Under the guidance of the InCommon Community Trust and Assurance Board, the InCommon community has adopted a set of Baseline Expectations for Trust in Federation. The intent is to:

  • improve interoperability among InCommon Participants
  • ensure that the Federation has a common level of trust by establishing expectations that all Participants agree to meet.

In addition to the expectations themselves, the community has adopted processes by which InCommon Participants and the InCommon Federation operator keep metadata up to date and keep one-another accountable, including:

  • Automated checks of metadata by InCommon to give feedback to each Participant about their entities
  • A process for reaching community consensus on practices that meet the expectations (participate in the consultation)
  • A process for Participants to raise Baseline Expectations-related and other concerns and get them resolved

Baseline Expectations Foundational Documents

Baseline Expectations for Trust in Federation

This core Baseline Expectations document establishes three short lists of expectations expressed at a high level, one for each of three types of Federation actor: an Identity Provider, a Service Provider, and a Federation Operator.

Process to Maintain Baseline Expectations by InCommon and its Members

This document defines several processes by which InCommon and InCommon Participants will hold each other accountable for meeting Baseline Expectations, including a community consensus process and a dispute resolution process.

Baseline Expectations Health Checks

July 9, 2018

Resources

Documents and Background

Baseline Processes Roadmap

Implementing Baseline Expectations in InCommon Metadata 

Testing Your Own Metadata for Baseline Expectations

Newsletter and Blog Posts

Baseline Expectations Newsletter (May 2018)

Baseline Expectations Measurements and Reporting (Feb 2018)

Webinars

InCommon Baseline Expectations: The Business Value Explained - It’s Not Just About Health Checks

 (March 2018)

Download the slides (PDF)
View the recorded webinar (Adobe Connect)

The Federation Doctor Will See You Now: Metadata Health Checks (Feb 2018)

Download the slides (PDF)
View the recorded webinar (Adobe Connect)

Baseline Expectations for IdPs and SPs (Jan 2018)

Download the slides (PDF)
Recording
 (Adobe Connect)

Implementation Explanation (July 2017)

Download the slides (PDF)
Recording (Adobe Connect)