Community of Interest

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A Community of Interest is a group of participants that share an interest, purpose, mission, problem, or information need within a defined subject area.

Participants can include:

• Organizations
• Organizational units
• Users
• Subject-matter experts
• System owners
• System operators
• Developers
• Test authorities
• Evaluators
• Regulators
• Standards bodies
• Automated systems
• Other interested parties

A Community of Interest can establish or maintain:

• Shared objectives
• Shared terminology
• Shared information requirements
• Shared data models
• Shared Test Definitions
• Shared Test Environments
• Shared Baselines
• Shared Catalogs
• Shared Policies
• Shared Governance Policies
• Shared evaluation criteria
• Shared Evidence requirements
• Shared interoperability expectations

A Community of Interest can identify:

• Its identity
• Its name
• Its description
• Its purpose
• Its subject area
• Its participating Organizations
• Its participating Users
• Its applicable Roles
• Its governing authority
• Its applicable Governance Domain
• Its participation rules
• Its decision process
• Its applicable Policies
• Its shared resources
• Its Provenance
• Its Traceability

group of participants that share an interest, purpose, mission, problem, or information need within a defined subject area

Adapted from:

• DIDO Reference Architecture
• DIDO Reference Implementation Conceptual Model
• DIDO-TE draft Requirements Register

A Community of Interest differs from an Organization:

• An Organization has an identifiable organizational identity, purposes, structure, and responsibilities
• A Community of Interest groups participants according to a shared interest, purpose, mission, problem, or information need

A Community of Interest can exist:

• Within one Organization
• Across multiple Organizations
• Across organizational and jurisdictional boundaries
• For a limited duration
• As a continuing community

Membership in a Community of Interest does not by itself transfer ownership, authority, or responsibility among participating Organizations.

A Community of Interest does not necessarily have independent legal identity or governing authority. The applicable Governance Policy must identify any authority exercised by or on behalf of the Community of Interest.

Multiple Communities of Interest can use the same DIDO-TE deployment while applying different:

• Test Definitions
• Test Environments
• Baselines
• Governance Policies
• Access controls
• Evidence requirements
• Validation criteria

A distributed-systems testing Community of Interest includes:

• Government acquisition Organizations
• Test laboratories
• System developers
• Technology vendors
• Security evaluators
• Standards organizations

The participants share:

• A DIDO-TE Test Environment
• A Catalog of Test Definitions
• Approved Baselines
• Common Test Result formats
• Evidence requirements
• Rules for making Validation Decisions

Each participating Organization retains its own authority and responsibilities while using the shared resources established for the Community of Interest.