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1. What is CAMSS?
2. Status of CAMSS
3. Positioning
4. Roles and Responsibilities
5. CAMSS Solutions
6. CAMSS Assets
7. Change Management Process
8. CAMSS Use Cases
9. CAMSS Generic Privacy Statement (GPS)

What is CAMSS? 

CAMSS is the European guide for assessing and selecting standards and specifications for an eGovernment project, a reference when building an architecture and an enabler for justifying the choice of standards and specifications in terms of interoperability needs and requirements. CAMSS was created in the context of Action 2016.32 of the ISA² Programme and is being maintained under the Interoperable Europe public initiative.

The main objective of CAMSS is achieving interoperability and avoiding vendor lock-in by establishing a neutral and unbiased method for the assessment of technical specifications and standards in the field of ICT. This method will be compliant with the Regulation 1025/2012 on European Standardisation.

While ICT solutions have specific characteristics at the political, legal, and organisational levels; semantic and technical interoperability are based mostly on technical specifications or standards. Within the context of the elaboration of their National Interoperability Frameworks, Member States organise the assessment of technical specifications or standards, in order to establish their national recommendations. Deciding on the recommended technical specifications or standards often calls for a resource-intensive and time-consuming assessment. In order to tackle this, the Digital Europe Programme (DEP) defines an action focused on the development of a common assessment method for standards and specifications (CAMSS).

The purpose of CAMSS is:

• to ensure that assessments of technical ICT specifications or standards and interoperability profiles are performed according to high and consistent standards;
• to ensure that assessments will contribute significantly to confidence in the interoperability of systems implementing these specifications and profiles;
• to enable the reuse, in whole or in part, of such assessments;
• to continuously improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the assessment process for ICT technical specifications, standards and interoperability profiles.

The assessment of standards and specifications for eGovernment solutions is currently organised on a national basis, e.g. within the context of Member States’ National Interoperability Frameworks. "CAMSS" is an initiative to promote collaboration between EU Member States in defining a "Common Assessment Method for Standards and Specifications" and to share with other countries the assessment study results for the development of eGovernment services.

In this way interoperability between EU Member States in the area of eGovernment will be expanded through the sharing of information and knowledge, the alignment of national processes and by reusing best practices. It will also speed up the assessment processes, reduce their cost throughout European public administrations and avoid ICT vendor specific lock-in.

The Multi-Stakeholder Platform (MSP), co-chaired by DG GROW and DG CONNECT, gave positive opinion on the adoption of CAMSS for the evaluation of standards to be identified by the MSP as suitable candidates to be recommended by the Commission for their use in procurement.

The expected benefits of the CAMSS are:

• Ensuring greater transparency throughout the selection of standards in the context of ICT strategies, architectures and interoperability frameworks. This will be achieved through the establishment of a commonly agreed assessment method, assessment process and a list of assessment attributes.
• Reducing resource and time requirements and avoiding duplication of efforts. (Partial) sharing of finalised assessments of standards and specifications.
• Allowing easier and faster assessments, and reuse the ones already performed through the creation and maintenance of a library of standards.

The use of the CAMSS by Member States helps to promote transparency in the choice of eGovernment solutions and standards. It should also lead to a more efficient use of public funds via sharing and reuse among eGovernment projects.

The CAMSS toolkit consists of a documented reference assessment process, a set of quality requirements (criteria), and assessment tools.

In this way, CAMSS will establish and maintain a framework for assessing interoperability standards and specifications.

The framework will:

• provide European administrations with a well-defined and easy-to-use method for assessing ICT interoperability standards and specifications;
• ensure that assessments of ICT standards and specifications can be made faster, easier and with higher quality;
• enable the reuse, in whole or in part, of such assessments.

The CAMSS information package can be downloaded below, and more information regarding CAMSS, its objectives, potential benefits and overall approach is available at the European Commission's Interoperability Solutions for European Public Administrations - Digital Europe Programme (DEP) webpage

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Status of CAMSS

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.

