This document is a guide for suppliers who want to certify products in the HTNG
Certification Program. It will guide
you through all the steps required for certification.
HTNG certification is awarded to those products that have been certified by the
HTNG Certification Authority as
having demonstrated their conformance to the applicable conformance requirements. The detailed requirements for conformance are
identified in the HTNG Product Specifications. Only suppliers of
a certified product may use the
HTNG trademark in connection with their product.
The HTNG Certification Policy governs the
HTNG Certification Program. The use of the HTNG trademark
is governed by the HTNG Trademark License Agreement. The
HTNG Certification Agreement covers the terms and conditions of
the certification service, along with the obligations of the supplier certifying
a product. Your organization must agree to the terms and conditions outlined in all three documents prior to certification. For
your convenience, significant highlights of the HTNG certification process are outlined below, and
later sections provide more comprehensive information.
The HTNG certification program is administered on behalf of the
HTNG by its designated Certification Authority,
The Open Group.
You will be granted a license to use the HTNG trademark
in connection with your product when your product has met all the requirements
of the program, including passing the
applicable test suite(s), and you have formally agreed to all the required terms.
The HTNG Trademark License Agreement must be fully signed (signatures are required from both you and the
The Open Group) in order to have a product certified.
A certified product is subject to renewal of certification on a periodic basis as stated in the
HTNG Certification Policy.
All product information supplied to the Certification Authority will be treated as confidential, as required by the
HTNG Certification Agreement.
The HTNG Certification Authority may, from time to time, request proof that your product remains in compliance with the
requirements outlined in the HTNG conformance requirements, as required by the
HTNG Certification Policy.
At the end of this document is a Certification Checklist to help you make sure that your product
registration is complete.
1.1 Referenced Specification(s)
The specification(s) currently referenced for the HTNG certification program are:
HTNG Property Web Services Single Guest Itinerary Message Flow Documentation 1.0
HTNG Property Web Services Single Guest Itinerary Message Specification 1.0
HTNG Property Web Services Framework 2.0
HTNG Property Distribution Solution Business Process - Reservations 1.0
HTNG Property Distribution Solution Business Process - Rates 1.0
HTNG Property Distribution Solution Business Process - Availability 1.0
HTNG Property Distribution Solution Usage Profile - Reservations
HTNG Property Distribution Solution Usage Profile - Rates 1.0.2
HTNG Property Distribution Solution Usage Profile - Availability 1.0.3
These are referenced by the HTNG Product Specifications and are located at http://www.opengroup.org/htng/specs/ .
You may contact the HTNG Certification Authority via email at htng-cert-admin@opengroup.org
for questions regarding certification.
1.4 Email Notifications from the HTNG Certification Authority
Email notifications will be sent to your organization's designated
certification contacts by the HTNG Certification Authority. These notifications
will provide information on the actions required by your organization to certify
a product or renew or update a product's certification as well as status on your
certifications.
Email will be sent from the email
address for either the HTNG Certification Authority's (htng-cert-admin@opengroup.org)
or the web-based certification system (Certification.Web@opengroup.org).
Please ensure that if your organization has spam filters in place that your
organization's certification contacts will be able to receive email
notifications from these two email addresses.
2. How to Achieve HTNG Certification
This guide details the steps you are required to take to achieve
certification and provides information on how to perform each
of these steps.
The process involves:
Understanding the certification program and process, including the
confidentiality policies
Validating the product informally
Registering your product for certification
Formal testing and submission of results
2.1 Understanding the Certification Program
To become familiar with the program, you should read the following program documents:
The HTNG Certification Policy
The HTNG Product Specifications
2.1.1 The HTNG Certification Policy
It is best to start with the HTNG Certification Policy, which is the foundation of the program. It provides information on
what can be certified, what it means to be certified, and what is required
for achieving and maintaining a product certification.
2.1.2 The HTNG Product Specifications
The HTNG Product Specifications should then be read to understand the detailed conformance requirements against which a product
may be certified. Product Specifications provide a mapping between certification, the
HTNG specification(s), and the validation procedures needed, if any, to
demonstrate conformance. There is a HTNG Product Specification for each
category of product that can be certified.
