbers of the specifications via email to the Architecture Board mailing list 21 days before the next scheduled FIPA meeting (the Architecture Board may also initiate this procedure if it deems it necessary). A submission will be returned with one of the following grades: Approve, Approve with Comments or Disapprove with Comments. In the event of approval by the FIPA membership and the Architecture Board, the specifications will move to Deprecated status and be assigned an expiration date. If the specifications still have Deprecated status when the expiration date is reached (that is, if they have not been reprieved) then the status of the specifications becomes Obsolete.

7. The reprieval of specifications from Deprecated or Obsolete status can be achieved by a TC chair submitting the document numbers of the specifications and the reasons for their reprieval via email to the Architecture Board mailing list 21 days before the next scheduled FIPA meeting (the Architecture Board may also initiate this procedure if it deems it necessary). In the event of approval by the FIPA membership and the Architecture Board, the Deprecated specifications will move to back to their original status; reprieved Obsolete specifications are assigned a new specification identifier and Preliminary status. 

8. The resolution of technical issues can be achieved by a TC or WG chair submitting the details of the issue via email to the Architecture Board mailing list. The Architecture Board may employ the services of other FIPA members to assist it making its decision to resolve this issue. The decision of the Architecture Board will be returned to the TC or WG chair within one month of the original submission. A submission will be returned with one of the following grades: Approve, Approve with Comments or Disapprove with Comments.

9. When making submissions to the Architecture Board, the email should be sent to the following mailing lists: Work plans - fab@fipa.org and appropriate TCs/WGs, Preliminary specifications - fab@fipa.org and appropriate TCs, Preliminary to Experimental specifications - fab@fipa.org and all TCs, Experimental to Standard specifications - fab@fipa.org and FIPA membership, Incremental revisions of Experimental specifications - fab@fipa.org and all TCs, Any status specifications to Obsolete - fab@fipa.org and FIPA membership, Reprieval of specifications - fab@fipa.org and FIPA membership, and Resolution of technical issues - fab@fipa.org and appropriate TCs.s

10. In making its decisions, the Architecture Board will attempt to reach consensus between its membership. In the event that consensus cannot be reached, the Architecture Board chair may initiate a vote to resolve an issue. Such a vote must achieve a two thirds majority to be carried.

11. The Architecture Board will advise the FIPA board when the creation of a new TC or WG is necessary based upon the nature and content of the work plans. The Architecture Board will also advise the FIPA board when the retirement of a TC or WG is necessary either due to a work plan being completed or a work plan lacking support.

12. The Architecture Board can decide to recommend new work plans for submission to the FIPA membership in areas of technical functionality which the Architecture Board believes FIPA should be involved.

13. The Architecture Board will identify any specifications that may not be completed or maintained because of lack of commitment to a work plan. Such specifications will be raised to the attention of other TCs or WGs and to the FIPA membership to determine if support can be found within the FIPA membership. If not, then the Architecture Board will mark the specification as At Risk. The Architecture Board will advise the FIPA board of such documents.

14. The Architecture Board chair will create new document numbers for specifications as and when is necessary and also to publish specifications and work plans on the FIPA Web site.

15. The Architecture Board will hold a number of open meetings during a scheduled FIPA meeting to provide feedback and to accept comments from the FIPA membership. Additionally, the Architecture Board will report at the opening plenary session of each FIPA meeting on the current status of specifications and work plans.

16. The Architecture Board will work by using a mailing list and interaction between FIPA members will be primarily by email.

Work Plan Creation Guidelines

The purpose of a work plan is to identify and specify a body of work which should be undertaken within FIPA and also to ascertain the level of commitment and support that can be found for the work plan. A work plan should contain enough information to:

• Inform the FIPA membership of the proposed plans of work,

• Enable the Architecture Board to evaluate the work plan and its relevance to FIPA according to the guidelines below, and,

• Be distributed to non-FIPA members to assist in Calls for Information or Technology.

A work plan should be structured along the following lines:

1. The standard FIPA document headers.

2. The name and email address of the contact for the work plan.

3. A general introduction to the area of work for the work plan.

4. A problem statement which the work plan aims to address.

5. The objectives of the work plan.

6. A description of the technology that the work plan covers.

7. Details of the specifications and/or documentation that will be generated by this work plan.

8. A statement of how the work plan is to be accomplished.

9. A list of milestones for the work plan.

10. How this work plan relates to other work in the area or an future work.

11. An analysis of the impact and dependencies of this work plan on other FIPA technical work plans and specifications and external specifications.

12. A list of organisations that are willing to support and commit to working on the work plan.

A work plan template, which should be used for all work plan submissions, is given in [f-out-00010] which is available from http://www.fipa.org/docs/output/f-out-00010/.

Work Plan Submission Procedures

Submission of a new work plan should be made to fab@fipa.org (and copied to the appropriate TCs) with the subject line as:

[Work plan: Title of the work plan]

and the body of the email containing a ZIP file with the work plan document and supporting documentation contain therein.

In making its decision, the Architecture Board will use the following criteria in assessing the suitability of a work plan for approval:

• The relevancy of the work plan to the current FIPA specifications and to the current technical work being undertaken by FIPA.

• The level of commitment for the work plan and the type of support being offered.

• The scope of the work plan and its perceived achievability in the timescales indicated.

• The perceived benefit to advancing the FIPA specifications towards interoperability amongst heterogeneous agents.

The decision of the Architecture board will be made according to the policy for work plans explained earlier.

Upon submission, the work plan is assigned an input document number (of the order, f-in-xxxxx). If the work plan is subsequently approved by the Architecture Board, then the document will be assigned a work plan document number (of the order, f-wp-xxxxx).

Specification Approval Guidelines

TBD.

Specification Submission Procedures

TDB.