DoD- Adopted Information Technology Standards, DoD, information management

2.1 OPEN SYSTEM DEFINITION

The AITS and ITSG together comprise a definition of the service areas supported within the IT domain. This domain is then broken down into lower levels, as is explained below. Through the process of standardization upon a consistent and stable framework, it becomes possible to compare and contrast the efficacy of competing standards and to describe functional requirements, assess standardization needs, and support development of profiles. Each major heading, Major Service Area (MSA), establishes a grouping of services or functionality defined by industry standards and is expressed in a way to be consistent with the manner in which the standards bodies are addressing these groups. The sub-headings, Mid Level Service Area (MLSA) and Base Service Area (BSA), identify more specific, concrete examples of the functionality under the major grouping. The functionality described by the MSAs, MLSAs, and BSAs defines the services available from the application platform across the platform interfaces, application programming interfaces (APIs), and external environment interfaces (EEIs).