Hi Everyone
We've been seeing significant demand for Open API Conformance Certification (see here, and the leaderboard here), and a number of people have raised questions about the policy for certifying older APIs. Here's the official policy:
Pre-version 4 APIs
- Until the end of 2021 TM Forum will certify pre-v4 APIs shown in the Historic Table which were previously advertised in the Open API Table (Production Table) which have an existing CTK and for which there is no v4+ version available in the Open API Table (specifically, this applies only to TMF667 and TMF670). This allows time to accommodate members who made plans to certify these APIs based on the data previous advertised in the API Table.
- From 1 Jan 2022 we will no longer certify pre-v4 APIs.
Version 4+ APIs
- We offer certification for all v4 APIs shown in the Open API Table (currently 41 APIs).
- In future we will offer Supported Certification for the N-1 version of an API (where version N is the current version in the Open API Table) for 3 years after version N‑1 has been superseded by version N. Supported Certification includes help with problems, bug fixing etc.
- We will offer Unsupported Certification for APIs in the Historic Table for 5 years* from the date they are superseded by a newer version. Unsupported Certification is provided without support (ie help with problems and bug fixes is not provided)
- Each API is treated independently. For example, if the production version of TMF123 is v6, then we will not provide Supported Certification for v4. However, if at the same time the production version of TMF456 is still v5, then we will provide Supported Certification of v4 of TMF456 until it is superseded (either by v5 or v6).
- A member who has certified a v4+ API may re-certify free of charge against minor version updates (eg if v4.1 replaces v4.0). Certification against major version updates (v5+) may incur an additional fee.
Example
- Let's suppose we have released v6 of TMF123 in the future, and a member wants to certify v5. As long as v5 is less than 3 years old we will provide Supported Certification. If the member finds a bug in v5 of TMF123, the API team would fix the bug. If the member wants to certify v4 (eg because a CSP is using v4 and requires conformance), we will still offer Unsupported Certification. The member can self-certify using the v4 CTK and send the results to TM Forum for verification and accreditation. However, if the member has technical questions about v4 we would not guarantee to be able to provide support, and if the member finds a bug in v4 the API team would not fix it.
* This extended period is to accommodate continuing demand for older certifications – for example where a CSP has deployed Products A, B and C using v4 APIs and then wants to replace A with D, they will want D to support v4 APIs, otherwise they must also upgrade B and C.
Let me know if you have any questions or comments. Thanks!
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Andy Tiller
TM Forum
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