This is covered in greater detail in the section on standards, but it is worth reiterating here. One of
the fastest areas of change at the moment is the interoperability specifications, in large part
because they are not yet fully defined. This has two serious consequences
-
Things that claim to be following the same specifications may not actually work together.
Currently it is essential that actual interopability is validated between any systems that are
being considered. Even if they can demonstrate that they are following the standard (which is
doubtful given the nature of the validation tools) this does not mean that the various suppliers
are interepreting them the same.
-
The change in the standards. Most of the relevant standards are rapidly eveolving as
requirements are being better defined and further refined. This means that systems acquired
at different times will almost certainly be using different (incompatible) versions of the
standards and it is therefore likely that you will have to keep upgrading systems in order to
make them work with new systems that you are installing.
