scope:

The present document details a proposal for ETSI activities related to testing conformance and interoperability performed in parallel with the building up and promotion of the Rationalized Framework for Electronic Signature Standardization [i.1].

The critical deliverables, European Standards and Technical Specifications, of the Framework [i.1] that are in preparation at the time of publication of the present document and whose development, adoption and deployment would largely benefit from the organization of testing events are identified together with the required conformity testing tools.

An appropriate scheduling of events for testing interoperability and conformance is proposed, to help ensure that a reasonable amount of implementations are available in the market for being tested and that these tests may actually impact in due time the standardization process, allowing to fix any problem (interoperability, ambiguity, etc.) present in the deliverables under development that are identified during these events.

Finally, a scheduling of conformity testing tools development and deployment is defined, including also recommendations about when and how they will be made available to the community.