REPORT ON EFFORTS TO RESEARCH THE FEASIBILITY OF
MANDATING INTEROPERABILITY IN GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENTS
FOR HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE

I. PURPOSE OF THIS TASK

One of the major barriers identified by state and local governments to the acquisition and use of information technology in the building regulatory process is that hardware and software currently available in the market place is not interoperable. One vendor’s online permitting software would not communicate/share data with that of another vendor, making it virtually impossible to link together building regulatory data between jurisdictions and, in some cases, making it impossible to share data across regulatory functions within the same jurisdiction.

The objective of this task is to work with the nation’s hardware and software community and state and local government code administrators to ascertain the feasibility of jurisdictions beginning to mandate that all hardware and software being purchased be interoperable in their information technology procurements.

II. BACKGROUND

In the spring of 2003, the Alliance for Building Regulatory Reform in the Digital Age developed and posted on the Alliance’s website model procurement requirements that state and local governments can use to acquire hardware and software for use in their building regulatory processes. In developing those model procurement requirements, the Alliance noted that at that time the software community was talking about interoperability of their products but the only "interoperability" existed within the same suite of building regulatory system products offered by several firms for their own software products. There was no true interoperability across product lines or across functional areas.

That being the case, in the summer of 2003, with funding from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Alliance developed background materials concerning interoperability and held a summit meeting in New York City September 24, 2004, to bring together the information technology, construction and building regulatory communities to discuss cooperative steps that can be taken to develop true interoperability between hardware and software programs and systems.

In January-February the project shared with the information technology community recommendations from state and local building departments as to the highest priority areas that need to have data become interoperable. By March 31, 2004, that initiative completed a round of drafting sessions between state and local building officials and the I.T. community out of which additional steps towards making hardware and software interoperable were identified.

Under this cooperative agreement with HUD, the Alliance developed a set of criteria to work with the hardware and software community to research the feasibility of jurisdictions beginning to include in I.T. procurements provisions that mandate that hardware and software be interoperable by the summer of 2004.

III. ACTIONS TAKEN

1. From March 4 to April 7, NCSBCS, in coordination with members of the Task 3 Work Group,

the Alliance’s Technology Task Force, and representatives from the I.T. community, took the following actions to assess the feasibility of mandating an interoperability statement be included in the Alliance’s Model Procurement Requirements.

1. NCSBCS assembled and disseminated Alliance interoperability project materials being made available in late March 2004, and shared the above materials with state and local governments and representatives from the hardware, software and intermediateware industries to gain their input on those materials and how they see that work can support the inclusion of an updated interoperability requirement in future procurement by state and local governments.
2. Input received has generated a revised interoperability statement that can be included in the Alliance’s model procurement requirements.
3. NCSBCS in March and April met and held conference calls with representatives from the information technology community and state and local governments to discuss the feasibility of including a revised statement in the Model Procurement Requirements. In these sessions, it was agreed that the interoperability statement can be used and a realistic timetable can be developed as to when the industry will be able to respond to such mandate by state and local governments.

1. In mid-April, NCSBCS submitted to the National Institute of Standards and Technology and gained approval for the update of the Alliance’s Model Procurement Requirements to include an interoperability statement.
2. Beginning on the next page of this report is the Alliance’s updated Model Procurement Requirements with an interoperability statement for HUD’s consideration. In late April, NCSBCS posted this updated model on its website and is offering it for use nationwide.
3. Also in mid-April, NCSBCS submitted to NIST the implementation plan for gaining use by state and local governments of the updated Model Procurement Requirements. It is part of this report and follows the Model Procurement Requirements.

4. NEXT STEPS

1. NCSBCS recommends that HUD and other Alliance partners, including NAHB, Fannie Mae, and U. S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Housing Service, assist NCSBCS in executing the attached implementation plan.

  B.    NCSBCS recommends that HUD and other Alliance partners plan and conduct a
          second Summit on Streamlining the Nation’s Building Regulatory Process Through
          Interoperability in mid-to-late summer.