What are technical specifications
Technical specifications document the format, structure and content data must provided to conform with the standard.
They should be prescriptive and normative.
The primary audience are those with the technical capability to publish a data source that conforms to the specification.
The information in a technical specification should be sufficient for these users to implement the standard.
Technical specifications define what the data must look like. Guidance helps with how to get there and supplements the technical specifications. Guidance can include informative elements such as explanatory information, examples, recommendations and options. Technical specifications should not include these things.
Other things to know about our technical specifications
They can be used to form part of the contract when data publishers engage 3rd parties to make software that must conform with the standard.
They include a version number so that it’s possible to see what the structure of the data is at any point in time.
Data publishers that can leverage their digital capabilities to follow the technical specifications will produce better-quality data that does not need to be altered by the platform.
They will be referenced in legislation that outlines what data planning authorities must publish.
They do not cover how to publish the data. As long as the data that is published matches the defined structure, then conformity has been achieved.
Page last update on 26th October 2023