Conformance Testing Pilot Project

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) During the RFP

Who will "demonstrate the profile at the HIMSS conference"?

• A presentation describing the testing definitions and implementation of the profile will be shown in the HL7 booth multiple times each day. Live demonstrations of this profile as implemented in the Developer Integration Lab (DIL) will also be available in the AEGIS.net booth.

Does HL7 see this as primarily an analytical project (develop test cases and some rudimentary tools to evaluate them) or as a software project (develop some test cases and some robust tools to evaluate them), or both?

• A: This project is a pilot of both the analytical process (development of test case definitions and related artifacts) and of the implementation of those test cases in the DIL, a robust testing system which is already developed. HL7 is asking RFP respondents to focus on the analytical process in collaboration with the AEGIS team implementing the test cases and HL7 program staff (“HL7 Implementation Team”) to ensure that the definition work and the implementation work are cohesive. A key point here is that both teams will be assessed by HL7 as part of this initial pilot process to determine whether the pilot will be extended to included additional profile definitions and implementations.

In section 3.2.1, the RFP states:

The POC will utilize the SOAP Web Services transport recommended by the EHR-IIS Interoperability Expert Panel Project. • The scope of the POC does not include testing specific to this transport. However, almost immediately after, it then states: Analyze selected transport(s) and develop test cases specific to those transport(s) and to the SOAP Web Services transport Can you confirm whether generic test cases related to transport-level issues will be in scope of this work or not?

• A: Defining test cases for the transport are in scope for the RFP. As noted in section 3.1, the RFP “pilot” scope covers test case definition work which is a superset of the test cases which can be implemented for HIMSS (“POC” work). This language is saying that although transport testing will not be implemented for the POC, these test cases still need to be defined as a deliverable of this RFP (for implementation subsequent to HIMSS).

In section 3.2.2, the RFP makes the following statement about the test architecture:

The test architecture consists of the System Under Test (“SUT”) acting as the Sending System actor, a Test Tool acting as the Responding System actor, and a Test Harness that captures and evaluates the message traffic in both directions. The Test Harness will also make the captured messages available to human evaluators for those verifications that cannot be fully automated. Do the test tool and test harness already exist? Or will they be developed in parallel with the effort in producing the test case and test artifacts?

• A: The test tool/SUT/test harness do exist as the Developers Integration Lab (DIL); implementation of the test cases defined as an outcome of this RFP award will occur as a result of that definition effort.