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Introduction

Interoperability defined

Interoperability is understood in different ways depending on the specification under consideration:

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When you are developing an implementation, make sure that you have a clear understanding of the specification of the protocol and the artefact. The specification should be precise enough to ensure that your implementation is interoperable with others or is at least very close to be. In case of questions, do not consciously make assumptions but contact the writer of the specification. Interoperability is primarily a matter of correct and consensual interpretation of this specification.

Taking responsibility

Be aware that it is not always clear which aspects of interoperability fall under the specification writers responsibility, and which fall under the implementation developers responsibility. Too often interoperability problems arise when each party is over-reliant on the other party to ensure interoperability.

Guidelines

Defined behavior after errors

Define the behavior of your implementation in case of errors. 

The next type of errors should be taken into consideration:

• the errors from "Errors" section of the specification, mainly concerning the protocol
• errors after reception of faulty artefacts from another implementation
• errors when processing correct artefacts by your implementation
• errors during generation of faulty artefacts by your implementation

Used version of the specification

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Requirements

This paragraph should be moved to the requirements documentation.

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