Now that you've embarked on your journey to Putting things into Gear - Get Going with InCommon Federation, it's time to start thinking about how you will federate access to your Identity and Access Management (IAM) services to enable access to federated services by your user community (or provide support services to help others do this). Here's the 10,000 foot view:
Determine How Your Offering Contributes to Providing Identity. There are three layered roles in providing online services. Software Implementers create the software used to implement the service, Platform Deployers deploy and operate the software, and Identity Service Operators establish the policies that govern the service offering, who is a member of the user community, etc. You may be filling one or more of these roles.
Prepare for integration into the federation. What you need to do depends on your role:
Identity Service Operator: Make Your Identity Service Federation Ready. Identity Service Operators are responsible for adherence to InCommon requirements and best practices, as specified in the InCommon Participation Agreement and the documents it references, such as Baseline Expectations.
Platform Deployer: Make Your Platform Federation Ready. Platform Deployers are responsible for deploying and operating the software in a manner that enables the Service Deployer to meet its obligations as an InCommon Participant. This also includes federation-friendly features of the platform that facilitate federation metadata management, identity attribute management, federated incident response, and testing.
Software Implementer: Building InCommon-Ready Software. Software Implementer must create software that enables Platform Deployers to meet their obligations. This also includes federation-friendly functionality, including user experience and support for federation identity attributes that facilitate authorization decisions.
Register your metadata with the Federation. This is done by the Service Operator, as described in Putting things into Gear - Get Going with InCommon Federation.
The linked pages above provide additional detail for each of these steps, including advice that should help you avoid operational problems and end-user difficulties in the future.