Best practices for developing and managing interoperability standards

Overview

This publication presents the results of a study conducted to identify best practices from public financial management (PFM) standards (PEFA, SDMX, GFSM), healthcare interoperability standards (HL7 FHIR, IHE), and ISO standards to inform the development of DCI standards.

The study highlights several key factors behind successful interoperability standards:

• Engaging a diverse and extensive pool of experts, while keeping a clear focus, drives adoption and prevents complexity.
• A robust change management framework, with clearly-defined processes for proposing, reviewing, and approving updates, ensures consistency and transparency.
• A precise stakeholder framework, delineating roles, committee and work group formation, and transparent processes for participation, fosters inclusive and effective governance.
• A standard must be maintained as a single, cohesive entity, versioned as a unified bundle to mitigate issues.
• Once a standard reaches a critical level of adoption, the focus should shift to building momentum by implementing incentives, conducting thorough testing, establishing clear metrics, aligning with regulatory requirements, fostering community engagement, and providing practical support to encourage and sustain further adoption.
• Community-driven standards often require localisation to reflect local user requirements.
• To support implementation, it is important to publish comprehensive, open documentation on standards, as well as making available reference examples for implementation and holding regular Connectathon events to ensure the practicability and usability of standards.
• Sustained community contributions through financial and in-kind inputs, combined with opportunities for implementers to benefit from participation, help ensure independence.

Together, these practices offer a roadmap for the DCI to develop robust, inclusive, and interoperable standards, enhancing efficiency and connectivity across social protection systems.

Required citation

Digital Convergence Initiative. 2025. Best practices for developing, implementing and managing interoperability standards: Guidelines for practitioners. Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit, Germany.