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Positioning

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.

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Roles and Responsibilities

In the context of CAMSSaaS, the roles and responsibilities are the following:

In the specific context of the MSP streamlined process, the roles and responsibilities are the following:

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CAMSS Solutions

The CAMSS solutions and their release components are depicted below:

Solution	Description
	This CAMSS EIF Scenario allows to assess the compliance of interoperability specifications with the EIF​. The latest release of the CAMSS Assessment EIF Scenario is the v6.0.0.
	This CAMSS MSP scenario is dedicated to the assessment of  formal specifications in the context of public procurement​. The latest release of the CAMSS MSP scenario is the v5.0.0
	CAMSSaaS, CAMSS-as-a-Service, is the service provided by CAMSS for the execution and review of assessments on demand. There are 3 modalities of service: CAMSSaaS assessment: In this modality the user requests the CAMSS Team to perform the assessment of a technical specification. CAMSSaaS content review: In this modality the user requests the CAMSS Team to review an already performed assessment. The CAMSS Team will perform an in-depth review of the information, improving the answers of the user when needed and challenging them in order to strengthen the quality of the assessment as much as possible. CAMSSaaS compliance review: In this modality the user requests the CAMSS Team to review an already performed assessment. The CAMSS Team will perform a review of the assessment in order to determine if it has been properly filled, not challenging the actual content of it. The latest release of the CAMSSasS is the v1.4.0.
	CAMSS Assessment is a solution which corresponds to the output of an assessment of a standard or technical specification using the CAMSS Tools. Each assessment produced is considered a CAMSS Assessment once it is approved by the CAMSS Team. Any approved assessment is published by the CAMSS Team and publicly available within the Assessment Library.
	The EIRA Library of Interoperability Specifications is a library containing the standards and specifications defining the interoperability aspects of the architectural building blocks (ABBs) contained in the European Interoperability Reference Architecture (EIRA). The aim of this library is supporting solutions architects when modelling using EIRA. The latest release of the ELIS is the v6.0.0.
	The CSSV is the vocabulary used for the information exchange related to standards and specifications amongst software solutions, as well as, it is the key element for the development of the new release of the EIRA Library of Interoperability Specifications (ELIS). The latest release of the CSSV is the v1.3.0.
	The Core Assessment Vocabulary represents and defines what an “Assessment” of “assets” is and how to perform the assessment based on “Criteria”. It is a domain-agnostic vocabulary, meaning that it can be used to assess any type of assets. The latest release of the CAV is the v1.2.0.
	The EIRA library of architecture principles (ELAP) is intended to direct government organizations in initiating changes and implementing IT projects. Particularly when designing new or modified services, it is necessary to make visible how the principles are implemented and which considerations are made in this regard. The apply-or-explain principle applies here, whereby deviations are permitted provided that they are substantiated and recorded with good arguments so that they can be revisited at a later stage. This prevents important matters from being overlooked. The latest release of the ELAP is the v2.0.0
	The ELAP Validator is a comprehensive tool developed to address a variety of needs in the design and implementation of interoperability solutions within public institutions in Europe. Stemming from the foundation laid by ELAP, the Validator is designed to align with, and further the goals of, interoperability programs, ensuring that systems and solutions are not only compliant with European Frameworks but also efficient and effective. The latest release of the ELAP Validator is the v1.0.0

The picture below illustrates the relationship between the CAMSS Solutions and depicts their release components.

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CAMSS Assets

Apart from the solutions presented above, the CAMSS method is composed by the following assets:

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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.

• Change Request form

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CAMSS Use Cases

The result of the Use Cases selection process is a neutral and unbiased method for the assessment of technical specifications and standards in the field of ICT. It is a challenging task requiring a significant amount of time and resources. The selection of the Technical Specifications is decisive for the delivery of Interoperable European Solutions which implement Digital Public Services.

Concequently, to support EU Member States on this, the European Commission has been developing and improving CAMSS since 2008.

CAMSS_use_cases_v2_1.pdf

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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

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