The current Product Specifications against which products may be certified are:
You should review Section 3, Conformance of the HTNG
Certification Policy and the HTNG Product Specifications to
identify those against which you would like to have your product certified.
2.2 Confidentiality
Your organization and product information is absolutely confidential between you and the
HTNG Certification Authority. This
is effective once you accept the HTNG Certification Agreement,
which is a prerequisite to
registering for certification. The
Certification Authority does not make any certification information
available to any third party, without the written permission of the
supplier.
Upon successful completion of the certification process, the certified product will be included in the publicly available
Certification Register at http://www.opengroup.org/htng/cert/register.html.
However, to enable
you to launch a certified product, you may request that certification remain
confidential for up to 6 months from the date of
written notification by the Certification Authority that a product has achieved
certification. A request that certification remain confidential can be made when defining the product at the commencement of a
product registration (see the section below on Registering Your Product Within the Web Certification System).
See Section 12
of the HTNG Certification Policy for further information on the
confidentiality policy.
2.3 Informal Validation
For the initial product specifications in the HTNG certification program
there are no validation procedures
and so informal invalidation should be by whatever methods you
deem appropriate, to make sure that your product meets the applicable
conformance requirements and is ready for entry into the certification program.
2.3.1 Problems and Problem Reporting
If you believe there is a problem in the Product Specification or
underlying specification(s) that would prevent you from certifying your
product then please check the Problem Report information database at
http://www.opengroup.org/htng/cert/PR.
The online Problem Report database contains known information on
existing bugs and interpretations of the specification that effect
certification. The issue may already be resolved by a HTNG specification
Interpretation. If it is not, please raise a new Problem Report at
http://www.opengroup.org/htng/cert/PR .
2.4 Certification
Certification is a formal process. You, as a supplier of a certified product,
must warrant and represent
that your
product meets all the conformance requirements applicable to the
Product Specification against which it is certified and implements all
the features claimed in the Conformance Statement.
The obligations, terms, and conditions of certification are fully set out in the following documents:
HTNG Certification Policy
HTNG Trademark License Agreement
HTNG Certification Agreement
These documents are available via the HTNG web certification
system at http://www.opengroup.org/htng/cert/.
It is necessary to read these documents before you start the certification process in order to fully understand the policies and
requirements.
2.5 The HTNG Trademark
License Agreement (TMLA)
The HTNG Trademark License Agreement is between you and The Open Group
and requires signature by each party. The TMLA defines
the terms under which you will license the certification trademark for use in
connection with your certified products.
It is recommended
that you commence the process to complete the HTNG Trademark License Agreement as soon as possible to save delays later in the
certification process. A Trademark License Agreement must be
completed before a product can complete the certification process and be entered
onto the Certification Register.
The Trademark License Agreement only needs to be entered into once per organization.
Once it is in place multiple products can
be certified, without the need to execute another agreement with The Open Group.
2.6 The HTNG Certification Agreement
You are required to agree to the HTNG Certification Agreement for each product registration.
The HTNG Certification Agreement is between you and the Certification Authority. It defines the certification service
provided by the Certification Authority and
the legal commitment by your organization to the conditions of the certification
program. This is also where
you warrant conformance of your product to the relevant Product Specification.
3. Product Registration
There are several steps that may be performed in parallel to start the
certification process. The
HTNG Trademark License Agreement and the Conformance
Statement Questionnaires are available on the HTNG certification web site. These
documents may be downloaded before you formally register your organization and/or
product with the HTNG certification system, as these documents may take some time
to review and complete.
3.1 Completing the Trademark License Agreement
A requirement of certification is that you must execute a Trademark License Agreement
with The Open Group.
Although a completed Trademark License Agreement is not
required before you commence with organization and product registration, we recommend
that you submit your signed Trademark License Agreement to The Open Group
as early as possible in the process. You should download the TMLA from the link
provided within the web certification system and follow the instructions for
submitting it to The Open Group. Once you have submitted it to The Open Group,
you should enter the date of submittal into the web certification system (at the
bottom of your organization home page). This will enable the
Certification Authority to follow-up with The Open Group legal department
to ensure the TMLA is countersigned by them.
3.2 Producing a Conformance Statement
Another step that should be performed early in the process is
producing a Conformance Statement to describe your product and how it
meets the conformance requirements.
