Issue 1.2 - May 4, 2007
1. Introduction
2. Certification Against the NSI Bar Code Technical Standard
2.1 Registering your Technology within the Web-Based Certification/Verification System
2.1.1 Payment
2.2 Producing a Conformance Statement
2.3.1 Downloading the Validation Data
4. Certified Entity Modifications and Updates
This document is a supplement to the Guide to the NSI Certification and Verification Program and is intended to be used in conjunction with that document. This supplement is for organizations who want to certify a technology with the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries (NASPL) Standards Initiative Certification Program for Bar Code Technology.
This Guide Supplement will guide you through all the Bar Code specific steps required for certification. Steps that are common to all NASPL Standards Initiative (NSI) certification/verification programs are described in the Guide to the NSI Certification and Verification Program.
Note: In the event of any conflicts, this guide defers to the NSI Certification/Verification Policy and Policy Supplements, the applicable NASPL Trademark License Agreement, and the NSI Certification/Verification Agreement.
The specification currently referenced for NSI Bar Code certification is:
These are referenced by the NSI Conformance Requirements documents and are located at http://www.opengroup.org/naspl/published.
The current NSI Bar Code Conformance Requirements document against which Bar Code technologies can be certified is:
Certification will involve validating that your organization has correctly and completely implemented the Technical Standard within your organization. The first step towards certification against the Bar Code Technical Standard is to deploy the Technical Standard within your organization. This involves making the changes necessary to your organization's business processes or technologies to ensure that they are in conformance with the requirements defined in the Technical Standard.
To achieve certification, your organization must complete both the organization-level steps described in the Guide to the NSI Certification and Verification Program as well as the Bar Code specific steps described below.
The organization-level steps are registering your organization within the web-based certification/verification system and completing the applicable Trademark License Agreement. These steps need to be performed only once per organization.
When determining the scope of the technology you wish to certify, please note that Bar Code Terminal certification and Integrated Gaming System certification each provide certification for a set of components. The individual components within these technologies are not certified by virtue of the set being certified and cannot be represented as certified unless they have also been separately certified.
Prior to registering your technology, please ensure that:
The first step for Bar Code certification is to register your technology. The subsequent steps for NSI Bar Code certification are:
To register a technology to be certified, go to http://www.opengroup.org/naspl/conformance, enter the secure web server, and "Login" to the NSI certification web site using your username and password. Note: If you see a login link immediately upon accessing the system, then you are already on the secure server and may proceed directly with the login. The next step is to click on Organization Home to go to your organization's home page and select "New business practice or technology registration" (in the middle of the page).
When you register your technology, you are required to select the NSI Conformance Requirements document against which you wish to certify, provide information on your technology, and have the ability to send notes to the Certification and Verification Authority. Within the system you must specify the following:
Please refer to the NSI Policy Supplement for Bar Code Certification for descriptions of each of these technology types.
In addition, you will need to specify the certification contacts specific to certification of the technology you are registering:
Once you have completed all fields, select the "Submit for registration" button. You will then be presented with the NSI Certification/Verification Agreement, which you must accept in order to proceed with this technology registration. The final step in the registration phase is providing payment information, as detailed in Section 2.1.1, Payment, below.
You are then returned to you organization's certification home page, from which you can select the "Next" link for the technology being submitted. Through use of the "Next" link, the system will guide you through the steps that you need to follow to certify a technology.
Details concerning payment procedures common to all NSI certifications can be found in Section 4.1.1, "Payment" , in the Guide to the NSI Certification and Verification Program.
After submission of your payment information and receipt of payment by The Open Group, you may return to your organization's home page via the "Organization Home" link and then select the "Next" button for your registration.
This step must be completed before the Certification and Verification Authority can begin the validation process for your technology.
A Conformance Statement describes your technology and how it meets the conformance requirements. Your Conformance Statement will be linked into the Register entry for the technology once it is certified. A Conformance Statement Questionnaire is available for each Conformance Requirements document at: http://www.opengroup.org/naspl/conformance/docs/csqs.html. The currently available Conformance Statement Questionnaire is listed below, corresponding to the Conformance Requirements document:
You must complete the relevant questionnaire to create a Conformance Statement for your technology. See Sections 2.3 and 3.3 of the general NSI Certification/Verification Policy document for further information on the purpose of the Conformance Statement.
Within the web-based certification/verification system, you have the ability to create a new Conformance Statement, edit a Conformance Statement Questionnaire that is in the process of being completed, and finally, when ready, submit the completed Conformance Statement to the Certification and Verification Authority. This is done by going to your organization home page, selecting the "Next" step button for your technology, clicking the "Conformance Statement" link and then selecting the "Create/edit/submit Conformance Statement" button. Please see Appendix A, "Using the Editing Tool", in the Guide to the NSI Certification and Verification Program for information on using the editing tool to create, edit, and submit your Conformance Statement.
