JISC and Microsoft ADFS and Shibboleth Interoperability Study
Project Brief
The recent ‘institutional preparednesss’ study carried out by JISC revealed that 66% of Higher Education institutions within the UK and 69% of FE institutions in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland use Microsoft Activity Directory for institutional directory services. Given the fundamental role that directory services have to play in the roll-out of federated access management within the UK, it is vital to the success of the JISC Access Management that institutions reliant on Active Directory are able to interoperate with the UK Access Management Federation.
With this in mind,JISC has commissioned the Library Projects Team at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) to work with Microsoft UK to test the interoperability between Microsoft Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) and the UK Access Management Federation.
Aims, Objectives and Scope
Aims
Funding for this proposal was agreed at the May meeting of the JISC Integrated Information Environments Committee with an initial budget of £25,000 set for the work. The work is funded as part of the JISC Core Middleware: Infrastructure Programme, which is funded by HEFCE capital grant. The project will run for six months from October 2006 – March 2007.
The primary aim of the project is to improve the interoperability between AFDS and the UK Access Management Federation to gain technical improvements and economies of scale on the part of the community.
Objectives
The specific objectives of the project are:
- Test AFDS interoperability with Shibboleth 1.3 and the UK Access Management Federation using services provided by the Microsoft UK Development Labs in Reading
- Document this process and provide advice to JISC and Microsoft UK on interoperability developments
- Enable JISC and Microsof UK to release appropriate toolkits, user documentation and advice surrounding the interoperability of ADFS and the UK Federation
Project Tasks
| ID |
Description |
Timescale |
Deliverables |
| WP1 |
Technical development and interoperabality testing with Microsoft |
| 1.1 |
Initial Briefing Meeting |
Oct-06 |
Meeting Briefing to JISC |
| 1.2 |
Rapid Development Programme |
Oct-06 - Feb-07 |
Report |
| 1.3 |
Post Development Meeting |
Mar-07 |
Meeting Briefing to JISC |
| WP2 |
Documentation for project and community |
| 2.1 |
Project Documentation |
Oct-06 - Mar-07 |
Documentation |
| 2.2 |
Public-Facing Documentation |
Oct-06 - Mar-07 |
Documentation |
| WP3 |
Support for JISC and Microsoft Developments |
| 3.1 |
Recommendations Document |
Feb-07 - Mar-07 |
Report |
It should be noted that Microsoft UK is contributing in kind to this project and will be contributing the expertise of staff at Reading and the lab facilities for the development programme. Microsof have also committed to additional workpackages, including the maintenance of 'blog' information for the community and appropriate documentation.
Scope
Success Criteria
- Successful testing of interoperability at Microsoft labs
- Take-up by adopters of access management within the UK
Project Methodology
The first stage of the project (WP1) will be governed by the Microsoft development principles which is includes a rapid development process as outlined in annex A to this proposal.
All other areas of the project will be governed by JISC standard project and quality assurance guidelines as published to projects on the JISC website and via the JISC Programme Manager for this work. As this project forms part of the Core Middleware: Infrastructure Programme, this project will be overseen by Nicole Harris, JISC Services.
PLEASE SEE FINAL REPORT ATTACHED