Implementor Forums

To accelerate the development and implementation of commercial software products based on AP242, Implementor Forums will be established to support these efforts.  The goals of the Implementor Forums are to test and to improve the interoperability of STEP COTS interfaces, and to ensure that the user's requirements are satisfied.  The objectives of the forums are to:

• Implement functionality for today's needs
• Identify functionality for tomorrow's needs
• Avoid roadblocks by establishing agreed upon approaches
• Increase user confidence by providing system and AP interoperability testing
• Ensure new functionality does not adversely impact existing implementations   

Implementor Forums are:

• Groups of software developers working closely together to solve implementation issues
• Working in a “closed” and trusted environment
• Testing Alpha and Beta software releases
• Detecting issues and errors early leads to faster development cycles
• Developing Recommended Practices to guide common implementation approaches

For the user community, Implementor Forums provide stability of new capabilities.  In many cases the Implementor Forums have provided new STEP functionality even before the functionality has been balloted in the International Standard.  Implementor Forums also provide early feedback on user requirements concerning feasibility and a timeframe for support in their tool offerings.