The Conformance Statement Questionnaires have common front matter, which asks for the following information about your organization, the technology to be certified, and rationales for any requirements of the Technical Standard that your organization did not implement.
The Conformance Statement Questionnaires also contain questions specific to the set of conformance requirements against which your technology is to be certified. These questions are intended to characterize how your technology meets the conformance requirements.
During the validation process, the Certification and Verification Authority will work with you in progressing your registration through the process. At any point in time, you will be able to see the status and progress of the validation process in the web-based certification/verification system by selecting the "Next" step button for your registration from your organization's home page.
In cases where your organization has responsibility for progressing the validation process, notification will be sent to your Primary Technical Contact and Alternate Technical Contact regarding what is required of your organization.
In preparation for the validation process, you should download and carefully read the NSI Bar Code Validation Specification. This document provides details concerning the format of the Validation Data, the design and implementation of the Validation Harness, performance of the validation process, and the contents of the Validation Report, including the format for the Validation Results.
A Bar Code Technology that is being submitted for certification will be validated using a unique set of Validation Data that has been generated based on the contents of the Conformance Statement you have submitted. You will be notified by email when this Validation Data is available for download and provided with an appropriate link on the system for accessing the file to be downloaded.
The Validation Specification provides information on setting up your validation environment and creating the Validation Harness that will be used to perform the validation of your Bar Code Technology, using the Validation Data downloaded from the system. The Validation Specification also contains information on the documentation you will need to submit to the Certification and Verification Authority after you have performed the validation, including the format for such documentation.
After performing the validation process, you should return to the system. From your organization home page, you may select the "Next" steps button for the entity being certified, where you will have the ability to upload your Validation Report and documentation for your Validation Harness.
Once your submission, including the validation process, is complete and a NASPL Trademark License Agreement is in place, you will be notified of successful certification within 10 business days. If for any reason the submission was not complete, you will be notified so that any corrections can be made and resubmitted. This step, which is common to all NSI Certification and Verification Programs, is described in further detail in the Guide to the NSI Certification and Verification Program.
You should note that certification is valid for a defined period as stated in Section 9.1, "Duration of Certification", of the general NSI Certification/Verification Policy document. At the end of that period, if you wish your technology to remain certified, you will need to renew your certification as defined in Section 3, Renewals Process, below.
When your technology is certified, it remains so for a defined period, after which it must be renewed or the technology will no longer continue to be certified. At any time, you may use the web-based certification/verification system to obtain the renewal date for each of your certified technologies.
Renewal implies that your technology continues to conform for the duration of the renewal period.
Around three months prior to the expiration of your technology's certification, your Primary and Alternate Technical Contacts will be notified that renewal is due. They must respond to the Certification and Verification Authority within 30 calendar days indicating whether or not your organization would like to renew certification; otherwise, your certification will expire on the renewal date. Renewal may be subject to a re-validation of your technology and must be completed prior to your renewal date.
Renewal is performed using the web-based certification/verification system. You may access the renewals page from your organization's home page in the system. When you select the certified technology to be renewed, you will be presented with a web renewal form to complete.
Please see Section 9, "Renewal", of the general NSI Certification/Verification Policy document for further information on the requirements and process for renewal.
Any modifications to your Certified Entity must be made in accordance with the requirements defined in the NSI Certification/Verification Policy. You should read the requirements in the policy documents thoroughly since they describe multiple scenarios related to technology changes. In some cases, the modification or update necessitates a new certification, whereas in other cases, you may update your existing certification.
Updates to your technology's certification are performed using the web-based certification/verification system. You may access the updates page from your organization's home page in the system. When you select the certified technology to be updated, you will be presented with a web form to be used to indicate to the Certification and Verification Authority the type of change.
The types of changes that may be made to a technology certified against the Bar Code Technical Standard are defined in Section 5, "Certification/Verification Requirements for Modifications of a Certified/Verified Entity", of the NSI Policy Supplement for Bar Code Certification.
If the "Certification Requirement" identified in the policy document is either "Certification Information update" or "Conformance Statement update", you must complete the web form to provide information on the requested change and provide the Certification and Verification Authority with any required information or documentation. Upon review and acceptance of such information or documentation and receipt of payment for amending your registration, the Certification and Verification Authority will update your certification information.
If the "Certification Requirement" is "New Certification", then this change is considered a new technology and is subject to a new certification. In this case, your organization should register this technology for certification using the "new business practice or technology registration" link accessible from your organization's home page.
Any other change must be communicated to the Certification and Verification Authority within 30 calendar days of such change. The Certification and Verification Authority will then determine what the associated validation and certification requirements are for such change.
©The Open Group 2001-2007
Updated on May 4, 2007