Your Conformance Statement will be linked into the Certification
Register entry for the product once it is certified. A
Conformance Statement Questionnaire is available for each Product
Specification at http://www.opengroup.org/htng/cert/conformance.html.
The currently available Conformance Statement Questionnaires are:
You must complete the relevant questionnaire to create a Conformance Statement for your product. See
Section 2 step #2 and Section 3.3 of the HTNG Certification Policy for further information on the purpose of the
Conformance Statement.
Conformance Statement Questionnaires are provided as html
templates. You should download the template and
edit the html to provide your response, retaining the existing layout.
You must submit the completed Conformance Statement to the
Certification Authority using the web certification system. Conversion
to other formats besides html, or changes to the template in sections
other than those
allocated for responses are not acceptable and will result in the
Certification Authority rejecting your
submission.
Conformance Statement Questionnaires have common front
matter, which asks for the following information about
your organization, the product to be certified, and the environments in which
conformance is validated and warranted:
Submitter Information - your organization's name and your name as author of the conformance statement.
The organization name must match the name that was entered in the web
certification system.
Product Information - the name of your product and its unique version/release identifier.
The Conformance Statement Questionnaire also contains HTNG-specific questions
intended to characterize how your product meets the conformance requirements,
including how the product handles implementation-specific areas of the
specification.
3.3 Registering your Organization within the Web Certification System
The HTNG Certification Authority provides a web-based certification system through which products can be submitted for
certification. The entry point is at http://www.opengroup.org/htng/cert/.
In order to use the web-based certification system, you will need
to obtain
an account on the Certification Authority's web server, complete a
Organization Registration Form
to identify your organization and contact information, and accept the
terms and conditions of the
HTNG certification program. The Certification Authority must
approve your organization registration before your organization account
becomes activated. Access to the web certification system will
only be granted to your organization's designated contacts, after your
organization
account has been activated.
If this is not your organization's first product registration, you should skip to
the next section, Registering your Product.
To register a product, you must already be registered as the designated
Authorized, Technical, or Alternate contact for a organization that has applied and
been accepted into the program (see below). Please take the following steps to
register your organization and its contacts:
You will need a username and password on the The Open Group's web
server for identification purposes. If you don't yet have an account,
you may obtain one from the HTNG certification web site by
selecting "Enter secure site" to enter the secure web server then selecting
"New cert user" to create your username and password. Once you have
received a confirmation email indicating that you are a registered user, you
may return to the web certification system and proceed with the next step.
Select "Register organization for certification". You may need to "Enter secure
site" again in order to see this option. You will need to indicate your acceptance
of the terms and conditions of the HTNG
certification program to gain entry into the certification system.
To register your organization, you need to provide information about your organization and
specify the name and contact information for the following contacts:
The Authorized Signatory who will authorize your organization's
registration. The Authorized Signatory must be someone who is authorized to
enter into legal commitments on behalf of the organization.
The Technical Contact, who will be the primary contact for all certification-related
issues. The Technical Contact and the Alternate Contact, if specified, are the
only users who will have the ability to register products using
the web certification system.
An optional Alternate Contact, who will be the back-up for the
Technical Contact and also have access to the web certification system to
register products.
The Financial Contact, who will be the contact for any payment
and/or invoicing issues.
An optional Marketing Contact, who will be the contact for any
marketing-related certification issues.
The web-based certification system will then send electronic mail to your designated Authorized
Signatory who must respond by electronic mail to the Certification Authority to acknowledge and
authorize your organization's registration. The Certification Authority will verify the response and, if the requirements are
met, accept your organization for entry into the HTNG certification system.
When the above steps are complete and the Certification Authority
has responded to your designated Authorized Signatory with notification
that your
organization's registration has been accepted, your Technical and
Alternate contacts will receive confirmation by electronic mail from
the web certification system that your organization account has been
activated. At this point, your
Authorized Signatory, Technical Contact, and Alternate Contact will be
able to progress to the next stage
which is accessing the web certification system to complete Product
Registration.
3.4 Registering your Product within the Web Certification System
To register a product to be certified, you must first enter the secure web
server and "Login" to the HTNG certification web site
using your username and password. The next step is to click on the Registration
Wizard to go to your organization's home page and select "Start a New
Registration".
