What is interoperability?
Each test in the Drummond Certified Program tests software products against a particular standard (such as AS2) with input from the user community. At the end of each test round, a list of software products is published which have successfully passed and are considered interoperable amongst only the list of products in that specific round. The DGI Interoperability Compliance Process™, a stringent matrix testing methodology, ensures that each product-with-version can interoperate with every other product-with-version on the list. NOTE: To fully understand what functions have been tested for interoperability, please read the final report for test rounds which can be found on www.drummondgroup.com website alongside the product listings. As vendors update their products with new versions, patches or upgrades, the use of the passing list from each test round ages and interoperability is slowly lost among that group of products. The current interoperability test list does not supercede the o
Generally, interoperability allows technologies to work together when they use the same inputs and create the same outputs. For computers, interoperability is the abililty of programs and systems running on various kinds of software and hardware to communicate with each other. Standards foster interoperability by ensuring that all groups implementing the standard interpret it the same way, so that the technology produces consistent performance regardless of the individual brand or model. By contrast, a lack of standards means that parties must reverse engineer the technology to achieve interoperability. Moreover, owners of proprietary, non-standardized technologies retain control over upgrades and developments to those technologies, and may change them at will, disrupting the interoperability with other technologies.
