Section 10.6

10.6 DATA FORMATS AND DELIVERY STANDARDS

10.6.1 Contract Data Requirements Lists

10.6.6 Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

10.6 DATA FORMATS AND DELIVERY STANDARDS

10.6.1 Contract Data Requirements Lists

Specific data requirements, formats, and delivery modes will have to be specified for each project on one or more Contract Data Requirements Lists (CDRLs). Generic guidelines for multi-national projects have been prepared by AC/313 (Committee on Acquisition Practices) and this subject is being considered in detail in the NCMB/NICG-sponsored Acquisition Workshop (1994-1996)

Guidelines [ E ]	AC/313 - D/67	9 Jun 95
Standard [ ]	STANAG		NK
Profile [ ]

10.6.2 Classified Data

Classified data will be safeguarded in accordance with the NATO Regulations appropriate to each Project. [ C-M (55)15(FINAL) ].

10.6.3 Data Encryption

In the past, data encryption needs could only be met, legally, through the use of Government-approved encryption methods. More recently, however, commercial encryption methods have been developed and are now in use within NATO although the approval for such activity has not yet been confirmed as being generally applicable.

Standard [ ]
Standard [ ]	STANAG	NK
Profile [ ]

10.6.4 Digital Signatures

Digital signatures may be specified in accordance with Electronic Data Interchange agreements which form part of the contractual negotiations on a project. Although this subject is still in its infancy, guidelines are under development by AC/313 together with suitable sample clauses for use in Electronic Data Interchange agreements.

The following standards currently apply.

Standard [R]	ISO/IEC 9796	1991 Ed 1	Information Technology - Security Techniques - Digital Signature Scheme giving Message Recovery
Profile [E]	FIPS 161-1		US Federal Information Processing Standard
Standard [ ]	STANAG		NK
Guidance [ ]	AC/313 -D/66	14 Sep 95

10.6.5 Digital Data Delivery

Data will be acquired in digital form unless specific operational reasons dictate otherwise.

Product (Equipment) Data should be developed and presented in digital form regardless of the intended use of such data throughout the product or equipment life-cycle.
Data with a relatively short life (eg Agenda, Minutes, schedules, spreadsheets, plans, progress reports) may be specified according to project management requirements:
- According to the standards contained in this Section
- According to administrative standards used in the project (For Example HQ NATO has adopted WordPerfect for word-processing and Microsoft Excel for Spreadsheets). The are not CALS Standards but their specification may satisfy the management requirement
- Mutually Agreeable Commercial Software agreed by all participants in a Project.

In general it should be noted that, in principle, CALS products should be software and hardware independent. Any departure from this principle must take into account the eventual use of the data so acquired and management should consider not only Project Office requirements but also the needs of the users during the whole of the life-cycle, so far as these may be ascertained.

10.51. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

Data Exchange should be specified by electronic means unless operational requirements have determined that such means are inappropriate or not cost-effective.

Standard [R]	ISO 7372	UN/ECE TDED Vol 1	EDIFACT Data Element Directory
Standard [R]	ISO 9735	1988 Amdt 1:1992	Electronic Data Interchange for Finance, Administration, Commerce and Transport (EDIFACT) Syntax Rules
Standard [T]	ANSI X.12	Version 3 Release 3 Sub-release 2 (June 1993)
Profile [E]	FIPS 161-1		US Federal Information Processing Standard (EDIFACT) (Transaction Set 841?)
Standard [ T ]	STANAG 5500		NATO MESSAGE TEXT FORMATTING SYSTEM
Profile [ T ]	AdatP-3		Allied Data Publication 3 - NATO Message Text Formatting System Part 1 - Rules & Procedures

Note: An EDIFACT-compliant version of AECMA Specification 2000M was issued in DRAFT in late-1995 and will be formally issued in 1996.. Whereas X.12 is the current Requirement of US CALS DoD, it should also be noted that MIL-HDBK-59B and MIL-STD-974(CITIS) explicitly reference FIPS 161-1 EDIFACT for CALS applications and ANSI have submitted appropriate change requests to facilitate migration to EDIFACT . UN/ECE EDIFACT is expected to be adopted as the NATO standard in the near future.