When you register your product, you are required to provide information on your
product, select the product standard against which you wish to certify, and have
the ability to send notes to the Certification Authority:
Product Specification - the product specification against which you want to
certify your product. You must select the applicable product
standard.
Product Name - the name by which the product is known in
the market, and as you would like it to appear publicly in the certification
register
Product Version - the product version for which conformance is
claimed and warranted.
Product Description (optional) - textual overview or description
of your product
Product URL (optional) - web address for your product.
If specified, this URL will be included in the Certification Register.
Confidentiality (optional)- a selection to indicate whether you
would like this product registration to be kept confidential prior to
product launch in accordance with the provisions of the HTNG
Certification Policy. The default is not to keep the registration
confidential.
HTNG Membership - please indicate whether or not your organization
is currently an HTNG Member. Note that in order to qualify for HTNG
Member pricing, your organization must be an HTNG Member in good standing at the time of payment.
General Notes (optional) - this is an area for you to provide any notes to the
Certification Authority about this registration. Anything included in this
area will be confidential between you and the Certification Authority.
Once you have completed all fields, select the "View and
Accept the Terms and Conditions"
button. You will then be presented with the HTNG Certification Agreement, which
you must accept in order to proceed with this product registration.
You are then presented with a payment screen.
3.4.1 Payment
Payment is required to complete the first stage of registering a product.
Payment may be via credit card at the time of registration,
or by purchase order, check, or wire transfer received by the Certification Authority
in
advance of the registration.
See
http://www.opengroup.org/htng/cert/docs/HTNG_Fee_Schedule.html
for the fee schedule. Please note that if you use a payment method
other than
credit card,
your registration cannot be processed until payment has been received
by the Certification Authority, and will be placed on hold, although
that
does not prevent you from uploading your conformance statement.
3.5 Uploading your Conformance Statement
The next step is to upload your completed Conformance Statement
file (see Section 3.2, The
Conformance Statement) to the web certification system.
3.6 Completion of Certification
Once you have completed all the required steps above, the web certification
system will detect that the submission is complete and automatically
notify the Certification Authority.
If your submission is not on hold, is
complete and correct and a HTNG Trademark
License Agreement is in place, you will be notified of successful
certification within 6 business days.
If for any reason the submission was not complete, you will be notified so that
any corrections can be made and resubmitted. Such a resubmission needs to be done within 60 calendar days
unless an extension has
been granted by the Certification Authority. The initial fee covers one set of corrective actions.
Once you have been notified of a successful certification, your product
will be put on the public Certification Register, unless you
requested that it remains confidential. To keep the certification confidential,
this option must be selected in the web certification system at the time the
product is submitted. In this case, your product will not be added to the
Certification Register until the earlier of your notification to the Certification Authority that you
would like to end the confidential period, or the expiration of the confidential period,
which occurs six months from notification of a successful certification.
When a product certification has been made public, you will be able to
obtain a certificate from the certification register.
You should note that certification is valid for a defined period as stated in Section
9.1, Duration of Certification of
the HTNG Certification Policy. At the end of that period, if you wish your product to remain certified you will need to renew
your product's certification as defined in Section 4.1, The Renewals
Process below.
4. Renewals and Certified Product Updates
4.1 The Renewals Process
When your product is certified, certification is valid for 12
months, after which it must be renewed or the product will no
longer continue to be certified. Certification expires on the renewal date, which may be
found on the certification register. If the product is not renewed by the
Renewal Date, it will be removed from the register.
The Certification Authority will provide renewal reminders via email to all of your organization's designated certification contacts at three points in time (provided that your organization has not yet renewed the product certification or declined renewal): 2 months, 1 month, and 1 week prior to the
Renewal Date. It is important that
your organization keep information on the designated certification contacts
up-to-date so you are ensured of receiving the renewal notices.
Your organization must complete the renewal process by the renewal date in
order for the product to remain on the certification register. Completion of
renewal includes:
Registering for renewal in the certification system
Providing payment
Submitting a Conformance Statement and re-validating
your product, if applicable
Achieving renewal of your certification, as reflected by an updated entry on the certification register with a new renewal date
A product that is in the process of being renewed on the
Renewal Date will be
removed from the certification register until the renewal process is complete,
at which time the product will be restored to the register with the renewal date
extended by 12 months. Once restored, the certification will appear continuous
in that the First Certified date shown on the certification register will
reflect the date the product was originally certified and there will be no
record of the product having dropped off the register. If the renewal process
for a product has not commenced in the certification system by the Renewal Date,
the product is no longer certified against the specified product standard and
will be removed from the register; a new certification will be required to
restore the product to the register.
