Key Issues

Abstract

As will already be clear, neither MAP nor TOP is a finished set of specifications. There are years of work ahead in terms of deriving standards for some functions and settling the practical details of implementing even those parts of the specifications that are already stable. The point of this chapter is to raise just a few issues of immediate concern.For those who have to do all the work, issues of ‘immediate concern’ are a movable feast — the issues that are of concern today will be quickly replaced by other problems as time elapses. For the moment, however, the points that seem to be prompting the biggest questions are migration, testing, and the possible unforeseen consequences of standardization. They are placed in this part of the book because the reader will by now be familiar with most of the matters that bear on these issues. First we will deal with standardization and its possible effects on the manufacturing messaging service (MMS).