Business Interoperability Interfaces for Public procurement in Europe - Part 0: Introduction

This CWA addresses the next step of standardization for the data exchange within an infrastructure shared by business partners. The focus is the semantics of the public procurement business processes built by xml based vocabularies specified by UBL 2.0 and UN/CEFACT core components. This is expressed in the CWA profile descriptions. A profile description is a technical specification describing: - The choreography of the business processes. - The business rules governing the execution of these business processes. The information content of the electronic business transactions exchanged by exchanged by pointing to a given data model for each of the business transaction. The data models in this CWA are syntax neutral, but include proposed syntax mappings for UBL 2.0 for the post awarding business processes. The workshop has presented change requests to the UN/CEFACT TBG6 (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) group in order to facilitate syntax mappings of the pre awarding business process and contributed to the convergence between UBL and UN/CEFACT XML by producing a gap analysis between the relevant UBL documents and the UN/CEFACT core component library and in the development of Cross Industry documents within UN/CEFACT TBG1 (Supply Chain). This CWA does not provide any XML schemas; it provides specifications for tools to support the implementation of profiles. That is a toolbox specifying requirements of how to achieve technical interoperability e.g. the management of documents on technical level, conformance testing, governance, digital signature and message transport infrastructure. This CWA does not provide any of the specified tools as operational artifacts, but addresses only the specifications. The tools provided by the CENBII workshop are for demonstration purpose only and are not a part of the CWA. This CWA specifies a new and open infrastructure for public procurement processes that does not require bilateral agreements. To make them work in reality they need to be implemented in conformed ways. This requires structured testing and piloting. The CWA provides project templates for functional testing and piloting and recommendation of how to process this.