Renewal is performed using the certification system. From your organization's home page,
select "Renew a Certified Product or see your Renewal Summary" under
"Available Options". When your product is eligible for renewal (i.e.,
is within 60 calendar days of the Renewal Date), it will appear under
"Products Eligible for Renewal". Select the "Renew" link and
complete the questions on the renewal form to start the renewal process.
Renewal implies that your product continues to conform and that you will
continue to support your product for the duration of the renewal period. You can elect to renew for the next certification period or, at your option,
elect for a shorter period.
In order to qualify for HTNG Member pricing for renewal, your company must be an HTNG
Member in good standing at the time of payment for renewal.
4.2 Certified Product Updates
If you make any changes to your certified product, you may be required to re-certify
or update your certification information as required by Section
7,
Certification Requirements for Modifications of a Certified Product of the
HTNG Certification Policy. You
should read that section thoroughly since it describes multiple scenarios related to product changes, some of which require a
certification-related activity. In some cases, a new certification is required since the update is equivalent to a new
product as far as certification is concerned.
To update a certified product, go to your organization's home page in the certification
system and select the "Modify a Certified Product" link under
"Available Options". This will display the Certified Product Updates page
that will allow you to select the type of update you would like to make and will guide you
through the process.
Note that in order to qualify for HTNG Member
pricing for an update to your Certified Product, your company must be an HTNG
Member in good standing at the time of payment for such update.
4.2.1 Other Scenarios
In all other scenarios, a product is considered a new product for the purpose
of certification and is subject to the full validation and certification process described above in Section 3, Product
Registration.
5. Supporting Processes
5.1 Appeals Process
You may appeal decisions made by HTNG or the Certification Authority as stated in Section
11, Appeals Process of the HTNG Certification Policy. Any request for appeal should be sent by electronic mail to the Certification Authority.
Receipt of such a request will be acknowledged within
six business days by the Certification Authority and
the appeals process invoked.
6. Certification Checklist
The following checklist is provided to assist with completion of your product registration:
Understanding the certification program and process
Have you read the HTNG Certification Policy?
YES / NO
Have you read the applicable HTNG Product Specification(s)?
YES / NO
Informal Validation
Have you identified the currently authorized validation
procedures required for your product?
YES / NO
Have you read the HTNG Certification frequently asked questions file?
YES / NO
Have you completed your informal validation?
YES / NO
Have you filed all the necessary Problem Reports?
YES / NO
Legal Agreements
Have you read the HTNG Trademark License Agreement?
YES / NO
Have you read the HTNG Certification Agreement?
YES / NO
Have you passed the above agreements to your legal representative?
YES / NO
Has the HTNG Trademark License Agreement been completed and submitted to
The Open Group? (hardcopy required)
YES / NO
In the HTNG web system, have you entered the date you submitted
the HTNG Trademark License Agreement to
The Open Group for signature? This needs to be done once only
per organization and has to be complete before the first product can
complete certification.
YES / NO
Using the Web Certification System
Do you have an account (userid/password) to access The Open Group's web system?
YES / NO
If this is your first HTNG Certification, have
you registered your organization for certification, including providing
information
on your organization and your designated contacts?
YES / NO
Has your Authorized Signatory received notice from the Certification Authority regarding your request to participate in the
HTNG certification program?
YES / NO
Has your Authorized Signatory responded, denoting acceptance of the terms and conditions of participation?
YES / NO
If this is your first HTNG Certification, has
your organization been accepted by the Certification Authority, and
given notice to
proceed?
YES / NO
Product Registration
If an alternative payment method other than credit card is
required for this registration, have you contacted the Certification Authority
for more information?
YES / NO
Have you completed the Conformance Statement for your product?
YES / NO
Have you entered the information required about the product you wish to have
certified?
YES / NO
Have you uploaded the Conformance Statement for your product?
